ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Human Right Cell’s President Farhatullah Babar on Friday expressed concern over the human rights situation in Balochistan and called upon the government to heed the recent report of the fact-finding mission of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on the subject.
Mr Babar said that the voice of the Baloch women and children camping at the Super Market of Islamabad for the last three weeks against the enforced disappearances of their near and dear ones must be heard.
Interestingly, the PPP is itself ruling the Balochistan province and the party’s HR cell is expressing concern over human rights violations in the province.
Speaking at a press conference in the central secretariat of the party here, accompanied by the party’s general secretary of HR cell Malika Raza, Natasha Doulatana, MNA, and other office-bearers, Mr Babar said that enforced disappearances are a crime against humanity under international law. The security-centric approach of the state was alienating the people from the state.
Farhatullah Babar says provincial autonomy must be honoured
The government’s commission on enforced disappearances has failed to prosecute anyone behind such disappearances, the PPP leader said.
Secondly, he said, the democratic credibility has been severely undermined in the province by electoral manipulation .
“This has marginalised position of nationalist parties that believe in federal parliamentary democracy and this situation has emboldened the hands of extremists and insurgents,” the PPP leader said.
He demanded that provincial autonomy, particularly in natural resource governance in KP and Balochistan, must be honoured.
Mr Babar urged the government to adopt a rights-based, inclusive political solution to problems in the provinces if further instability in the provinces is to be avoided.
Expressing concern over the internment centres in KP, he said these centres violated the principle of due process, the separation of powers and the fundamental rights of citizens.
He said the matter has been under challenge in the Supreme Court since Dec 2019, but no hearing of the case has taken place for the last over five years.
The HR cell appreciated the verdict of the single bench of IHC Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan last month which ordered the government to set up a commission within 30 days to investigate the misuse of blasphemy laws and complete its work within four months.
The court had cited widespread concerns over alleged entrapment, custodial deaths and serious investigative lapses.
The HR cell noted that the verdict of the single bench was subsequently suspended by a division bench of the same court for one month.
It expressed the hope that after the one-month stay granted against its implementation by a double bench is over, the government will set up the commission in accordance with the order of Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan of IHC.
Speaking on the occasion, Malaika Raza expressed concern over deteriorating human rights of women and children and asked the government to address the human rights issues of women and children.
MNA Natasha Daulatana spoke about the plight of farmers in Punjab. She said that farmers and agriculture were the backbone of the country’s economy, and neglecting them would wreak havoc with food security and national economy.
