A just society vital to protecting human rights, says governor

LAHORE: Punjab Governor Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman attended a ceremony in connection with the International Human Rights Day as chief guest at the Governor’s House here Friday.

Speaking on this occasion, Punjab Governor said that the establishment of a just society was very important to ensure human rights. He said that the countries that protected human rights in their societies made immense progress.

The governor said, “It is our national, religious, moral and social responsibility to follow the vision of Quaid-e-Azam and strive to make Pakistan a role model where every human being, be it a man, a woman, a child or belonging to the minority or the majority can live according to one's will while living within the constitutional limits.”

He said that no person should be oppressed on the basis of his religious affiliation and no person should violate the rights of any weak person. On this day, we should not forget our Kashmiri brethren and their sacrifices who are victim of Indian forces’ tyranny and oppression.

He said that those 80,000 martyrs who fell victim to terrorism in Pakistan should also be saluted, who embraced martyrdom in mosques, churches, temples and Imambargahs. The governor said that it was the duty of all of us to thwart the evil intentions of a handful of people who wanted to destroy the country through division. He said that he saluted all those Pakistani brothers all over the world. Pakistan Christian Council International Chairman Kamran Michael also addressed the ceremony. Ashraf Mul, Ramesh Singh Arora, Pastor Liaquat Qaiser, Khurram Shehzad, Sister Elizabeth Niamat, Father James Channon, Samuel Pyara, Pastor Shehzad Siddique, Allama Ehsan Siddiqui, Pastor John AD, Rana Abdul Hameed, Manoor Gul, Sajid Ishaq, Tony Newton, Kashif Mirza, Wasim Anjum Chaudhry, Immanuel Atharjulis, Peter Charles and Shaukat Masih Sindhu were also present. On this occasion, the governor distributed awards to those who had rendered services in various fields with regards to human rights.

Meanwhile, Baligh-ur-Rehman said in a message on International Human Rights Day that our religion Islam gave rights to all the downtrodden sections of the society, including women in the age of ignorance. He said that the last Prophet (PBUH) said categorically that no white person has any superiority over a black person and no black person has any superiority over a white person, no Arab has any superiority over a foreigner and no foreigner has any superiority over an Arab, Virtue is only based on piety.

The governor said that the establishment of a just society was very important to protect the human rights. He said that on this day, we must not forget our Kashmiri brethren and their sacrifices.

He said that today we should also pay tributes to the armed forces of Pakistan who embraced martyrdom while performing their duties in the peacekeeping missions. The governor said that all minorities living in Pakistan were enjoying equal rights.