PESHAWAR, Oct 8: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on Sunday stated that Pakistan’s past policy on Afghanistan offers Islamabad lessons of a fundamental nature, which must not be disregarded.

The central council (governing body) of HRCP issued a statement at the end of its two-day session on Sunday.

The council said that the Sept 11 attacks was the cause of precious lives and property and is going to effect the political and socio-economic interests countries that are locked in the struggle against poverty and authoritarianism.

The situation calls for an unemotional response and sincere efforts towards establishing justice and peace in the world, the council maintains.

The council believed that terrorism could not be countered by bullets alone. It added that military operations did not go beyond the limited objective of dealing with terrorists.

The council proposed that Pakistan’s new approach to Afghanistan should not only be based on the legitimate interests of the Pakistani people, but should also be designed in the best interests of the people of the ravaged Afghanistan who had been deprived of peace and other basic human rights for decades.

It was added that in the event of a change of regime in Afghanistan, Pakistan should strive for, and accept, the establishment of an order that was in harmony with the pluralist nature of the Afghan society, which offered adequate safeguards against bloody feuds, and which offered guarantees of respect for democratic norms and human rights of all its citizens, specially the more vulnerable women and children.

The HRCP strongly believed that the emergence of a new multidimensional crisis before the state had made restoration of democratic and consensus-based decision-making were more needed than ever.

Reliance on international patrons’ blinking at the absence of representative rule will pull the country backward. The flight against terrorism must not be used as a pretext for perpetuating one-man rule through arbitrary edicts. It was added that nothing should be allowed to interfere with the process of holding a general election and transfer of power to the duly elected representatives of the people.

The council stated that Pakistan again faced the threat of a large influx of refugees from Afghanistan. It was added that arrangements for their care must reveal an improvement upon the past models. Pakistan’s handling of the refugee problem has suffered from its failure to ratify the relevant international instruments and draw up adequate domestic legal norms. The counsel stated that these difficulties must be expeditiously removed.

The HRCP showed great concern at the alarming spurt in violence in Sindh. IT was stated that sectarian killings in Karachi had registered a sharp increase, resulting in the loss of many precious lives and creation of an environment of insecurity.

The council stated that the accountability mechanism created two years ago had become queerer and queerer. Public criticism of the exercise being selective, arbitrary and violative of due process had become more strident than before. The recent death of a witness in the NAB custody, the second case of its nature, has led to extremely unsavoury conclusions about the propriety of the organization’s operations.