WASHINGTON: Two lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill in the US House of Representatives, calling for sanctions on Pakistani state functionaries over alleged human rights violations, including the \u201cpersecution\u201d of former prime minister Imran Khan.<\/p>\n
The bill, titled the \u201cPakistan Democracy Act,\u201d was introduced on Monday by Republican Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina and Democrat Jimmy Panetta of California. It has been referred to the House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees for further deliberation.<\/p>\n
The proposed legislation calls for the imposition of sanctions on Pakistan\u2019s army chief within 180 days if the country does not take steps to improve its human rights situation. The bill seeks to utilise the US Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which allows the US to deny visas and entry to individuals accused of human rights violations.<\/p>\n
The draft bill also calls on the US administration to identify key individuals involved in the alleged suppression of political opposition in Pakistan and place them on a sanctions list. It would further empower the US president to lift these sanctions if Pakistan ends military interference in governance and releases all \u201cwrongfully detained political detainees.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joe Wilson, Jimmy Panetta\u2019s \u2018Pakistan Democracy Act\u2019 sent to foreign affairs committee<\/p>\n
The introduction of this draft bill highlights the continued engagement of PTI supporters in the US, who have been lobbying American lawmakers since Imran Khan\u2019s removal from office in 2022. Over the past three years, PTI-affiliated activists have organised demonstrations, held meetings with members of Congress, and urged US intervention in Pakistan\u2019s political affairs.<\/p>\n
In June 2024, a similar resolution was passed in the House of Representatives with overwhelming bipartisan support, with 98pc votes in favour. That resolution urged then-president Joe Biden to press Pakistan to uphold democracy and the rule of law. However, the Biden administration did not take any action in response.<\/p>\n
The Pakistani Embassy in Washington has so far declined to comment on the bill, or disclose how it plans to counter this latest move. However, diplomatic sources indicate that Pakistani officials may try to delay further action on the legislation using diplomatic channels.<\/p>\n
The bill was also a topic of discussion at a diplomatic reception at the Pakistan Embassy on Monday night.<\/p>\n
While Pakistani diplomats acknowledged concerns over the development, they remained hopeful that the bill would not gain enough traction to be implemented. They pointed out that Washington still sees Pakistan as an important security partner, citing Islamabad\u2019s cooperation in the recent arrest and deportation of an IS-K terrorist as an example.<\/p>\n
Last month, Congressman Joe Wilson and Republican Congressman August Pfluger sent a letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, urging him to intervene to \u201crestore democracy\u201d in Pakistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: Two lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill in the US House of Representatives, calling for sanctions on Pakistani state functionaries over alleged human rights violations, including the \u201cpersecution\u201d of former prime minister Imran Khan. The bill, titled the \u201cPakistan Democracy Act,\u201d was introduced on Monday by Republican Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401","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=7401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7403,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7401\/revisions\/7403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}