ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari has expressed grave concern over the government’s bid to make a pitch for stifling freedom of expression just when frontiers of human rights were expanding worldwide. In a statement, he said that freedom of expression had been increasingly attacked by both state and non-state actors on various pretexts. “This trend must be resisted and reversed,” he said. “Next to the right to life, the right to freedom of expression is fundamental, as all other rights flow from this right,” he said. “Curbing right to freedom of expression in fact means curbing all other rights.” He said that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) “cannot and will not allow it”. The former president said that clamping a ban on social media and otherwise curbing expression and dissent in the name of vaguely defined ‘national security’ must not be allowed to go unchallenged.