ISLAMABAD: Firdous Ashiq Awan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on information and broadcasting, left for Saudi Arabia on a two-day visit on Monday to attend the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) in Jeddah.
Awan is visiting Saudi Arabia on the invitation of the OIC Secretary General and the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia.
“As a founding member, Pakistan has always played an active and vibrant role in the OIC,” Awan said in a statement before her departure.
She also expressed deep concern over an attempt to burn the Holy Qur’an in Norway by an extremist right-wing group early this month, and said that on Prime Minister Khan’s directions, she will raise the issue alongside the grave situation in Indian-administered Kashmir at the OIC.
“Islamophobia is a threat to global peace,” Awan said, and added: “All Islamic countries will have to formulate a comprehensive mechanism to combat Islamophobia.”
President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sardar Masood Khan is also in Jeddah and called on the OIC Secretary General, Dr. Yousaf bin Ahmed Al-Othaimeen on Sunday.
President Khan apprised the Secretary General on the latest situation in Kashmir and said the revocation of Kashmir’s special status by India on Aug. 5 was “unilateral and illegal.”
In September this year, the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir expressed its solidarity with the Kashmiri people on the side-lines of the 74th UNGA session in New York.
PM’s information adviser leaves for OIC celebrations in Jeddah
PM’s information adviser leaves for OIC celebrations in Jeddah
- The OIC, of which Pakistan is a founding member, turns 50 this year
- Awan will bring up issues of Islamophobia and Kashmir at platform
UN experts slam Pakistan lawyer convictions
- Imaan Mazari, husband Hadi Ali Chattha were sentenced to 10 years last month for “anti-state” social media posts
- Five UN special rapporteurs say couple jailed for exercising rights guaranteed by international human rights law
GENEVA, Switzerland: Five UN special rapporteurs on Wednesday condemned the conviction and lengthy jail sentences imposed on a prominent rights activist and her fellow lawyer husband in Pakistan over “anti-state” social media posts.
Imaan Mazari, a 32-year-old lawyer and vocal critic of Pakistan’s military, “disseminated highly offensive” content on X, according to an Islamabad court.
She and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha were jailed on January 25, with a court statement saying they “will have to remain in jail for 10 years.”
The UN experts said they had been jailed for “simply exercising rights guaranteed by international human rights law.”
“Lawyers, like other individuals, are entitled to freedom of expression. The exercise of this right should never be conflated with criminal conduct, especially not terrorism,” they said in a joint statement.
“Doing so risks undermining and criminalizing the work of lawyers and human rights defenders across Pakistan and has a chilling effect on civil society in the country.”
Mazari shot to prominence tackling some of Pakistan’s most sensitive topics while defending ethnic minorities, journalists facing defamation charges and clients branded blasphemers.
As a pro bono lawyer, Mazari has worked on some of the most sensitive cases in Pakistan, including the enforced disappearances of ethnic Balochs, as well as defending the community’s top activist, Mahrang Baloch.
Mazari and her husband have been the subject of multiple prosecutions in the past, but have never previously been convicted of wrongdoing.
“This pattern of prosecutions suggests an arbitrary use of the legal system as an instrument of harassment and intimidation in order to punish them for their work advocating for victims of alleged human rights violations,” the UN experts said.
“States must ensure lawyers are not subject to prosecution for any professional action, and that lawyers are not identified with their clients.”
The statement’s signatories included the special rapporteurs on human rights defenders, the independence of judges, freedom of opinion, freedom of association and on protecting rights while countering terrorism.
UN special rapporteurs are independent experts mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to report their findings. They do not speak in the name of the United Nations itself.
The UN experts have put their concerns to Islamabad.
