ISLAMABAD: The government faced scathing criticism on Wednesday from senators over the “humiliation” Pakistan suffered due to a defeat in recently-held elections for the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

The senators, while taking part in debate on two identical adjournment motions regarding “the failure of foreign policy of Pakistan on account of non-election of the country as a member of the UNHRC”, called for carrying out an investigation and “stern punishment” for those responsible for the fiasco.

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani referred the matter to the standing committee on foreign affairs to determine the causes of the defeat with a directive to present its report before the house within a month.

Issue referred to committee to investigate reasons

Pakistan last week lost its bid for re-election to the 47-member UNHRC after serving three terms. Pakistan got 105 votes in the 193-member General Assembly and could not get re-elected. It was the first time that Pakistan lost a major election at the UN.

The mover of the motion, Sassui Palejo of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said that election results had proved that the Indian lobby was stronger than Pakistan’s.

Terming the defeat “regrettable and disappointing”, she accused the Foreign Office of trying to brush the issue under the carpet and asking the media not to highlight it.

In a hard-hitting speech, Usman Kakar of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) blamed the poor state of human rights as being responsible for the country’s defeat.

“How can other countries vote for a country where journalists are being killed for writing the truth, where gang rapes are reported daily and where terrorists have been imposed on the nation?” said Mr Kakar, who sits on the treasury benches.

The PkMAP senator was of the view that there was “controlled democracy” in the country and foreign policy affairs were not in the hands of the civilian government.

“How can a country having controlled democracy expect others to vote for it?” he asked, predicting more defeats for the country at international forums in future, if the foreign policy matters were not taken over by the civilian government.

Terming it a complete failure of the government’s foreign policy, retired Colonel Tahir Mashhadi of the Muttehida Qaumi Movement called for proper investigation and stern punishment for those who brought this diplomatic humiliation for the country.

PPP’s Farhatullah Babar regretted that the country had no permanent foreign minister for the past three years. He said that though five different people, including Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had spoken on crucial foreign policy matters, but no one was ready to take any responsibility.

Mr Babar said that the government had replaced the permanent UN member just 12 days before the elections and it was not possible for the newcomer to do extensive lobbying to seek votes for the country. He said a number of countries already had reservations over the state of human rights in Pakistan. He said it was a matter of shame that now Pakistan would not be able to raise human rights issues at this important forum.

Shibli Faraz of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf stressed the need for bringing the country out of “isolation” at the international level.

Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastagir Khan, speaking on behalf of Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, said in his winding up speech that Pakistan was expecting to get 120 votes in the elections, but unfortunately this could not happen.

Mr Khan said that Pakistan was still a member of 14 UN organisations and it was wrong to say that the country could no more raise the human rights issues at the forum.

He was of the opinion that the country’s defeat was not linked to the incidents of terrorism, saying that world had already acknowledged Pakistan’s efforts for eradication of terrorism and there had been 70 per cent reduction in the terrorism incidents.

Speaking on a point of order, Dr Karim Khawaja of PPP drew attention of the house towards the reported incident in which the activists of Islami Jamiat Tulba (IJT) attacked girls as they were playing cricket in the Karachi University.

“In Mumbai, Shiv Sena is carrying out such activities and in Karachi, the IJT, which is a wing of the Jamaat-i-Islami, is doing it,” Mr Khawaja said, asking the house to take notice of the incident.

Earlier, during the Question Hour, the Senate chairman directed members not to mention military dictators in their speeches.

“Who is Musharraf? He is a dictator. I will discourage the mention of dictators in proceedings,” said the chairman when Health Minister Saira Afzal Tarar while responding to a question mentioned the name of former president Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2015

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