Pakistan failing on human rights, watchdog says
An independent Pakistani watchdog criticised the country's human rights record over the past year in a new report today, saying the nation has failed to make progress.
The damning report card issued by the Human Rights Commission said people continue to disappear in Pakistan, sometimes because they criticise the country's powerful military and other times because they advocate better relations with neighbouring India.
The controversial blasphemy law continues to be misused, especially against dissidents, with cases in which mere accusations that someone committed blasphemy leads to deadly mob violence, it said.
While deaths directly linked to acts of terrorism declined in 2017, the report said attacks against the country's minorities were on the rise.
This year's 296-page report was dedicated to one of the commission's founders, Asma Jahangir, 66, whose death in February generated a worldwide outpouring of grief and accolades for an activist who was fierce in her commitment to human rights.
The Hunan Rights Commission of Pakistan releasing their annual report 2017 in Islamabad right now —first one since Asma Jahangir left us.Heartening to see colleagues march on with the same enthusiasm despite their loss. pic.twitter.com/Ry4gsEnaBt
— Munizae Jahangir (@MunizaeJahangir) April 16, 2018
"We have lost a human rights giant," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said after Jahangir's death.
"She was a tireless advocate for inalienable rights of all people and for equality - whether in her capacity as a Pakistani lawyer in the domestic justice system, as a global civil society activist, or as a special rapporteur.
"Asma will not be forgotten."
Notwithstanding the grim upward trend in violence and disappearances, we must not ignore everyday human rights. The right to #healthcare, to clean #drinkingwater, to primary schooling, to breathable #air. #stateofhumanrights2017
— Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (@HRCP87) April 16, 2018
Today's report also took aim at religious bigotry in Pakistan and the government's refusal to challenge religious zealots, fearing a backlash.
"The people's right to socio-economic activities is curtailed by intolerance and extremism and authorities are lenient for fear of political backlash," said the report.
It added that religious conservative organisations continued to resist laws aimed at curbing violence against women, laws giving greater rights to women and removing legal restrictions on social exchanges between sexes, which remain segregated in many parts of Pakistani society.
On the chilling rise in reported number of children abducted, sexually abused and killed: HRCP commends pro-child legislation, but the state continues to look at the symptoms without addressing the malaise. #stateofhumanrights2017
— Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (@HRCP87) April 16, 2018
Still, there was legal progress in other areas, it noted, describing as a "landmark development" a new law in the country's largest province, Punjab, which accepts marriage licences within the Sikh community at the local level, giving the unions protection under the law.
But religious minorities in Pakistan continued to be a target of extremists, it said, citing attacks on Shiites, Christians falsely accused of blasphemy and also on Ahmedis, a sect reviled by mainstream Muslims as heretics.
Ahmedis are not allowed under Pakistan's constitution to call themselves Muslims.
"In a year when freedom of thought, conscience and religion continued to be stifled, incitement to hatred and bigotry increased, and tolerance receded even further," said the report.
On Sunday in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, gunmen attacked Christian worshippers as they left Sunday services, killing two. Five other worshippers were wounded, two seriously.
