KARACHI: On concluding its 38th annual general meeting, the general body of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) draws urgent attention to ‘deteriorating human rights and weakening democracy’. It strongly opposes the proposed amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 that seeks to authorise the armed forces and civil armed forces to employ 90-day preventive detention.
It said where the state should be focusing on efforts to uphold the rule of law, reduce violence against women, children and transgender persons, protect the rights of workers and peasants, and fulfil people’s right to health and education, it has instead prioritised its own authority at the expense of democratic norms and people’s fundamental rights. It called on all political parties to reach a consensus on civilian autonomy and guarding federalism.
It said the government must focus on strengthening trade unions and seriously consider instituting a living wage, especially for vulnerable workers. It said that the provision of healthcare and education is the duty of the state. Student unions must be restored and special attention paid to the plight of incarcerated fisherfolk, stateless persons and rising suicides triggered by poverty, particularly in Thar. The contentious provincial labour codes must be revisited in consultation with trade unions.
HRCP believes that the climate emergency is now an existential crisis for the country. The most pressing issues are the lethal levels of air pollution in Punjab, posing serious risks to health, and the immediate threat of water scarcity, especially in lower riparian Sindh, where the construction of canals on the Indus under the Green Pakistan Initiative has raised objections from small farmers and peasants.
“We strongly oppose the Gilgit-Baltistan Land Reforms Bill 2024, which seeks to centralise control over private, communal and ancestral land in the guise of ‘reforms’ for development. This appropriation of land by powerful vested interests will further marginalize people and stoke unrest. The state must give Gilgit-Baltistan its due constitutional rights as demanded by its residents.”
HRCP deplored what it called the increasing use of short-term enforced disappearances, including against the political opposition, and called once again for the head of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances to be removed for sheer incompetence.
It alleged that the conduct of the state has been marked by violence with impunity and a tendency to succumb to far-right ideologies. It noted with concern the fact that its chairperson was detained for questioning by the police and four FIRs filed against its members in connection with their human rights work.
It said the sharp rise in militancy in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including increasingly regular attacks on construction workers, miners and polio workers, is rapidly moving towards a point of no return. HRCP calls on Baloch and Baloch-Pashtun leaders to sit together and devise an independent solution to the crisis in the province. Pashtun leaders in Kurram must do the same to resolve the months-long conflict in the district.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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