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Summary Pakistan is a democratic, pluralistic and progressive state, the Foreign Minister said.
Pakistan told the United Nations on Tuesday it is a democratic and progressive state working to protect human rights.Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told the U.N.s Human Rights Council that Pakistan is a democratic, pluralistic and progressive state aiming to create a fair society based on equality, respect for diversity and justice.Today Pakistan is a functional democracy with an elected and sovereign parliament, an independent judiciary, a free media and a vibrant and robust civil society, she declared.Rabbani Khar was presenting a report to the council on her overwhelmingly Muslim countrys human rights record in a process known as the Universal Periodic Review to which all members of the world body are expected to submit every four years.But the Pakistan review, its second since the council was set up in 2006, comes at a time when it has been under global scrutiny following the shooting by Taliban of a girl educational activist and other incidents of violence.It also comes just two weeks before it hopes to be appointed as a candidate of Asian countries to full membership of the council, where it is already active as the official voice of the 56-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.Some Western countries have already indicated they do not see Pakistan as a suitable candidate - although they accept there is little they can do to head off a clear majority vote for it in the U.N. General Assembly on November 12.SERIOUS CONCERNSWe have serious concerns about the human rights situation in Pakistan, U.S. ambassador Eileen Donahoe told the council on Tuesday.She said Pakistan should ensure that those guilty of torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings there must be prosecuted, while laws often used to justify discrimination against religious minorities should be reformed.
