EDITORIAL: To the US State Department the human rights practices in Pakistan during the rule of coalition government headed by Shehbaz Sharif remain “a cause of concern”.

Though some of these practices are rightly quoted, quite a few others monitored by its sources are only perceptional and in disagreement with realities on the ground.

For instance, the US State Department’s publication ‘the 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Pakistan’ finds nothing wrong with the ouster of Imran Khan as prime minister following a no-confidence against him by the parliament.

So is its take on the parliamentary election “conducted in accordance with procedures in the constitution” which threw up Imran Khan as the country’s chief executive and prime minister.

However, there are not many buyers, and rightly so, of US State Department’s claim that “even when the Election Commission of Pakistan’s management of elections has improved, there are concerns regarding pre-election interference by military and intelligence agencies… .

While military and intelligence services officially report to civilian authorities, they operate independently and without effective civilian oversight or control… . There are reports that members of security forces committed numerous abuses”.

Another cause of concern to the State Department is its belief that “judges ordered media regulatory agencies to enforce constitutional bans on content critical of the military or judiciary”.

And that led to “censor of politicians’ speeches and election-related coverage deemed anti-judiciary or anti-military”. In fact, anything that could be described as a violation of human rights seems to have found its place in this US State Department’s publication.

Not only does it cover Imran Khan’s ouster, judges’ role in media regulation, government corruption and jail conditions, it also has the audacity to preach how to deal with America-specific concerns about targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and same-sex cases.

Human dignity and respect for individual’s rights is indeed in short supply in Pakistan. Yet it is equally important to note that socio-cultural ambience obtaining in a society is never amenable to quick changes.

The US State Department seems to have lost sight of a key fact that is related to Pakistan’s armed forces and judiciary: not only are our war-hardened armed forces one of the most professional and skilled militaries, our judiciary is also one of the best in the world, and if there is any doubt about it then look at the quality of justice delivered by India’s apex court which readily justified Narendra Modi’s act of revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023