World Sindhi Congress - 'Time to take stock of US threat' published in The News, on April 05, 2008

'Time to take stock of US threat' published in The News, on April 05, 2008

Friday, 04 April 2008

'Time to take stock of US threat'

Published in The News, on April 05, 2008

On behalf of the World Sindhi Congress, I flatly refute the baseless allegations made by Ms. Shireen Mazari, as published in The News International ("Time to take stock of US threat, 5 March 2008). The author of this report falsely accuses the WSC of diverting funds to terrorists in Pakistan and deliberately misguides readers about our organization's activities.

The WSC is a human rights advocacy organization based in the UK/USA and hence abides by the strictest terms delineated by these countries for advocacy groups. The WSC membership firmly believes in secular, democratic, and non-violent means for creating civil society in Sindh and Pakistan, and our intents, beliefs, and actions are clearly delineated and readily accessible to the public, including Ms. Mazari.

It is of grave concern to WSC, and must also be to your readers, that a newspaper of your prestige would publish such a polemic editorial accusing various advocacy groups of terrorism without offering any proof whatsoever. This is a great insult not only to groups like WSC, which work endlessly against violence and terrorism in Pakistan, but to the critical ability of your readers. Freedom of speech may give Ms. Mazari liberty to make outrageous claims, but your journalistic ethos and the trust of your readers endows you with the responsibility of fact checking, and assuring an iota of truth in your publications.

Ms. Mazari's report also accuses the WSC of giving "financial support to the Sindh Liberation Army". As her allegations are absolutely unsubstantiated in this report, the big question mark falls not over our organization, but over her lack of evidence for her claims. The WSC follows strict rules of publishing tax statements that can be made available to the public in both the UK and USA bases. There is no source of mystery as pertains to the source and the recipients of WSC Funds and we invite those with false allegations regarding our "financial support" to review these tax statements.

The publishing of unsubstantiated statements against civil societies like WSC that advocate for human rights are disheartening and ultimately impede the progress of Pakistan's peoples toward equality in human rights.

Sincerely,

Dr, Haleem Bhatti,

Chair, World Sindhi Congress

http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=105089

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