Staff Reporter
Karachi
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday slammed the government by alleging that it loved to quote Human Rights Watch (HRW) on the Kashmir issue but not on Pakistan’s internal human rights abuses.
The PPP leader’s statement came in light of the recent report of the Human Rights Watch on human rights abuses allegedly being carried out by the National Accountability Bureau.
“Human rights watch calls out NAB political victimisation of political parties & media. Mentions Saad Rafique, Mir Shakeel-ur-Rehman, myself & my father. We love to quote @hrw on Kashmir but ignore them on Pakistan,” he wrote on Twitter.
Earlier, the HRW had urged the Pakistani authorities to stop using NAB —referring to it as “a dictatorship-era body, possessing draconian and arbitrary powers” — to harass and intimidate opponents.
In a statement, the rights organisation said that the government should follow up on the 87-page detailed verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the Khawaja brothers case to rein in the anti-graft body.
“The court granted the men bail and criticised the NAB for showing ‘utter disregard to the law, fair play, equity and propriety,’ ruling that the ‘case was a classic example of trampling of fundamental rights [and] unlawful deprivation of freedom’,” read a statement from the HRW.
Pakistan’s parliament should carry out urgent reforms to make the anti-corruption body independent, the Human Rights Watch said.
