Pakistan denies minorities their individual rights: US Lawmaker

Washington: A United States-based advocacy group representing various ethnic minorities of Pakistan has formed a joint platform ‘South Asian Minorities Alliance Foundation’ against what they alleged as the massive human rights violation by security forces and ruling establishment of the country.

Two Republican Congressmen Thomas Garrett from Virginia and Scott Perry from Pennsylvania extended their support to the newly formed group and expressed concerns about Pakistan’s oppressed ethnic and religious communities.

“If you look at the constitution what some might say is controlled by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), it’s the leadership of the nation that denies individuals the rights that they are entitled to,” Congressman Thomas Garrett told ANI.

“You don’t take American money and oppress your people with our money. That’s not good,” Congressman Perry told the gathering of people representing various ethnic groups of Pakistan Mohajirs, Baloch, Gilgit and Hazara. Perry has voted in House of Representative against funding for Pakistan.

“We should be sure that the people with whom the United States is engaging with are in favor of relations, and we must ensure that the citiizen’s of the state (Pakistan) have basic rights. We can choose whom to do business or not to do business, or have relations or not have relations to encourage bad behavior,” Garrett said.

Nadeem Nusrat, Chairman of the Voice of Karachi, told the US legislators that Pakistan’s oppressed ethnic and religious communities were looking towards the US and the international community to play their role in stopping state atrocities being committed by the Pakistani security forces, ISI in particular.

He emphasized that the world needs to act to stop human rights abuses in Karachi, Balochistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) in order to save innocent human lives.

(ANI)