Pakistan - ‘State of Human Rights' - A damning verdict

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has released its annual report on the ‘State of Human Rights 2014’. As expected, the bulk of the report is a damning indictment of the Pakistani state’s failure to protect its citizens. The year started with a series of attacks on religious minorities and ended with the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar. At least 1,723 Pakistanis lost their lives while 3,147 were injured in 1,206 terrorist attacks over the year. Pakistan witnessed a surge in sectarian violence, attacks on religious minorities and media-censorship. Moreover, Pakistan remained the world’s most polio-affected country. At least 45 polio workers were target-killed, there were at least 144 sectarian terrorist attacks, 11 attacks on Hindu temples and Christian churches while Shia pilgrims passing through Balochistan were consistently targeted. A Christian couple was lynched and burnt in Kot Radha Kishan while 11 Ahmadis were murdered in targeted attacks. The HRCP also documented that 37 new cases were registered under the controversial Article 295-C for offences relating to religion. The abject failure of the judicial system documented that over 1.8 million cases remain pending in courts, an astonishing figure no doubt.

The report also points to some good: an increase in women’s participation in politics, a law against child marriage, and an increase in minimum wage. But the good news is limited. Parliament enacted 10 laws, down from 22 the year before. The report notes that most of these laws were promulgated for state security at the expense of civil rights and liberties. Three important laws for the rights of people remain in the pipeline: the Hindu Marriage Act, Christian Divorce Act and the Domestic Violence Bill. The trouble is that this dire picture is nothing new. We latch onto minor improvements as markers of improvement, but the reality is that violence has crept into every part of public and private life in the country. The increasing attacks on polio workers as the country faces a polio epidemic is a key indicator. The HRCP report has become an annual affair which is talked about for a few days before being forgotten. If anything, the year 2015 looks set to be worse, with the advent of military courts, lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty and the clampdown on academic freedom in mainstream universities. Slowly, but surely, the government is complicit in making even talking about human rights into a crime against the state. The recent draft of the cyber crimes law is another such tool. With 2015 heralding a terrorist attack on churches in Youhanabad and the murder of activist Sabeen Mahmud in Karachi, the picture is not going to get rosy anytime soon.