Canadian MP flags human right abuses against Sindhis in Pakistan

Kmiec, who is the Member of Parliament for the riding of Calgary Shepard, in his letter to Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, said Pakistani security agencies are behind the ongoing human rights abuses against the 50 million Sindhi people of Pakistan.

"According to reports from the U.S. State Department, extrajudicial killings, torture and targeted violence against ethnic and religious minority groups are common practices in the region, and the Pakistani government has done little to prevent this violence," he wrote in his letter.

Kmiec called state-sponsored rise of violence and extremism targeting Sindhis as a violation of their basic human rights. "Since February of 2017, over 160 people have gone missing without a single case having been registered against a perpetrator. Each one of these missing persons is either a political worker, a human rights activist or a journalist who raised their voice for the human rights of Sindhi people", Kmiec wrote in his letter. He also raising the issue of rampant violence against women and young girls, who are subjected to arranged marriages and forced religious conversions.

Kmiec has asked the Foreign Minister to allow international aid to Pakistan only after analysing its human rights record. "I ask you to urge the Pakistan government to stop the human rights violations against the Sindhi people committed by Pakistani security forces. Furthermore, I ask that any international aid from the Government of Canada to Pakistan should be tied to its human rights record, as Canadian aid dollars should not be used to support these agencies that are kidnapping, torturing and murdering their own citizens".

Human rights abuses in Sindh province of Pakistan have been a recurrent issue, ranging from arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances to torture, extra judicial killings and political repression.