ISLAMABAD  -  Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has said that upholding values of democracy, peace and the rule of law ere essential for global growth and development.

“Pakistan is a peaceful country that believes in dialogue for cooperation and understanding,” he expressed while addressing the 148th IPU As­sembly in Geneva on “Parliamen­tary diplomacy: building bridges for peace and understanding”.

The Speaker said that foster­ing bilateral and joint partnerships through the Parliamentary Friend­ship Groups among parliaments of the world would strengthen the par­liament-to-parliament contacts, said a press release issued here Monday.

While appreciating the IPU’s efforts for peace and understanding across the globe, he has said the world is witnessing death and destruction in Gaza at an unimaginable scale as over 30,000 civilians have been killed, most of whom are women and chil­dren. He expressed his resolve that Pakistan would continue to raise grave concerns at the situation in Gaza where heart-rending images of death and destruction from Gaza are emerging. Ayaz Sadiq also said that Is­rael’s actions violated all internation­al humanitarian and human rights law deliberately attacking civilian targets and as such, constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

During his speech, he also reiter­ated strong and unequivocal con­demnation of the indiscriminate use of force by Israel and call for an im­mediate and unconditional cease­fire in Gaza. “We have always and will continue to stand by our Pales­tinian brothers and sisters for the exercise of their inalienable right to self-determination for a viable, secure, contiguous and sovereign State of Palestine on the basis of the pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.” While men­tioning the grim situation of viola­tions of humans rights in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, he said that Kashmiris had been suffering the indignity and oppression over sev­en decades. He also stressed on the need for ensuring the right of self-determination in Kashmir as per UNO Security Council Resolution.