Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the police response to recent protests in Lahore.

Managing the recent protests in Lahore is a matter for the Pakistani government. There is no place for violence in politics and the UK regularly engages the Government of Pakistan at a senior level on the need to uphold the rule of law and respect human rights. On 30 January, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister for South Asia and Minister responsible for Human Rights, discussed the human rights situation with Pakistan's Minister for Human Rights Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada.