State of human rights in Pakistan

EDITORIAL

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan's report on "state of human rights in 2011" in Pakistan makes the disturbing though not surprising disclosure that rights violations increased manifold during the year, offering the unpalatable explanation that this happened because the government was caught up in its own crises - the memo controversy, NRO and rumours of a coup - and fighting for its survival. Indeed, this government has been busy trying to survive in the face of various crises - some self-created and others by extraneous circumstances - but a democratic government is not a one-man show; its army of ministers should have been addressing these issues as and when they came up. Unfortunately, however, there has been a tendency either to play it safe by confusing a given issue or, in certain instances, to look the other way. Unveiling the report on Thursday, HRCP co-chairman Kamran Arif said that 2011 began with the murder of Salmaan Taseer; and later Christian MNA and minority affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti was murdered. "Minorities", he added, "continued to suffer and are leaving an unsafe country." It is important to recall here how the government handled the two assassinations. Soon after Taseer's assassination, although the assassin left no confusion as to his responsibility and motive, ruling party ministers and various spokespersons sought to deflect attention from the real problem, terming it a political murder. And in the case of Shahbaz Bhatti, who was under extremists' threat, Interior Minister Rehman Malik tried to shift the blame to the victim by claiming that he was offered a used bullet proof vehicle but that Bhatti had insisted on getting a new one. Another minister, Babar Awan, when accused of having accepted a hefty amount - in exchange for ensuring exoneration in court - from the accused in the multi-billion rupee Bank of Punjab scandal, said the accusation came from an Ahmadi community's conspiracy to malign him. Hence, indirectly the government actually contributed to society's tolerance for violent extremists and growing intolerance towards minority communities. The HRCP official also said that sectarian violence, kidnapping and extra-judicial killings dominated discussion during the year gone by. Notably, some of the most horrible incidents of sectarian killings took place in Balochistan where Shias of Hazara community were targeted repeatedly. It is Balochistan also where most kidnappings and extra-judicial killings took place, overtaking the old Baloch sense of deprivation with anger over enforced disappearances. The government response to the first issue has been inaction; and to the second either indifference or denial of the fact that hundreds of political activists remained 'missing'. Baloch leaders across the political spectrum accuse the agencies of enforced disappearances of over a thousand activists, and extra-judicial killings of many of the 'disappeared.' It was only after the courts began taking suo motu notice of these cases that the government admitted of 49 disappearances - too small a number compared to Baloch claims. Such grave rights violations did not happen because the federal government was embroiled in its own problems; but because it wanted to avoid any disagreement with the powers that be. It could have authorised the provincial government to talk to dissidents and settle the issues of conflict. The report also goes on to note that last year saw 16 journalists killed across the country. Sadly, Pakistan has become one of the world's most dangerous places for journalists. The worst affected are those covering lawless tribal areas where they can easily confront trouble either for stepping on the wrong side of the violent extremists or the security agencies fighting them. Other parts of the country are unsafe too. It can only be hoped that an increasing media spotlight on these incidents and the judiciary's interventions will help improve the situation.