Mr. Speaker, my third petition is on the forced disappearances of political and human rights activists in the Sindh Province in Pakistan. I want to thank two of my constituents especially, Asif Panhwar and Max Memon. There are 33 signatures on the petition.
The petitioners draw the attention of the House to the fact that 160 people have gone missing since February 2017, without any information on their whereabouts. Everyone missing so far is either a political worker, a human rights activist, or journalist/writer, who has raised their voices in the cause of human rights of Sindhi people. They say that over 1,200 cases of missing persons in Sindh have been reported since 2010 and most of the victims have turned up dead, with signs of having been tortured and murdered.
The petitioners ask that the Canadian government urge the Pakistani government to stop the human rights violations against the Sindhi people committed by Pakistani security agencies and that aid to Pakistan should be tied to its human rights record. They say that Canadian aid dollars should not be used to support these agencies that are kidnapping, torturing, and murdering their own citizens.