KARACHI: Caretaker Sindh Minister for Home and Prison Brig. Haris Nawaz (retd) has underscored the need for educating law enforcement agencies about human rights standards and bolstering transparency as a key step towards safeguarding the rights of the citizens.

In his message on Saturday in connection with the International Human Rights Day, commemorated on the 10th of every December, he stressed upon the Police to focus on ensuring quality service based upon the principles of fairness, integrity, honesty and respect for human dignity.

The minister asked the IGP Sindh to ensure the reactivation of the Sindh Police Human Rights Cell, which is centralized at the Central Police Office for streamlining and dealing with matters about human rights.

He said that the specialized unit was directed to especially focus on the human rights violation cases about women, children, minorities, PWDs and transgender persons.

“Police being an important law enforcement agency play its role in upholding basic human rights, but due to the plethora of crime, important events and law and order situations both energy and attention of the police leadership and force are diverted toward heinous crimes and security.