The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan on Saturday criticised the sealing of an Islamabad building related to the civil society organisation Pattan.
A press release issued a day ago by the organisation said the residence of Pattan National Coordinator Sarwar Bari was sealed and his family evicted.
Earlier this month, Pattan had published a report on the general elections and described them in a statement as “unprecedentedly rigged” with “vote-rigging, fraud and manipulation”. The findings were similar to its observation last year.
The press release said: “Since the launching of Pattan’s report on Pakistan general elections, Islamabad police have visited residence of Sarwar Bari, our national coordinator, twice in two weeks. On February 21, more than a dozen of police officials along with two magistrates searched his residence and later sealed it. His wife along with her 90-year-old aunt were forced to leave the home.
“As usual, the pretext that is being used to punish Pattan for discovering unprecedented rigging means in the February elections, is utterly baseless. Virtually a three-liner notice for sealing the premise carries no solid ground. It says: ‘Pattan NGO was deregistered on November 19, 2019, and since then, it has been running its affairs illegally. Hence, it was necessary to close it working and to take legal action against the organisation.’”
The organisation asserted it had never received any de-registration notice from the registration authority and also pointed to its many activities held in the presence of state officials through out its “so-called deregistration period”.
“The sealing of national coordinator’s residence and evicting his family members from home is politically motivated and we strongly condemn the brutal action of the administration,” the press release concluded.
Lambasting the development, the HRCP said it amounted to a violation of Article 14(1) of the Constitution. “Such tactics of intimidation against citizens are unacceptable. The matter should be heard immediately in a court of law,” the rights body said in a post on X.
