Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan Thursday said Prime Minister Imran Khan would present the case of Kashmiris and forcefully project their voice in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 27 in New York. She was speaking at an event on the One Year Performance of Federal Information Commission, organized by Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO) here at Islamic University.
She said Imran Khan was shaking the conscience of the world which should listen to the voice of Kashmiris. People in Indian Occupied Kashmir including women, children and elderly were facing shortage of food and medicines and were under siege for the last fifty days, she added.
She urged United Nations and international organizations to take notice of worse human rights abuses and barbarities of Indian forces in Occupied Kashmir according to international law. She said UNESCO was observing the right to information day but it could not see the grave violations of basic human rights and denial of access to information in Occupied Kashmir.
She asked whether people living in Occupied Kashmir were not humans and why they were not getting their rights. She said documentary makers and human rights activists like Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Malala Yousafzai made documentary on acid victims and talked about the education of girls but were silent on the oppression and disgrace of women in Occupied Kashmir.
They should highlight that children were not allowed to attend schools in Occupied Kashmir and Kashmiris were suffering due to use of brute force by India, she added.
The Special Assistant said strong voices should be raised for the oppressed people of Kashmir. "If the world does not want to give rights to Kashmiris as Muslims, then at least they should be treated as humans." The international observers and organizations like Red Cross, should act as India was strangulating the Kashmiri citizens, she added. She lamented that world had double standards and was ignoring the Kashmir issue due to its vested interests.
She said Indian Prime Minister Modi talked to Indians in Houston, copying Imran Khan who was the first to spoke to the Pakistan community in Washington. She underlined the need for sensitizing citizens about issues so that the nation could overcome challenges.
The agenda of the government was to make the citizens partners in achieving goals, she said adding people had expectations from the government and wanted it to take steps accordingly, she added. She said access to information available to government was the fundamental legal right of citizens who then could analyze it and make their judgement.
Laws in Pakistan were good but the challenge was to implement them, she added.
She said the leadership of Pakistan Tehrik-I-Insaf (PTI) set the trend on laws on right to information. She said the Information Commission was an important platform which guaranteed to protect right of every Pakistani and helped in countering disinformation, propaganda and fake news. Flow of information should be timely so that chaos and uncertainty could be avoided, she added.
She announced funds of Rs seven million for provision of facilities for Federal Information Commission and office space for it in Radio Pakistan building so that it could work effectively. She assured that the government along with media and civil society and provinces would ensure implementation of information laws. The government was working to improve governance and ensure transparency with the use of latest information technology tools, she added.
The information should be made available on website and portals of the government departments, she explained. She informed that the Prime Minister was heading a citizen portal, giving all citizens right to file complaints. On the portal 11, 71,000 citizens were registered while 12, 71,000 complaints were filed while 3, 50,000 appreciated the step of creating the portal.
"We will play a proactive role and empower the media and civil society. We have to end corruption and corrupt practices and we need to move towards automation and e-governance and make websites effective to bring transparency." Executive Director SSDO Syed Kausar Abbas, Rector of Islamic University Yasin Masoomzai and Chief Information Commissioner Azam Khan spoke about the information laws.
Azam Khan informed about the one year performance of the Commission and salient features of the information law. Kausar Abbas said the issue of access to information was part of PTI 100-day agenda.
He said the right to information was the basis of democracy and more resources should be allocated for the Federal Information Commission. A common citizen had the right to ask questions as it was the only way to bring transparency in the work of the institutions and strengthen process of accountability, he added.
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