ISLAMABAD: The European Union has warned Pakistan not to take its GSP+ status for granted.<\/p>\n
Olof Skoog, the EU Special Rep\u00adresentative for Human Rights who is currently on a week-long visit to Pakistan, has also urged the government not to use military courts to pursue cases against citizens, and opposed recent moves to restrict freedom of expression.<\/p>\n
Talking to Dawn, he said he had conveyed these messages in separate meetings with top government functionaries, including the army chief, chief justice and members of the federal cabinet.<\/p>\n
The focus of his visit is to engage with the government on pressing human rights issues, and learn about Pakistan\u2019s plans to address them ahead of the upcoming GSP+ monitoring mission, due in June 2025.<\/p>\n
Olof Skoog urges Pakistan not to try civilians in military courts, limit freedom of expression merely to protect individuals from criticism<\/p>\n
The envoy\u2019s insights will be crucial to securing continued access to the Generalised System of Preferences Plus (GSP+), given Pakistan\u2019s reliance on the scheme, which provides preferential access to EU markets.<\/p>\n
The EU has previously expressed concern over the sentencing of protesters being tried over their role in the events of May 9 \u2014 when riots broke out following the arrest of PTI founder Imran Khan.<\/p>\n
In a statement issued after the announcement of sentences handed down by military courts, the EU said \u201cthese verdicts are seen as inconsistent with the obligations that Pakistan has undertaken under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)\u201d.<\/p>\n
Talking to Dawn, Mr Skoog reiterated the same concerns, saying: \u201cWe have expressed [our] apprehensions and concerns about the use of military courts against civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had that conversation and will continue having those conversations. Our view is that for civilians, there should be a civilian court system applicable\u2026 We have raised our concerns when there is an expansive use of military courts in response to demonstrations,\u201d he said, clarifying that this was their general stance and that he would not comment on individual cases.<\/p>\n
Freedom of expression is another GSP+ condition, he said, even as journalists and opposition parties protested the passage of controversial amendments to the country\u2019s cybercrime laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is happening while I am visiting the country\u2026 I have been discussing [this] with government officials. Our view is there should be very limited restrictions on freedom of expression,\u201d Mr Skoog said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD: The European Union has warned Pakistan not to take its GSP+ status for granted. Olof Skoog, the EU Special Rep\u00adresentative for Human Rights who is currently on a week-long visit to Pakistan, has also urged the government not to use military courts to pursue cases against citizens, and opposed recent moves to restrict freedom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5214,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5212\/revisions\/5214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}