IHC moved for severing diplomatic ties with Burma

ISLAMABAD: A petitioner has moved Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking directions for the federal government to break diplomatic ties with Burma and withdraw Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Award for Democracy from Aung San Suu Kyi due to the massacre of Rohingya Muslims.

In January 2012 Pakistan People's Party government had awarded Burmese leader Suu Kyi as Aseefa Bhutto Zardari had handed her over the award at a ceremony . 

Petitioner Tariq Asad Advocate who appeared in person has nominated prime minister of pakistan through his principal secretary, Federation through secretary interior and secretary Ministry of Defence as respondents.

The petitioner said that Pakistan is an ideological state founded on the basis of Islam.  Being citizens of a Muslim state it is of great concern to us that Burmese government is committing atrocities over 1.2 million Rohingya Muslim people in Burma and denying them citizenship. That reportedly since August 25, 2017, the Burma's military and paramilitary forces are committing genocide or a pogrom against the Muslim minority in the western Rakhine state on mega scale. Rohingya children are being brutally beheaded and civilians burned alive, soldiers and civilians in Burma are attempting to cover up the massacre of the country’s Rohingya Muslim population by gathering their bodies and burning them. The Satellite imagery released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) showed several settlements of Rohingya Muslim were burned down. 

That according to the UN Refugee Agency an estimated 73,000 people had crossed the border into Bangladesh since violence flared up this August, leaving refugee camps overflowing, more than their capacity. Observers believe the number of displaced people were likely to increase. The Burmese military said 400 militants had been killed in clashes with their forces. 

The petitioner adopted in the petition that Rohingya Muslim facing widespread discrimination from Buddhist majority population and are often referred to as Bengalis, alluding to a common myth that they are illegal immigrants which otherwise are inhabiting this area since centuries. 

Myanmar has a Buddhist majority and according to the petitioner Muslim minority in Myanmar are the descendants of Muslim immigrants from India and China as well as descendants of earlier Arab settlers. 

According to Human Rights Watch the Burmese government has denied citizenship to any Rohingya person who cannot prove their ancestors settled in the country before 1823. That it is believed that Aung Sang Suu Kyi can stop the violence but amazingly the winner of Nobel Prize for peace has been silent on the extreme violence.

That the petitioner and other citizens of Pakistan being Muslims are under great mental stress as government of Pakistan is silent spectator and is not fulfilling its constitutional obligations to respond against the brutal genocide of Rohingya Muslims.

The petitioner has prayed to the court to direct the respondents to raise voice on all civil and military platforms to stop this genocide and register protest at international forums and rescue them by all means.

The petitioner has further prayed to the court to direct the government to break diplomatic relations with the Government of Burma and remove their Embassy in Pakistan and their diplomatic staff and withdraw Pakistan Embassy and its staff from Burma.