AP | Sadia Rafay April 16, 2018
An independent watchdog criticised Pakistan's human rights record
over the past year in a new report released on Monday, saying the nation has
failed to make progress.
The damning report card issued by the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan (HRCP) says people continue to disappear in Pakistan, sometimes
because they criticise the establishment and other times because they advocate
better relations with India.
The Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, per the
report, received 868 new cases, of which 555 were settled.
The report claims that the blasphemy law continues to be misused,
especially against dissidents, with cases in which mere accusations that someone
committed blasphemy lead to deadly mob violence.
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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, whose death in February generated
worldwide outpouring of grief and accolades for the 66-year-old activist who
was fierce in her commitment to human rights.
“We have lost a human rights giant,” UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres said following 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.”
Monday's report also took aim at religious bigotry and the government's
refusal to push back against 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 the Pakistani society.
The report pointed out that in 2017 instances of violence against
women was much higher than the actual cases reported, whereas 12m women in the
country have still not been registered to vote for the upcoming general
election.
Still, there was legal progress in other areas, it noted,
describing as a “landmark development” a new law in 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 Shias, Christians falsely accuse of
blasphemy and also on Ahmedis.
“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, gunmen attacked Christian worshippers as they
left Sunday services, killing two. Five other worshippers were wounded, two
seriously.
Last year was a troubling year for activists, journalists and
bloggers.
Several were detained, including five bloggers who subsequently
fled the country after their release. From exile, some of them said their
captors were agents of an intelligence agency.
In December, Raza Mehmood Khan, an activist who worked with
schoolchildren on both sides of the border to foster better relations was
picked up by several men after leaving a meeting that criticised religious
extremism.
Last year, a government-mandated commission on enforced disappearances
received 868 new cases, more than in two previous years. The commission located
555 of the disappeared but the remaining 313 are still missing.
“Journalists and bloggers continue to sustain threats, attacks and
abductions and blasphemy law serves to coerce people into silence,” the report
said.
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