State of human rights
Hina Rabbani Khar’s latest revelations on human rights (HR) in Pakistan at the United Nations’ Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva give a satisfactory picture of conditions in the country. It shows that every problem that faces Pakistan stems from terrorism, extremism and drones, all three, as the Minister said, being the product of the CIA-sponsored jihad against the Soviet Union.
She preferred listing the legislation on human rights such as the establishment of the National Commission for Human Rights; constitutional reforms; rectification of International HR Treaties, etc, over telling the mission about the practical steps taken by the government in improving the lot of an ordinary person in Pakistan through these laws. To strengthen her case against what generally is perceived to be the poor rights situation in the country, she ignored matters such as the blasphemy laws, sectarian killings, forced disappearances, plight of religious minorities, maltreatment of women, and the military’s repression in Balochistan.
She talked about thriving media but did not reveal that in this year alone eight journalists have been killed and that Pakistan is considered the most deadly country in the world for journalists.
She flaunted the laws made so far for women but failed to mention that since January this year, 4,585 cases of violence against women have been reported across the country. That does not include women killed in the name of honour in 436 cases.
On enforced disappearances she referred to the recent visit of the UN working group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances. However, the involvement of the military and intelligence agencies in abducting people, on which the ruling of the Supreme Court is awaiting action by the government for presenting the disappeared people in court, found no mention.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s fact finding mission on Balochistan has proved that the Frontier Corps and intelligence agencies are generally believed to be involved in enforced disappearances; and in some cases their involvement had been proved beyond doubt.
Karachi found no mention in Hina Rabbani’s speech, where, to date a total of 1,345 people have been killed in targeted attacks and 227 political activists have been murdered.
Sectarian killing was skipped totally, therefore the case of the Shia community, especially the Hazaras, who are being killed by the dozen did not find mention.
The story depicted by Ms Khar was so incredible that even a country like Belarus, which itself enjoys a bad reputation on HR, condemned Pakistan over the state of HR and demanded Pakistan improve the situation. Britain and the US have asked for electoral reforms to improve the participation of women and their rights. Sweden and Switzerland have been quick to point out the malaise in the education sector. A recent UNESCO report said at least 5.1 million Pakistani children are out of school, 63 per cent of whom are girls. What made Ms. Khar camouflage the HR situation in Pakistan is perhaps her misconception that the world trusts Pakistan’s verbal assurances on HR.
Daily Times
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