Concern about human rights situation in Balochistan and internment centres in KP
Liaquat Ali
Islamabad: President human rights cell of the PPP, former senator Farhatullah Babar expressing concern over the human rights situation in Balochistan Friday called upon the government to heed the recent report of the fact finding mission of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on the subject. The voices of the Baloch women and children camping near the supermarket market in Islamabad for the last three weeks against the enforced disappearances of their near and dear ones must be heard.
He said this while addressing a press conference today in the central secretariat of the party in Islamabad. General secretary of HR cell Malika Raza, Natasha Doulatan MNA, and other office bearers of the cell were also present.
Enforced disappearances are a crime against humanity under international law. The security-centric approach of the state was alienating people from the state and normalized practice, he said. The commission on enforced disappearances has failed to prosecute anyone involved in disappearances, he lamented.
Secondly, he said the democratic credibility has been severely undermined in the province by electoral manipulation. This has marginalized nationalist parties that believe in federal parliamentary democracy and play into the hands of extremists and insurgents. He demanded that provincial autonomy, particularly in natural resource governance in KP and Balochistan, must be honoured.
He urged the government to adopt a rights-based, inclusive political solution to the problems in the province if further instability is to be avoided.
Expressing concern over the internment centres in the province of Pakhtunkhwa, he said that these centres violated the principle of due process, the separation of powers, and the fundamental rights of citizens. He said that it has been under challenge in the Supreme Court since December 2019, but no hearing had been held during the last over five years. He called for an early listing of appeal in this human rights issue of a grave nature involving setting up of internment centres in KP. He said that he was also petitioner in the case.
The human rights cell places on record its deep appreciation of the verdict of the single bench of IHC Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan last month asking the government to constitute a commission within 30 days to investigate misuse of blasphemy law and complete its work in four months, he said. The court had cited widespread concerns over alleged entrapment, custodial deaths, and serious investigative lapses.
The HR cell has noted that the verdict of the single bench was subsequently suspended by a division bench of the same court for one month. It expressed the hope that after the one-month stay granted against its implementation by a double bench is over the government will set up the commission in accordance with the order of Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan of the IHC.
Malaika Raza highlighted the deteriorating human rights of women and children and asked the government to address the human rights issues faced by women and children. MNA Natasha Daulatana spoke about the plight of farmers in the Punjab. She said that farmers and agriculture were the backbone of the economy, and neglecting them would play havoc with food security and national economy.
