• PM assures world to uphold law and safeguard human rights.
• “I will ensure that no rights violations take place,” he tweets.
• Premier terms Khan’s rights abuse “rhetoric manipulative”.

ISLAMABAD: In a strong rebuttal to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) stance on human rights violations in the country, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Monday said that proper legal procedures were being followed in handling each case pertaining to the party’s involvement in the May 9 riots.

The premier, taking to his official Twitter handle, expressed his commitment to uphold the law and safeguard against any infringement of rights.

“I assure everyone that the culprits are being dealt with under the law and that I will ensure that no rights violations take place,” he tweeted.

Violent protests erupted in Pakistan on May 9 with dozens injured across several cities and demonstrators attacking military buildings after former prime minister Imran Khan was arrested.

The police launched a crackdown against all those allegedly involved in the violence, vowing to hold each and everybody accountable. However, PTI is holding demonstrations overseas and claiming in international media that human rights violations are taking place in Pakistan.

PM Shehbaz said Pakistan fully respects and is committed to all its constitutional and international obligations on human rights.

He said the PTI chief in his interviews with international media outlets is openly and deliberately disinforming local and foreign audiences by “glib-talk laced with fake news and plain misrepresentation”.

“His expedient description of the post-May 9 events as ‘human rights abuses’ and ‘stifling of the right to political protest’ is not only misleading but aimed at manipulating and swaying opinion-makers outside the country,” PM Shehbaz wrote.

The premier categorically stated that what PTI did on May 9 was a “brazen attack on the State of Pakistan, with malafide intent and sinister objectives”.

“No country in the world would tolerate such an attempt at destroying its integrity,” he said