LAHORE: A virtual general house meeting of Lahore High Court High Bar Association (LHCBA) on Saturday demanded that the government immediately take up the matter of Israeli aggression in Palestine before the United Nations (UN) and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

LHCBA President Maqsood Buttar presided over the virtual meeting that passed a resolution moved by Advocate Dr Kaleem Javed against the Israeli aggression.

The participants in the meeting showed deep concern over the issue and condemned the brutality of Israeli forces. They warned Israel to maintain the status of Palestine as before 1967.

Mian Abdul Quddous, Zafar Iqbal Kalanauri, Rana Asadullah Khan, Shamimur Rehman Malik, Mian Irfan Malik were among the prominent speakers.

The meeting demanded that the UN act upon its charter of 1945 (Article 39-51) and Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) wherein the action had been guaranteed in case of breach of peace or act of aggression or violation of human rights by any force.

It also condemned the act of the United States to postpone an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to be held on the Palestine issue. It demanded that the OIC, through article 1(8) of its charter, should come forward to take practical measures, to gather the Muslim world on this burning issue.

It said Pakistan should initiate, under Article 9 of the Charter of OIC, to summon the extraordinary session of Islamic summit in this regard.

The participants regretted that the Israeli brutality spread out to other areas of Palestine including Gaza city where a large number of civilian residences and buildings had been targeted and hundreds of citizens were being martyred and injured during the air strikes of Israeli jets.

They said the silence of world nations was meaningful for Muslims on the explicit violations of human rights in Palestine by the Israeli forces.

They said the UN, established to maintain international peace and security and to protect human rights, seemed to have no concern upon this unprecedented genocide of human history.

The bar members also lamented that the OIC took no practical step to protect Palestine except to convene some futile meetings and mere condemnation of the acts.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2021