A DEATH threat to internationally known prominent Pakistani human rights advocate, Dr Asma Jahangir, has sparked energetic responses from the Commonwealth Secretary-General, Kamalesh Sharma in London, as well as from Trinidad and Tobago’s Foreign Minister, Surujrattan Rambachan, in Port-of-Spain. Shortly after receiving reports on the death threat against Dr Jahangir, a former member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group (EPG), contacts were established Friday with the Commonwealth Secretary-General, and Foreign Minister Rambachan as current Chairman of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG).
In a statement obtained yesterday, Secretary-General Sharma, who had appointed Jahangir to the EPG, which produced a major report last year on ‘A Commonwealth of the People: Time for Urgent Reform’, confirmed receiving messages from both the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative as well as members of the Eminent Persons Group.
The EMG members had informed the Secretary-General of being made aware that Dr Jahangir was in possession of “reliable information that her life is under threat from Pakistan’s security establishment,” and that they were satisfied that her charges would have been made “only after the most careful consideration, and in light of credible intelligence…”
Secretary-General Sharma, who has been in contact with the Pakistani Government and the chairman of CMAG, Foreign Minister Rambachan, disclosed being “reassured that Dr Jahangir “is now being provided with security, which she considers adequate, in the circumstances…”