AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2012
THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S HUMAN RIGHTS


Pakistan

Salmaan Taseer, the outspoken Governor of Punjab,
and Shahbaz Bhatti, the Minister for Minorities (and
sole Christian cabinet member), were assassinated
in January and March, respectively, because of their
criticism of the blasphemy laws. Security forces
continued to be implicated in violations, including
enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial
executions, especially in Balochistan and the
Northwest. In May, US forces killed al-Qa’ida leader
Osama bin Laden in a raid on his hideout in the
north-western city of Abbottabad. Senior US officials publicly accused Pakistan of supporting the Taleban
in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taleban and other
armed groups killed civilians in targeted and
indiscriminate attacks across the country. Karachi
was gripped by a wave of killings sparked by rival
gangs associated with different ethnic and political
groups. Individuals continued to be sentenced to
death, but there were no executions. A successive
year of monsoonal floods led to further displacement
and outbreaks of dengue fever countrywide. Chronic
energy shortages caused violent protests in most
major cities and stifled economic activity. Women
and girls in conflict-prone areas in the Northwest and
Balochistan faced severe difficulties in accessing
education and health care.

Background
The human rights situation remained poor, with
security and intelligence officials often complicit in
violations. The authorities were frequently unwilling
or unable to protect women, ethnic and religious
minorities, journalists and other vulnerable groups
from abuses, and bring perpetrators to justice.
Promises by federal and provincial authorities aimed
at improving the rule of law in violence-wracked
Balochistan province – including greater oversight of
police and the paramilitary Frontiers Corps, increased
recruitment of ethnic Baloch into the civil service, and
a rise in the province’s share of the national budget –
had little effect.
Nearly one million people remained displaced as a
result of continued conflict between the security
forces and the Pakistani Taleban, while communities
returning to regions recaptured from the insurgency
complained of lack of security and access to basic
services. A parallel judicial system based on a narrow
reading of Shari’a law was established in Malakand
despite the removal of the Pakistani Taleban, creating
fears that their harsh social codes might be applied.
In June, President Zardari granted security forces
in the Northwest retrospective immunity from
prosecution and sweeping powers of arbitrary detention and punishment. On 14 August, Pakistan’s
Independence Day, the President approved landmark
reforms, extending the Political Parties Order 2002 to
the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and
amending the Frontier Crimes Regulation, a Britishera law that deprived residents of the region of many
of their human rights and protections under Pakistan’s Constitution. The reforms limited state
powers of arbitrary detention and collective
punishment, allowed people in the region a right to
judicial appeal of decisions under the Regulation, and
enabled political parties to operate in the Tribal Areas.
On 9 June, Pakistan ratified the Optional Protocol
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the
sale of children, child prostitution and child
pornography. In September, Pakistan removed most
of its reservations to the ICCPR and the Convention
against Torture, but retained other problematic
reservations that prevent non-Muslims from becoming
Prime Minister or President, and discriminate against
women’s equal right to inheritance.

Violations by security forces
Security and intelligence forces acted largely with
impunity and were accused of violations, including
enforced disappearances, torture and killing of
civilians, journalists, activists and suspected members
of armed groups in indiscriminate attacks and extrajudicial executions.

Extrajudicial executions

Reports of extrajudicial executions were most
common in Balochistan province, as well as the
Northwest and violence-ridden Karachi.
On 28 April, human rights activist Siddique Eido and
his friend Yousuf Nazar Baloch were found dead in
the Pargari Sarbat area of Balochistan. According to
witnesses, they were abducted while travelling with
police by men in plain clothes accompanied by
paramilitary Frontier Corps forces on 21 December
2010. Hospital reports said their bodies had bullet
wounds and bore signs of torture.
On 8 June, a television crew filmed the extrajudicial
execution of Sarfaraz Shah by paramilitary Rangers
in a Karachi park. Following the Supreme Court’s
intervention, the Sindh government dismissed senior
law enforcement officials and, on 12 August, the AntiTerrorism Court sentenced one of the Rangers to death
for the murder. Five other Rangers and a civilian were
sentenced to life in prison. All appealed against their
sentences to the Sindh High Court.
On 17 May, police and Frontier Corps forces killed
five foreigners in Quetta, including a heavily pregnant
woman, whom they claimed were suicide bombers. An
inquiry concluded that the victims were not armed and
two police officers were suspended. A journalist who
took photos of the killings went into hiding after receiving death threats, and the doctor who conducted autopsies on the victims was assaulted and later killed by a group of unknown men. Other witnesses were
reportedly threatened by security personnel.

Enforced disappearances

The state failed to bring perpetrators of enforced
disappearance to justice; most victims remained
missing. In March, the government established a new
Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances
but took six months to appoint retired Supreme Court
Justice Javed Iqbal to head it. Since the previous
commission commenced in March 2010, over 220 of
the several hundred individual cases filed had been
traced. Both commissions were criticized for failing to
protect witnesses and for conducting inadequate
investigations, especially in cases where state security
forces and intelligence agencies were implicated.
On 13 February, unknown men abducted Agha
Zahir Shah, a lawyer representing relatives of alleged
victims of enforced disappearance, in Dera Murad
Jamali, Balochistan, while he was returning to Quetta.
He was released in a poor state of health on 2 July.
Muzzaffar Bhutto, senior member of the Jeay Sindh
Muttaheda Mahaz political party, was abducted on
25 February in Hyderabad, Sindh, by men in plain
clothes accompanied by police. His whereabouts
remained unknown.
In May, brothers Abdullah and Ibrahim El-Sharkawi
(of Egyptian origin) went missing. Two weeks later, their
family was told they were in prison charged with illegal
residency, but a court confirmed they were Pakistani
nationals. Ibrahim was released on bail on 27 June
and Abdullah was released on 29 August. Both
claimed they were tortured and ill-treated in secret detention facilities.

Abuses by armed groups
The Pakistani Taleban targeted civilians and carried
out indiscriminate attacks using improvised explosive
devices (IEDs) and suicide bombings. Several tribal
elders were victims of targeted killings. The Taleban
also tried to assassinate a number of politicians
affiliated with the Awami National Party. According to
the government, 246 schools (59 girls’ schools, 187
boys’ schools) were destroyed and 763 damaged
(244 girls’ schools, 519 boys’ schools) in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province as a result of the conflict with
the Taleban, depriving thousands of children of
access to education. Threats of violence from the Pakistani Taleban imposed severe restrictions on
access to health services, education and participation
in public life for women and girls.
On 9 March, a suicide bomber attacked the funeral
of an anti-Taleban leader’s wife , killing 37 people in the
outskirts of Peshawar. Tehrik-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP)
claimed responsibility for the bombing.
On 18 July, TTP released a video showing masked
militants executing 16 captured policemen in
response to earlier footage of Pakistani forces executing
arrested insurgents.
 TTP claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing on
19 August that killed at least 47 and injured more than
100 during Friday prayers at a mosque in Khyber
tribal agency.
 In September, Pakistani Taleban insurgents
abducted 30 boys aged between 12 and 18 on the
Afghanistan border in Bajaur, and attacked a school
van in Peshawar, killing four children and the driver.
Nationalist groups in Balochistan assassinated members of rival factions, ethnic Punjabis and state security forces, and claimed responsibility for attacks on gas and electricity infrastructure, causing severe
energy shortages in the province. Sectarian attacks
by the armed group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and others
on Shi’a Muslims resulted in at least 280 deaths
and injuries.
On 4 January, five children were injured in an IED
attack on a school bus carrying more than 30 children
of Frontier Corps troops in Turbat town, Balochistan.
Although no one claimed responsibility, ethnic Baloch
groups were blamed for the attack.
On 25 April, at least 15 people, including five
children, were burnt to death when unidentified
assailants set a Quetta-bound bus on fire in the Pirak
area of Sibi district. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the
execution-style killing of 26 Shi’a pilgrims in Mastung district and three of the victims’ relatives as they travelled from Quetta to collect their bodies, on
20 September. A similar attack on Shi’a pilgrims on 4 October claimed 14 lives.
Karachi saw a surge of violence as rival gangs,
some linked to political parties, clashed over territorial
claims, killing 2,000 people. Security forces detained
hundreds of suspects but the Supreme Court
criticized political parties for fuelling the violence
and authorities for failing to stop many known perpetrators.

Freedomof expression
At least nine journalists were killed during the year.
Media workers were threatened by security forces,
intelligence agencies, political parties and armed
groups for reporting on them. Pakistani authorities
failed to bring perpetrators to justice or provide
adequate protection to journalists.
On 13 January, GeoNews reporter Wali Khan Babar
was killed in a drive-by shooting by unidentified
assailants in Karachi, hours after filing a report on a
police operation against drug traffickers in the city.
On 29 May, Asia Times Online’s Saleem Shahzad
disappeared from outside his Islamabad house, minutes
after leaving for a television interview. His body was
found in Punjab province two days later. He had earlier
filed a report on al-Qa’ida infiltration in the Pakistani
Navy. In October 2010, he had privately notified
colleagues that he had received death threats from the
Inter-Services Intelligence agency over similar reports.

Discrimination – religious minorities
Sectarian groups continued to threaten minority
Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus and Shi’as, as well as
moderate Sunni practitioners, and incited violence
against those calling for reform of the country’s
blasphemy laws. The state failed to prevent sectarian
attacks against religious minorities or bring
perpetrators to justice.
On 25 January, a suicide bomber targeting Shi’a
worshippers killed at least 13 people in Lahore.
Fidayeen-e-Islam claimed responsibility for the attack.
In June, the All Pakistan Students Khatm-e-Nubuwat
Federation distributed pamphlets in the city of Faisalabad,
Punjab, listing prominent members of the Ahmadiyya
community andcalling fortheirmurder as an act of “jihad”.
On 24 September, Faryal Bhatti, a 13-year-old
Christian schoolgirl from Abbottabad, was expelled
from school for misspelling an Urdu word, resulting in
accusations of blasphemy. Her family were forced to go
into hiding.
 All suspects in the August 2009 attack on a Christian
colony in Gojra, Punjab, were released on bail after
witnesses failed to give evidence out of fearfortheir safety.
The trial judge who sentenced Salmaan Taseer’s
assassin to death was forced to go into hiding due to
death threats while Shahbaz Bhatti’s killers had yet
to be brought to justice. Politician Sherry Rehman
withdrew a blasphemy law reform bill from the
National Assembly following death threats. Aasia Bibi, a Christian farmer sentenced to death for blasphemy in
2009, remained in detention while her case was on appeal.

Violence against women and girls
Women faced legal and de facto discrimination and
violence at home and in public. The Aurat Foundation
documented 8,539 cases of violence against women,
including 1,575 murders, 827 rapes, 610 incidents
of domestic violence, 705 honour killings and 44 acid
attacks. In December, Pakistan’s parliament sought to
address this problem by passing the Acid Control and
Acid Crime Prevention Bill 2010 and the Prevention
of Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment)
Bill 2008, aimed at empowering and protecting
women and increasing penalties for perpetrators of
gender-based violence. This was the first time that
acid attacks and practices like forced marriages
were criminalized in Pakistan.
On 10 September, four women – all teachers – were
attacked with acid by two masked perpetrators riding
a motorbike, as they left a co-educational school in
Quetta, capital of Balochistan province. One of the
women escaped without any injuries and another two
were discharged from hospital with minor burns,
but the fourth sustained severe burns and required
major reconstructive surgery. Federal and provincial
authorities took notice of the attack, but the
perpetrators had yet to be brought to justice.
On 15 October, a teenage girl accused 13 people,
including three police officers, of abducting and gang
raping her in captivity for a year in the district of Karak
in Khyber Pakthunkhwa province. On 9 December, her
brother was shot dead as he left the district court
hearing the criminal case against the accused.

Death penalty
More than 8,000 prisoners remained on death row.
According to the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan, at least 313 people were sentenced to
death, over half of them for murder. Three people
were sentenced to death for blasphemy. The last
execution took place in 2008.




http://files.amnesty.org/air12/air_2012_full_en.pdf