New Delhi (Mizzima) - Pakistan’s Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights on Wednesday came down heavily on Burma’s military junta for sentencing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and urged its government to severe diplomatic ties unless Burma releases the Noble Peace Laureate.

The committee, in its meeting under the chairmanship of Senator Afrasiab Khattak, said by sentencing Aung San Suu Kyi to another 18 months in detention, the Burmese junta is not only blatantly denying the democratic aspirations of the Burmese people but has also stubbornly ignored the demand of the international community.

“The despotic dictatorship has crossed all limits in violating international norms of democracy, civilized governance and human rights,” reads the Committee’s resolution published in a press statement on Wednesday.

The Committee also expressed its solidarity with the Burmese people in their struggle for fundamental rights and “demanded of the [Pakistan] government that it should severe diplomatic ties with the military regime of Myanmar [Burma] unless Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners are released and democratic rights and constitutional rule is restored.”

The committee’s call is the first official statement by the Pakistani government over the sentencing of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on August 11.

Pakistan and Burma are reported to have maintained a good military relationship with former Burmese Intelligence Chief Lt Gen Khin Nyunt paying a visit to Islamabad in June 2000. Khin Nyunt, who ranked third in the Burmese military hierarchy, was purged in 2004.

Pakistan’s former President General Pervez Musharraf also paid a visit to Rangoon in May 2001.

Pakistan is known to have supplied Burma with conventional weapons and provided training for Burmese Army personnel in Pakistan.