Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who represents Asia in the Committee of Human Rights for Parliamentarians (CHRP) of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), was unanimously elected as Vice President of the Committee at its meeting in Geneva.
Millie Odhiambo of Kenya was elected president. Senator Mushahid Hussain is the first parliamentarian from Pakistan to be elected to a high-level office of a key body of the IPU, which is a global organisation representing the world’s parliaments, a news release said on Sunday.
Two years ago, at the IPU General Assembly in Rwanda, Senator Mushahid Hussain was elected as a member of the CHRP, the only Asian in this important 10-member committee. Senator Mushahid Hussain, who is a member of the Senate Human Rights Committee, served as Leader of the Pakistan Delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
In the year 2000, Mushahid Hussain was honoured by being declared a ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ by the prestigious London-based organization ‘Amnesty International’ due to his illegal detention without charges for 440 days; he was the only Pakistani political prisoner to be so honoured then. Senator Mushahid Hussain is also convenor of the Pakistan Parliamentary Forum on PKR (Palestine, Kashmir, and Rohingya), and he also serves on the Executive Board of the Istanbul-based ‘Al Quds Parliament’, supporting the Palestine Cause.
