News
Friday, July 01, 2011
Imran demands suo motu action against defence minister
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has condemned Federal Minister for Defence Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar for making a statement that 3,000 youths from Swat and other parts of the country are under detention without any legal recourse.
He said findings of the Eisenhower Research Project based at Brown University had confirmed that denial of fundamental human rights, including access to legal course, had resulted in extremely violent responses and acts of terrorism against the civilian population, caught between two opposing forces. The PTI chairman demanded that the Supreme Court (SC) takes suo moto notice of the defence minister’s statement, and ask him to provide details of the detained individuals and why they were being denied access to justice.
The PTI chairman stated that the findings of the Eisenhower Research Project had vindicated PTI’s stance that war on terror had only brought economic and social destruction. He said the report also shattered the myth that the US invasion led to democracy in the region, as warlords, backed by the US, continued to hold sway in Afghanistan. “They neither bring democracy nor improve the status of human rights in the war-torn country,” he added.
The PTI chief said another research conducted by Rand highlighted the fact that alternate approaches were much more effective in eliminating terrorism rather than military responses “These include criminal justice responses and attempts to address concerns relating to the well-being of both combatants and the broader populace that might support them,” he said. The study found out that 40 percent of the 268 terror groups were eliminated through intelligence and policing methods; 43 percent renounced violence as a result of peaceful political accommodation; 10 percent ceased their violent activities because they had achieved their objectives by violence; and only 7 percent were defeated militarily.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk