The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and other civil society groups on Thursday urged the government to immediately address the prevalent \u201chuman rights crises\u201d affecting the country, including the clampdowns on protesters and the misuse of blasphemy and cybercrime laws.<\/p>\n
The demand came amid a recent crackdown on protesters of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) demonstrating against enforced disappearances and arrests of its leadership in Karachi and Quetta, as well as a spate of other human rights issues from the targeting of journalists to an uptick in cases under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, and blasphemy laws.<\/p>\n
The HRCP and other civil society and rights groups held a press conference at the Karachi Press Club today to bring attention to the issues and called on the federal and provincial governments to urgently address the \u201cmultiple human rights crises across the country\u201d, according to a press release issued after the media talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncreasing state authoritarianism, suppression of dissent by force, restrictions on press freedom and the rapidly growing influence of the establishment over governance have led to widespread discontent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe short-term enforced disappearance of journalists and rights activists is now significant cause for alarm,\u201d the press release said.<\/p>\n
It added that the establishment\u2019s alleged role in politics had \u201csnowballed at the cost of democratic governance\u201d while allegations of political interference in the judiciary had also shaken public confidence in the legal system.<\/p>\n
\u201cReligious extremism continues to be weaponised against marginalised groups, particularly in Punjab against the Ahmadi community. The growing influence of militants in Pakistan\u2019s border regions, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has left ordinary people increasingly vulnerable to violence and extortion, creating a climate of constant fear.<\/p>\n
It said that in Balochistan, what began as a \u201cstruggle for fundamental rights\u201d is now being labelled \u201cterrorism\u201d by the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than initiating a political dialogue with stakeholders in the province, the authorities have continued to use disproportionate force against protestors, resorting to mass arrests.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, militant groups have begun to target civilians with alarming frequency. In Sindh, protests against the controversial construction of canals on the Indus have intensified, given that any such move would be a direct assault on people\u2019s environmental rights,\u201d the joint statement said.<\/p>\n
It noted that both the federal government and political opposition had yet been unable to reach a \u201csorely needed consensus\u201d on the country\u2019s future and parliament\u2019s role had receded, with laws passed \u201chastily and without deliberation\u201d.<\/p>\n
It pointed out that continued inflation, youth unemployment and labour rights violations remained rampant as minimum wage laws were not enforced, pensioners were denied their dues and employees in both the public and private sectors contended with delayed salaries.<\/p>\n
The groups jointly demanded a political solution to the Balochistan crisis with an end to enforced disappearances and the unconditional release of all those detained after the recent protests.<\/p>\n
They also called for the abolition of \u201coppressive laws\u201d, including Peca, and a rollback of policies restricting civil liberties.<\/p>\n
Among their other demands, the groups said there should be an immediate halt to the construction of canals on the Indus River and instead there should be a transparent water use policy that reflected the will of the people; there should be an end to \u201ccorporate land grabbing in the guise of \u2018agricultural development\u2019\u201d and there should be the redistribution of government-owned land to landless farmers in Sindh and other regions.<\/p>\n
During the press conference, HRCP Chairperson Asad Iqbal Butt raised the issue of minimum wages as well and blamed inflation for the lack of law and order in the country.<\/p>\n
Riaz Shaikh, dean of arts at Szabist University, expressed grave concern about universities in Balochistan allegedly being forced to arrange anti-militant protests after the Jaffer Express attack, saying that such coercion would \u201ccreate the foundations of hate and resentment\u201d in the student body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and other civil society groups on Thursday urged the government to immediately address the prevalent \u201chuman rights crises\u201d affecting the country, including the clampdowns on protesters and the misuse of blasphemy and cybercrime laws. The demand came amid a recent crackdown on protesters of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7474,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7472\/revisions\/7474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}