ISLAMABAD – Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who represents Asia in the Committee of Human Rights for Parliamentarians (CHRP) of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), was unanimously elected Vice President of the Committee during its meeting in Geneva.
Ms. Millie Odhiambo of Kenya was elected as President. Senator Mushahid Hussain is the first Pakistani parliamentarian to have been elected to a high-level office of an essential IPU body, which is a global organization that represents the world’s parliaments.
Two years ago, at the IPU General Assembly in Rwanda, he was elected as a Member of the CHRP, where he was the only Asian in this influential 10-member Committee.
Senator Mushahid Hussain, a Senate Human Rights Committee member, has served as the Leader of the Pakistan Delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. In the year 2000, Mushahid Hussain was declared a “Prisoner of Conscience” by the prestigious London-based organization Amnesty International due to his illegal detention without charges for 440 days.
He was the only Pakistani political prisoner to be so honoured at that time. Senator Mushahid Hussain is also the Convenor of the Pakistan Parliamentary Forum on PKR (Palestine, Kashmir & Rohingya), and he serves on the Executive Board of the Istanbul-based “Al Quds Parliament,” which supports the Palestinian Cause.