Rights environment grim, says report

A growing militarisation of society, coupled with an increased lack of transparency in matters of governance, has contributed to a grim human rights situation in the country, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said in a new report on Saturday. Releasing the organisation's annual report, covering the period from 1 November 2004 to 31 August 2005, HRCP officials noted that the failure to provide institutionalised protection to vulnerable groups, including women and children, also meant there had been no significant improvement in their plight. "The exact number of women raped is not so important as the need to change the laws that allow discrimination or the tendencies that permit culprits to go free," HRCP secretary-general Iqbal Haider maintained at the launch of the report in the capital, Islamabad. Some of the most disturbing trends were the 'disappearances' of people who have been illegally detained, by agencies of the state. Some of them, such as Karachi-based sisters Arifa and Saba Baloch, remained missing for periods of six months or more, before being quietly returned home and families warned against speaking out to the press or making their experiences public. In many cases, those 'picked up' in this fashion, have been accused of involvement in militancy - but in violation of the law, no charges have been levelled or the accused persons produced before courts, the report said. "This is something we have not seen here before," HRCP chairwoman Asma Jahangir said. A large number of cases in which members of the media have been intimidated or harassed have also been detailed by HRCP, including direct attempts to muzzle dissent and bar free expression. "The complaints we have received of such tactics exceed those during previous years and this suggests a definite pattern is being followed," HRCP director IA Rehman said. But HRCP also observed some more positive trends, including the fact that superior courts in a greater number of cases, had taken notice of abductions or other offences against citizens. Discussions on violence against women, at high profile official forums, were also regarded as a positive step, as were measures taken by authorities to bring home hundreds of Pakistani children who had been trafficked to Gulf countries for use as camel jockeys. Government-supported campaigns to address child labour were also welcomed by the commission. However, the fact that some of the crimes committed against women during late 2004 and 2005 were especially outrageous reflected the fact that the trend that had developed over the past few years was yet to abate. These crimes included the gang-rape in police custody of a young woman, Sonia Naz, who has since been divorced by her husband and continues to face a threat from police; the rape of Dr Shazia Khalid in Sui, Balochistan, early in 2005; and the gang-rape of at least two other young women, apparently as a form of vendetta against them or their families. HRCP noted that in the cases of both Dr Shazia, who allegedly was raped by a military officer, and Sonia Naz, police had been extremely reluctant to even register reports regarding the crimes committed. In other cases that drew international attention, Mukhtar Mai, the young woman who in 2000 suffered a gang-rape ordered by a tribal council, was prevented by the government from leaving the country in May, apparently to stop her speaking out about her suffering. The authorities denied they had barred her from travelling overseas. Importantly, there was no marked change in the number of women killed for 'honour', with over 300 murdered during the period covered. It was feared that a large number of other cases went unreported, or were covered up by families, sometimes in connivance with police. Cases of acid burning, in which corrosive substances were hurled at women, and sometimes also other family members, remained high. Most such crimes were reported from the southern Punjab, and arose most often as a result of a dispute over matters of marriage or discord between husbands and wives. There were several cases involving the grotesque mutilation of women, including one reported from the Punjab in which a woman's legs were hacked off by her brother-in-law, who suspected her of adultery. The situation of religious minority groups also remained a source of concern for HRCP. One of the areas of acute concern was the forced conversion of non-Muslims, most often young girls who were pressurised into adopting Islam. The shooting by a frenzied mob of a man accused of blasphemy in the village of Spin Khak in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), early in 2005, and other episodes of attacks on places of worship of non-Muslims were cited by HRCP as evidence of a rising tide of religious intolerance in society. Most notable was the fact that those engaged in such violations of the law had gone unpunished in almost every case. In its presentation, HRCP also referred to the "growing despair" of ordinary people, due to impoverishment, as the biggest issue affecting rights in the country. The large number of cases of suicides committed by young men unable to find jobs was only one symptom of this. HRCP urged the government to play a part in "finding some solution" to the poor conditions in which people led lives. This included the fact that many lacked access to even basic healthcare or safe drinking water, while across the country tens of thousands of children remained out of school. While there had been a bigger attempt to enroll girl children, a far larger number of girls compared to boys dropped out of the classroom within the first five years of schooling. This was often due to the burden of domestic chores they were expected to undertake or due to the fact that schools were located far away from villages, making it difficult for girls to reach them. HRCP reiterated its call for the Pakistan government to sign key international conventions, such as the International Labour Organizations (ILO) Convention 182, against the worst forms of child labour. It also called for an "urgent review of laws that worsened the situation of labourers", notably the Industrial Relations Ordinance (IRO) of 2002, which restricted their right to form unions.