(HRCP) – Page 5 – Newswire Pakistan

August 30, 2022

Pakistan must affirm its commitment to ending enforced disappearances

Lahore, August 30, 2022 (PPI-OT):On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) calls on the federal government to ensure that civil society stakeholders – especially from Balochistan, Sindh, South Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are consulted while the Senate deliberates on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill 2022. Any ambiguities that might make victims’ families reluctant to report cases must be removed, including the provision that people found guilty of filing ‘fake’ petitions will be imprisoned for up to five years.

Additionally, there is a strong case to be made for introducing civilian oversight of the state agencies that are regularly implicated in cases of enforced disappearance. The Islamabad High Court has already stated in June 2022 that the state is obligated to trace missing persons once there is sufficient evidence, prima facie, to establish a case of enforced disappearance. The court has also held that the public functionaries responsible for protecting and tracing missing persons must be held accountable if they have failed in this duty.

This should underscore the gravity of the situation and the painfully slow progress Pakistan has made in redressing what is internationally considered a crime against humanity. Pakistan must thus affirm its commitment to ending enforced disappearances by ratifying the Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Most recently, Faheem Baloch, a Karachi-based publisher and writer, was allegedly detained by uniformed police as well as ‘unidentified’ persons, with his family claiming that his whereabouts are still unknown. We demand that he be released immediately and his right to due process protected.

For more information, contact:
Chairperson,
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)
Aiwan-i-Jamhoor, 107-Tipu Block,
New Garden Town, Lahore-54600
Tel: +92-42-35864994
Fax: +92-42-35883582
Email: hrcp@hrcp-web.org
Website: www.hrcp-web.org

August 27, 2022August 29, 2022

State must address South Punjab’s long-standing grievances

Multan, August 27, 2022 (PPI-OT):The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) wishes to express its solidarity with flood affectees in South Punjab. We are aware that the scale of the disaster is unprecedented. At the same time, it is clear that the role of the government and local administration in facilitating and rescuing victims has been disappointing. HRCP is gravely concerned that volunteers and NGOs that have come forward to help in disaster-hit areas are being obstructed by the administration, instead of facilitating their efforts. The current situation has exposed the neglect that the Seraiki waseb has long suffered. HRCP has identified these areas of neglect, which are directly responsible for continued violations of the Seraiki people’s political, economic and social rights.

In its fact-finding report titled South Punjab: Excluded, Exploited, launched in Multan earlier today, HRCP has underscored women’s continuing vulnerability to harmful customary practices, forced conversions among local Hindu communities, the poor working conditions of industrial workers and bonded labourers, and allegations of unfair land allotment in Cholistan including to the military at the expense of local communities.

Based on field visits and consultations with government officials and civil society, the report recommends that federal and provincial stakeholders initiate a political dialogue to recognise the Seraiki identity and ensure access to formal and effective policing systems to improve law and order. The state must also institute mechanisms to provide redressal to survivors of gender-based violence and discrimination, such as forced conversion and forced marriage, and protect the rights of transgender persons in South Punjab.

Religious minorities must be protected from grave violations such as land grabbing and malicious use of the blasphemy laws. Workers’ rights to adequate wages and social security must be ensured, with district vigilance committees made fully functional to monitor and report the incidence of bonded labour. District-level committees must also be established to redress farmers’ grievances. Cholistan must be given special consideration in view of the chronic invisibility of its people, while land in the area should be allotted only to indigenous Cholistanis and without discrimination on the basis of religion.

National human rights institutions such as the National Commission for Human Rights and National Commission on the Status of Women must be involved at every stage to address these rights violations. HRCP reiterates its demand for the establishment of a national commission for minorities’ rights with statutory authority. The state must further upgrade the health, education and administrative infrastructure in the region, with sufficient budgetary allocations, particularly in extremely deprived areas such as Cholistan.

The need for sustainable infrastructure is especially urgent in light of the devastation caused by recent floods. HRCP urges all stakeholders to work together and take swift measures to alleviate people’s concerns. The neglect of vulnerable communities in South Punjab cannot be allowed to continue.

August 23, 2022August 24, 2022

Government and opposition must focus on flood impact, climate justice

Lahore, August 23, 2022 (PPI-OT):The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) expresses grave concern at the loss of life and livelihoods wrought by floods across the country, especially in Balochistan, Sindh and southern Punjab. The indifference of the federal and provincial governments and the political opposition is evident from their inability – even amid a growing death toll to prioritise human life over confrontational politics, palace intrigue and dangerous rhetoric.

The scale of destruction needs to be mapped urgently and affected persons provided access to clean drinking water as well as basic food and medical supplies in the immediate term. The state must prioritise the most vulnerable households and communities in this effort, including women, dependent children, persons living with disabilities, the sick, and the elderly.

Both the government as well as all elected representatives must urgently implement well-conceived, practical measures to counter the food shortages, disease, displacement, and loss of livelihood caused by the floods. However, this year’s weather patterns must also serve as an SOS to the state that Pakistan’s survival in the long term is incumbent on its ability to begin to deliver climate justice to its people.

July 15, 2022

HRCP calls for end to ethnic tension in Sindh

Lahore, July 15, 2022 (PPI-OT):The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) is increasingly concerned by the escalation in ethnic and political tension in Sindh, after a man was killed in Hyderabad following an altercation at a hotel.

HRCP calls for the murder to be investigated fairly and transparently and for the Sindh government to take steps to control crime and violence in the province. At the same time, it falls to the authorities as well as to all progressive voices in Pakistan to shun divisive or racist rhetoric. HRCP intends to conduct a fact-finding mission to ascertain the evidence surrounding the murder of Bilal Kaka and ensuing ethnic tension.

July 9, 2022July 13, 2022

COIED chairperson must be removed if allegations proved

Lahore, July 09, 2022 (PPI-OT):The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) takes serious note of the allegation of sexual harassment against Justice (Retired) Javed Iqbal – chairman of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIED) and former chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) – as well as other NAB officials.

It is of grave concern to HRCP that these allegations were levelled by a woman who had approached Justice (Retired) Iqbal in his capacity as COIED chairman – a position in which he was responsible for protecting Ms Gul’s testimony and securing her right to seek justice for a missing relative.

Not only has Justice (Retired) Iqbal allegedly abused his office in two capacities, but he has also failed to appear before the Public Accounts Committee to answer these charges. The allegations against him and other public officials must be investigated with transparency and independence, and he should be removed from office if these allegations are proved. HRCP shall follow up this demand for investigation and the process in the Public Accounts Committee.

June 26, 2022June 27, 2022

HRCP calls for end to impunity for torture

Lahore, June 26, 2022 (PPI-OT):On this International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) reiterates its call upon the state to criminalise torture which is obligatory after the country’s ratification of the Convention Against Torture in 2010. Neither a state of war, nor political instability nor an order from a superior authority justifies torture which hurts the very foundation of the rule of law.

While the Senate had passed the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Bill in 2021, HRCP regrets the fact that the bill has yet to be passed by the National Assembly. Such a marked delay in turning this bill into an act of legislation only sets us back further since the bill not only provides a comprehensive definition of torture that is lacking in the Pakistan Penal Code, but also empowers the National Commission for Human Rights to investigate cases of torture.

HRCP urges that the petition against internment centres, pending since 2019, be heard by the Supreme Court on priority basis, and that such legal systems that enable torture be dismantled and transformed. Allegations of custodial killings and torture in detention centres, police lockups and prisons abound; yet unfortunately, most instances of torture remain invisible. Torture is not only underreported but also difficult to prove in medical reports as has been noted in various credible studies carried out on the subject. Hence the complete impunity for torture.

Torture diminishes the victims, the system that allows it and ultimately the state itself. HRCP stands with the victims of torture, demands that the state provide reparations to them and hold the perpetrators strictly accountable to end this culture of torture and renew the trust between law enforcement agencies and citizens.