ISLAMABAD, Nov 18: The former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, on Tuesday made a strong plea for religious harmony and setting up of a world based on freedom and equality. At the same time she also strongly advocated for democratic Pakistan in which the gender rights were protected.

She made these pleas while speaking at the luncheon meeting of Professional Women in San Jose in the United States, says a press release issued by the PPP media cell here on Tuesday.

Ms Bhutto focused on the importance that “Islam gives democratic rights to a people as well as ensures women’s rights.”

Noting that the World Trade Centre attacks have changed the world and its politics, she said it was important to build a world on the principles of freedom and equality. She said tolerance and understanding between Muslims, Christians, Jews and Hindus was important in creating a peaceful and stable world environment.

Tolerant societies can only be built in a democratic atmosphere, she said and added that as the world’s greatest democracy, America had a moral responsibility to support democracy over dictatorship.

She said: “Islam is misunderstood in many parts of the world. Abraham, Moses and Jesus are the prophets of Islam as much as they are revered in Judaism and Christianity.”

The former premier said “the fundamental ethos of Islam is tolerance, dialogue and democracy”. She said through the centuries, tribalism and dictatorship tried to distort the message of Islam.

“Today, many Muslim countries are living under one form of dictatorship of another which has nothing to do with Islam.”

Ms Bhutto also condemned the retirement of female judges from the high courts of Pakistan. She lamented the fact that Supreme Court of Pakistan did not have a single woman judge and said it was time for women to be made judges in all the courts as well as the Supreme Court.

The former Premier deplored that in this 21st century, in a country, which is a key ally of Washington, women are raped then prosecuted for the crime of adultery. “This is a perversion of justice that affronts the civilized world”.

She maintained that the problems that happened in Afghanistan happened because the world did not support democracy there after the withdrawal of the Soviets in 1988. She called upon the international community to follow “the foreign policy agenda to simultaneously promote stability and strengthen democratic values, not selectively but universally”.