LAHORE, Aug 8: The human rights committee of the Pakistan People’s Party on Tuesday called for a ceasefire in Lebanon with the assurance that aggressor Israel would vacate the Lebanese territory and respect the country’s sovereignty in future.

The call was made through a resolution adopted by a rally organized by the PPP in support of the people of Lebanon at the Lahore High Court.

The resolution also held the western powers responsible for preventing a UN-sponsored formula for the withdrawal of the Israeli forces with a view to punish the people of Lebanon for their support for Palestinian people and the government.

Headed by committee chairperson Senator Sardar Mohammad Lateef Khan Khosa, the participants of the rally carrying placards marched from the LHC Bar Association building to the GPO crossing on The Mall. They chanted slogans against Israel and the USA for perpetrating air and ground attacks on the civilian population.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Khosa, who is also a member of the Pakistan Bar Council, criticised the government, for what he called, showing a lukewarm reaction to the naked aggression of the Israeli forces and its western allies who were out to destroy Lebanon, and whose ultimate goal was the containment of the Middle East in particular and the Islamic world in general.

He said targeting civilian population, killing women and children and bombing the unarmed people on streets in a situation when they were already rendered shelter less, was the most glaring example of human rights violation to which the western powers were keeping a criminal silence. This, he said, was war between the military might of the western powers and unarmed innocent people of Lebanon. He said the courage with which the Lebanese people were facing the naked aggression was exemplary and gave a new hope to the Muslim world in the conflict.

PBC member Mohammad Ahsan Bhoon, LHCBA finance secretary Rabiyya Bajwa, Mian Mohammad Jahangir and others told the rally that lawyers stood united against the Israeli aggression. They also spoke against the ‘indifference’ of the Islamic world to the flagrant violation of human rights in Lebanon. They were of the view that the Muslim countries had once again failed in jointly rising to the occasion.