The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in its Annual Report for the year 2012 depicts a gloomy picture of the human rights situation in Pakistan.
The report says that the year 2012 was one of severe challenges for Pakistan, but the government did not prove 'equal to the task'. It was a year of ferocious terrorist attacks, endless sectarian killings and non-stop massacre of innocent people in Karachi. It was also a year of fierce turmoil in Balochistan.

According to the report, there were 1,577 terrorist attacks in 2012, claiming the lives of 2,050 people and causing injuries to another 3,822. The report further says more than 100 Shia Hazaras were killed in Balochistan alone, while at least 2,284 people died in ethnic, sectarian and politically-linked violence in Karachi during 2012.

The law and order situation in the country remained grim during the year under review. The report says that 350 police encounters were reported from across the country in which 403 suspects were killed, while 48 drone attacks were mounted in FATA in 2012, as compared to 74 in 2011. Around 583 people were killed and 853 injured in 2013 incidents of sectarian-related terrorist attacks and sectarian clashes in the country. In Karachi, at least six churches were attacked, two of them within a period of 10 days in the month of October.

The report says that HRCP received information about 87 missing persons of whom 72 were either traced or released. In a familiar pattern, 72 dead bodies of individuals who had gone missing in previous months were recovered from Balochistan. In the words of the report, "These statistics are just the tip of the iceberg as a large number of cases were not reported. There have been persistent reports of people being picked up from almost all parts of the country. We hope that matters will change with the change of government."

The report makes a special mention of the hundreds of attackers who, in the month of March, blew up the gates of the Central Prison in Bannu and succeeded in releasing 384 prisoners. Talking about jail conditions, the HRCP report says that there were a total of 75,444 detainees in prison in the country against the authorised capacity of 44,578. In addition, there were 1,289 juvenile prisoners in jails across the country, and an overwhelming majority of them were under trial. According to the report, 59 detainees died in custody, while another 81 were injured and 10 incidents of alleged torture of detainees were reported.

For the journalistic profession, 2012 proved to be a especially difficult year. During 2012, 14 journalists were killed, while performing their duties. Citing the example of Malala, the report remarks: "This year was also bad for human rights defenders. Many of them were killed and many received threats from different sources."

On the education front, things remained bleak as usual. The report quotes the figure given by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization according to which at least 5.1 million Pakistani children were out of school of whom 63 per cent were girls. At least 121 schools were targeted by militants opposed to education, especially girls' education. Killing in the name of honour remained a big blot on the country's human rights record. As many as 913 women were killed in the name of honour in 2012. Over 74 per cent of the girls married off in Charsadda and Mardan districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were under 16.

The year saw no improvement in the access to health facilities for the common mass of people. During the year under review, Pakistan was ranked sixth among 22 high-risk tuberculosis afflicted countries. As for malaria, over 1.6 million cases were reported. Also, one out of every nine women faced the risk of breast cancer which results in 40,000 deaths every year in the country.

The citizens' right to freedom of movement, a basic human right guaranteed in the constitution, was frequently violated. During Muharram, the Punjab government barred 929 clerics from entering Punjab and 439 clerics were banned from making speeches. After attacks on Shia pilgrims travelling through Balochistan in 2011, it was made mandatory for the pilgrims to obtain a no-objection certificate from the authorities before starting off on their journey to Iran via Balochistan. Regarding freedom of association, restrictions on forming trade unions remained in force in 2012. Trade union leaders also faced serious risks to their lives. At least 356 political activists were killed in 2012 in Karachi alone on account of their party affiliation.

The HRCP report says that the issue of blasphemy law reform was also left untouched. Rimsha, a Christian girl, charged with burning the Holy Quran was acquitted but Ryan stayed in jail, and Sherry Rehman, Pakistan's envoy to the US, faced being booked for blasphemy. As for the housing shortage, it remained acute and the number of people in the main cities who slept in the streets increased substantially. According to the HRCP report, the floods destroyed 275,720 dwellings in Sindh and parts of Balochistan, while the rehabilitation of the people rendered homeless by natural disaster or conflict since 2005 remained an incomplete process.

The report also notes some positive developments on the human rights front. It terms the 20th Constitutional Amendment relating to electoral matters one of the most significant enactments in 2012. Similarly, the law for the establishment of a National Commission of Human Rights came into force, while the National Commission on the Status of Women became autonomous. The report mentions the approval of Fair Trial Bill of 2012 as a step forward in improving the human rights situation in Pakistan.

Among other positive developments, the report refers to the registration of 84 million voters in the country, with females constituting 43 per cent of the total in 2012. Another encouraging development was that Pakistan got a prominent slot in the international rating regarding the number of women parliamentarians: it stood at number 52 in the world ranking of countries according to the percentage of women in parliament.

Not only is Pakistan's human rights record depressing, its ranking in the UN Human Development Index is also one of the lowest in the world. An oppressive state structure coupled with a brazenly unjust socio-economic system prevents the mass of the people from enjoying their basic rights.
Worst of all, there are no prospects of the situation changing for the better in the near future.

http://www.weeklycuttingedge.com/