Mushahid Hussain Sayed elected Vice President of IPU Human Rights body

Geneva: Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who represents Asia in the Committee of Human Rights for Parliamentarians (CHRP) of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU), was this week unanimously elected as Vice President of the Committee at its meeting in Geneva.

Ms Millie Odhiambo of Kenya was elected as President. Senator Mushahid Hussain is the first parliamentarian from Pakistan to be elected to a high level office of a key body of IPU, which is a global organisation representing the world’s parliaments. Two years ago at the IPU General Assembly in Rwanda, Senator Mushahid Hussain was elected as Member of the CHRP, the only Asian in this important 10-member Committee. Senator Mushahid Hussain, who is member of the Senate Human Rights Committee, served as Leader of the Pakistan Delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

In the year 2000, Mushahid Hussain was honoured by being declared as ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ by the prestigious London-based organisation, ‘Amnesty International’ due to his illegal detention without charges for 440 days, the only Pakistani political prisoner to be so honoured then. Senator Mushahid Hussain is also Convenor of the Pakistan Parliamentary Forum on PKR (Palestine, Kashmir & Rohingya) and he also serves on the Executive Board of the Istanbul-based ‘Al Quds Parliament’, supporting the Palestine Cause.