PoK activist made intervention during 38th Session of UNHRC

Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) Human Rights Activist Jamil Maqsood made an intervention during the on-going 38th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), saying, there is a situation regarding PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) that requires the council's attention.

"Mr Chairman, our organisation is constantly requesting this August forum to use its office to protect and promote fundamental rights of the people of Pakistani administered Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Despite several internal recommendations, Pakistan continues to exclude people of Gilgit-Baltistan from any meaningful participation in democratic processes. Systematically shift power by successive ordinances to Islamabad. Pakistan continues to abuse and has failed to observe state subject rule, hence, local people are forcefully evicted from their land and property," Maqsood said.

Pointing out to the engineer demographic changes in GB, Maqsood said there are some recent examples of land grabbing in Districts of Bagh and Kotli. He further complained that the freedom of expression of GB's people is brutally suppressed under Pakistan National action plan.

"Mr Chairman, hundreds of people are arrested, tortured, killed, political activists/members of civil society/journalists and politicians being jailed, Arif Shahid's killing in Rawalpindi and languishing of Baba Jan and his colleagues in jails in GB, banning of books in so-called Azad Kashmir and no action against the rape and murder of 14 years old Faiza Yaqoob are all regrettable incidents. Pakistan is using anti-terror laws to press the dissent. The banned outfits are operating as usual," Maqsood claimed.

He concluded by urging the chairman of the summit to take notice of all such actions of Pakistan towards its peripheries that the United Nations resolutions do not allow.

The 38th session of the UNHRC is being at the Palais des Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, from 18 June to 6 July 2018.

High-level discussions on various human rights related issues, such as the right to privacy, rights of persons with disabilities, rights of minorities, and rights of children are supposed to take place during the summit.