Provincial Minister for Human Rights and Minority Affairs Khalil Tahir Sandhu has said that Chief Minister Punjab Mohammad Shehbaz Sharif has provided approval for the establishment of provincial and district level task force under Human Rights and Minority Affairs Department. He said that with the establishment of such task force at provincial level there will be a decline in violation of human rights incidents. He said that special steps will be taken in this regard by providing training to provincial and district officers. He said that it is mandatory for federal and provincial government to follow 27 conventions of United Nations to maintain GSP plus status, which includes memorandums of environmental, labour, human rights and good governance. He said that task force will take an overview regarding the human right laws in province and can recommend amendments in prevailing laws. It will help to reduce the incidents of rape, forced labour, acid throwing, domestic violence, women harassment and honor killing. Minister said that before this step there was no such mechanism available for human rights department in all districts. He expressed these view while addressing a press conference in the committee room of Human Rights Department, here today. Provincial Minister said that fourteen provincial secretaries including, Home Department, Law, Education, Special Education, Information and Culture along with Member Provincial Assembly Ramesh Singh Arora and Merry Gill are the members of the task force. Minister Human Rights and Minority Affairs are the chair person and ACS Punjab Deputy Chairperson. The secretary Provincial Human Rights Department will be the secretary of task force. Khalil Tahir Sandhu further said that implementation committees of task force will setup under the chairmanship of concerned DCOs, DPOs in which other members are EDOs, two MPAs and member of civil society. District Committees will send their progress report to the provincial task force on monthly basis. Minister has said that it will be the responsibility of provincial task force to examine the performance of provincial departments on human rights quarterly. Sandhu insisted that we will not allow anyone to portray negative image of Pakistan at international level, actions will be taken against the NGOs involved in negative reporting. He said that it is very necessary to minimize the gap between have and have not. Task force will take action across the board against the every influential involved in the violation of human rights, which helps to provide justice to under privileged and miserable strata of the society. By answering the questions, minister criticized politics of Imran Khan and Moulana Canadee by saying that both are promoting the politics of extremism, chaos and anarchy. He said that Imran Khan by conducting protest and public rallies could not make people foolish. They have to face accountability in the upcoming elections. At the end, Provincial Minsiter has said that Chief Minister has constituted a 9-member committee under the chairmanship of Law Minister Rana Sanaullah to establish offices of Human Rights Department in all districts.
