HRCP Annual Report 2014 - English PDF

State of
Human Rights
in 2014
Human Rights Commission

of Pakistan
Sources
The sources, where not quoted in the text, were HRCP surveys, fact
finding reports, and communications from its correspondents and private
citizens; official gazettes, economic and legal documents and other public
releases and statements; reports in the national and regional press; and
publications of international agencies like the UNDP, ILO, WHO, UNICEF and
the World Bank. Considering the limitation of the official reports, press accounts
and sample surveys conducted by NGOs, figures and assessments offered
here may not always represent the full or the exact picture. They should be
taken as a reflection of the trend during the year.
Published by
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
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Tel: +92-42-35864994 Fax: +92-42-35883582
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ISBN 978-969-8324-77-3
Cover design: Visionaries Division

Layout and formatting: Rehan Latif Khan
Contents
Abbreviations
Glossary
Introduction ... 1
Highlights ... 3
I Rule of law
Laws and law-making ... 15
Administration of justice ... 29
II Enforcement of law
Law and order ... 57
Jails, prisoners and disappearances ... 85
III Fundamental freedoms
Freedom of movement ... 107
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion ... 121
Freedom of expression ... 139
Freedom of assembly ... 153
Freedom of association ... 171
IV Democratic development
Political participation ... 183
V Rights of the disadvantaged
Women ... 201
Children ... 221
Labour ... 239
VI Social and economic rights
Education ... 259
Health ... 281
Housing ... 301
Environment ... 317
Refugees ... 335
Appendices
HRCP activities ... 355
HRCP stands ... 381
Abbreviations
ADB Asian Development CIA Criminal Investigation
Bank Agency
AJK Azad Jammu and CII Council of Islamic
Kashmir Ideology
ANP Awami National Party CJ Chief Justice
ASI Assistant Sub-Inspector COAS Chief of Army Staff
[of Police]
CNIC Computerized National
ASJ Additional Sessions Identity Card
Judge
CrPC Criminal Procedure
ATA Anti-Terrorism Act Code
ATC Anti-Terrorism Court CRC Convention on the
BHC Balochistan High Court Rights of
the Child
BHU Basic Health Unit
DCO District Coordination
CDA Capital Development
Officer
Authority
DIG Deputy Inspector
CEC Chief Election
General [of Police /
Commissioner
Prisons]
CEDAW Convention on Elimina-
DPO District Police Officer
tion of all forms of
Discrimination Against DSJ District and Sessions
Women Judge
Abbreviations i
DSP Deputy Superintendent the Conservation of
of Police Nature
ECL Exit Control List JI Jamaat-e-Islami
EIA Environment Impact JJSO Juvenile Justice
Assessment Systems Ordinance
EPA Environment Protection JUI (F) Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam
Agency (Fazlur Rahman Group)
EPI Expanded Programme LHC Lahore High Court
for Immunization LHV Lady Health Visitor
FATA Federally Administered MNA Member of the National
Tribal Areas Assembly
FCR Frontier Crimes MPA Member of the Provin-
Regulation cial Assembly
FIA Federal Investigation MQM Muttahida (formerly
Agency Mohajir) Qaumi
FIR First Information Movement
Report MSF Muslim Students
HEC Higher Education Federation
Commission NA National Assembly
HRCP Human Rights Commis- NAB National Accountability
sion of Pakistan Bureau
ICCPR International Covenant NCSW National Commission
for Civil & Political on the Status of
Rights Women
ICESCR International Covenant NEQS National Environment
for Economic, Social & Quality Standards
Cultural Rights
NGO Non-government
IDMC Internal Displacement organisation
Management Centre
NIC National Identity Card
IG Inspector General [of
NIRC National Industrial
Police]
Relations Commission
IMF International Monetary
NSC National Security
Fund
Council
ISI Inter-Services Intelli-
PAEC Pakistan Atomic Energy
gence
Commission
ISPR Inter-Services Public
PATA Provincially Adminis-
Relations
tered Tribal Areas
IUCN International Union for
PFUJ Pakistan Federal Union
ii State of Human Rights in 2014
of Journalists SSP Senior Superintendent
PHC Peshawar High Court of Police
PkMAP Pakhtun Khawa Milli TB Tuberculosis
Awami Party TJP Tehrik Jafria, Pakistan
PMA Pakistan Medical TNSM Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariah
Association Mohammadi
PML(N) Pakistan Muslim UDHR Universal Declaration of
League (Nawaz group). Human Rights
PML-Q is Pakistan
Muslim League, UNDCP United Nations Drug
Quaid-e-Azam. Control Programme
PONM Pakistan Oppressed UNDP United Nations

Nations Movement. Development
Programme
PPC Pakistan Penal Code
UNESCO United Nations
PPP Pakistan People’s Party
Educational Scientific
PPPP Pakistan People’s Party and Cultural
Parliamentarians Organization
PS Police Station UNHCHR Universal Nations High
PTI Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf Commission for Human
RHC Rural Health Centre Rights
SC Supreme Court UNHCR United Nations High
Commissioner for
SAARC South Asian Association
Refugees
for Regional Coopera-
tion UNICEF United Nations
Children’s Fund
SCARP Salinity Control and
Reclamation Project WAPDA Water and Power
SCBA Supreme Court Bar Development Authority
Association WASA Water and Sewerage
SHC Sindh High Court Authority
SHO Station House Officer WB World Bank

SI Sub-Inspector [of WHO World Health
Police] Organization
SITE Sindh Industrial WTO World Trade
Trading Estate Organization
SMP Sipah Mohammad WWF Worldwide Fund for
Pakistan Nature
SP Superintendent of
Police
Abbreviations iii
Glossary
[Terms commonly used in discourse on rights and laws]
abadi: settlement; habitation; also population

asnad: certificates awarded by educational institutions, especially reli-
gious school. [Singular sanad]
amir: literally, leader. Frequently used to refer to leaders of Muslim groups
Assalam-o-Alaikum: “May peace be upon you.” Muslim greeting
atta: wheat flour
azaan: the Muslim call to prayers
azad: free
baitulmaal: originally the state treasury in an Islamic state. In Pakistan it
mainly disburses zakat
baituzzikr: house of prayers. Ahmadis have been using this term for
mosque since April 28, 1984, when they were barred from using Islamic
terms
basant: Spring kite-flying festival
begaar: forced labour
benami: without name. It refers to a property transaction where identity
of the purchaser is not revealed.
Glossary v
bhatta: protection money
Bheel: one of the ‘low’ and poorest of the Hindu castes
burqa: a long loose body-covering garment with holes for the eyes, worn
by some Muslim women
chador: a long loose cloak worn over other garments by Muslim women
chadar and chaardiwari: literally, chador and four walls. The phrase sig-
nifies security of citizens (including women’s) and of their privacy.
chak: a rural settlement in the Punjab, usually designated just by number
and a letter of the alphabet
challan: the police’s prosecution brief or charge-sheet. There are two
categories of this: the first is based on a preliminary (first information) re-
port, and the next, which is more formalized, follows from early investiga-
tions; also a traffic ticket
chapati: flat and round bread made of wheat flour
Chaudhry: a common surname in Punjab, in its original sense it describes
the head of a village’s foremost landed family
cheera: From the word meaning ‘tearing up’ it is a common method of
third degree torture in which the victim’s legs are spread out to the maximum
and kept immobilized in that position. The pain generally makes the accused
confess.
deeni madrasah: a religious school [Plural: madaaris]
deh: a small village [plural: dehaat]
dera: extended residential site of an influential figure; also a farmhouse
diyat: the financial compensation paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in
the cases of murder, bodily harm or property damage
ehtisab: accountability
Eid-al-Fitr: Festive occasion which marks the end of the Muslim month
of Ramazan
fatwa: religious ruling
fiqh: Muslim jurisprudence
gaddi nashin: custodian of a shrine
gherao: Laying a kind of siege to someone important to pressure him to
acceded to your demands
hadd: Islamic punishment (Plural: hudood)
haari: Sindhi peasant, tenant or farmhand
vi State of Human Rights in 2014
hujra: retiring room of an imam or any religious person or outhouse
iddat: the period a woman has to observe after the death of her husband
or after a divorce, during which she cannot marry another man
iftar: breaking of fast
ijtihad: creative reinterpretation of Islamic injunctions
ijtima: congregation; gathering
imam: prayer leader
imambargah: Shias’ place of congregation
Isha: The post-dusk Islamic prayer, which gets due after about 90 min-
utes of nightfall
jirga: a gathering of elders, especially in tribal societies settles disputes,
decides criminal cases etc.
kalima: the Muslim declaration of faith; shahadah
karokari: originally, karo (black male) and kari (black female) were terms
for adulterer and adulteress, but it has come to be used with regards to mul-
tiple forms of perceived immoral behaviour. Once a woman is labeled as a
kari, family members consider themselves authorized to kill her and the co-
accused karo in order to restore family honour.
katchi abadi: shantytown; shacks in makeshift communities
Khan: a term often used to refer to an influential feudal in the area. Khan
is also a common surname
khateeb: person who delivers religious sermons before Friday prayers;
also orator
khidmat committees: community service organizations, comprising gov-
ernment nominees, required to check failures of public institutions and offi-
cials
khula: divorce obtained on wife’s initiative
kutchery: a court of law. The khuli kutchery is the audience given by
ministers or officials to resolve grievances of the public
maghrib: the Muslim prayer due at dusk
Malik: A tribal chief. Other variants are Sardar and Khan
marla: a unit of area that is one 160th of an acre
masjid: mosque
mehfil: gathering; party
mehr: the money the groom pledges to the bride at the time of the wed-
Glossary vii
ding as a token of his earnestness
moharrir: police clerk who records complaints and crime reports
mullah: a Muslim cleric
Muharram: the Muslim month of mourning, especially for Shias
naib qasid: office boy
najis: unclean; something religiously regarded as impure
napaid bazo: family’s decision to wed one off ahead of birth
nazim: mayor, also administrator
naib nazim:deputy mayor
nikah: marriage; also marriage ceremony
nikah khwan: a mullah who is authorized to solemnize marriages
nikahnama: marriage certificate
panchayat: a gathering of elders
patharidar: an influential landowner in Sindh who harbours criminals
peshgi: advance payment against labour
pir: spiritual guide, who often acts as a faith healer
pucca: literally solid, generally refers to houses made of baked bricks
purdah: veil
qabza: forceful seizure and occupation
qatl: murder
qatl-i-amd: premeditated murder
qazf: false imputation of immorality against a woman
qazi: a judge of an Islamic court
qisas: equal retribution; eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth
Ramadan: the Muslim month of fasting
roti: chapati; flat and round bread made of wheat flour
sangchatti: Sindhi term for swara
swara: a child marriage custom in the Pashtun areas. It is tied to blood
feuds among the different tribes and clans where young girls are forcibly
married to members of different clans in order to resolve the feuds.
shalwar: loose pajama-like trousers. The legs are wide at the top and
narrow at the ankle. It is help up by a drawstring.
tandoor: a clay oven used to bake chapati
tazia: replica of Imam Hussain’s mausoleum displayed in Muharram
viii State of Human Rights in 2014
tonga: a light horse-drawn vehicle
ulema: persons learned in Islamic practices [singular: aalim]
ushr: Islamic land tax
vani: a cultural custom found in parts of Pakistan, called ‘swara’ in the
KPK, wherein young girls are forcibly married as part of punishment for a
crime committed by her male relatives. Vani is a form of arranged child mar-
riage, and the result of punishment decided by a council of tribal elders named
jirga.
wadera: a big landowner; jagirdar
watta satta: the swap system of marital alliances in which a brother and
sister of one family are married to the siblings of another.
zakat: a tithe Islam imposes on every Muslim as a fixed proportion of
his/her income and wealth and meant as a contribution to help the poor and
the needy
zaakir: religious preacher who mostly recounts events of the Islamic
past, usually in Moharram at the annual commemoration of Imam Husain’s
sacrifice at Karbala
ziarat: pilgrimage
zina: adultery; fornication. Rape is zina-bil-jabr
Glossary ix
Introduction
It is not easy to sum up a year that started with a series of faith-based
assaults on religious minorities and came to an end with a massacre of young
students that led to the highest death toll in a terrorist attack in the nation’s
history. There were many other instances of ever more gruesome violence
against the most vulnerable segments of society.
However, the year 2014 did throw up the occasional ray of hope too. One
of these was women’s active participation in political protests, and adoption
of some laws aimed at making the women’s lot easier in the country. At least
in some parts of the country, marriage of children younger than 18 years was
outlawed. Balochistan also criminalised domestic violence. The provincial
governments increased the minimum wage for unskilled workers, although
the extent of the raise did not come up to workers’ expectations. The Peshawar
school attack in December seemed to have created consensus against bands
of thugs of all hues who had been exploiting the religious banner for ends both
grand and petty. The government discovered some resolve to restore its writ
in the tribal areas and launched military operations against extremist militants.
Yet pressing human rights concerns and worrying trends made for a much
longer list. Horrific acts of terrorism and sectarian violence continued to ravage
the country. Attacks on religious minorities encroached into areas where they
had been largely absent hitherto and the government failed to take measures to
reassure the citizens that it had the ability or the commitment to clamp down
on faith-based violence. Extrajudicial killings, unlawful and arbitrary detention,
custodial torture and enforced disappearance continued. Well over two million
internally displaced persons, most of them women and children, had to leave
their homes in search of safety and joined multitudes of others who had been
displaced in earlier bouts of armed conflict between the security forces and
Introduction 1
militant extremists.
A proliferation of instances of the so-called honour killing, rape, acid
attacks, domestic violence and assaults against women was evident. Infants
bore the brunt of the prolonged drought in Tharparkar, where over 650 paid
with their lives for the apathy in high places. For another year, Pakistan lagged
most Asian countries in educating a significant proportion of its children,
especially girls. The healthcare system, already among the weakest in South
Asia, continued to deteriorate at a fast pace. Targetted attacks on healthcare
workers and their security escorts posed a serious challenge to what some
already considered Pakistan’s losing battle against polio. In 2014, the high
incidence of polio in Pakistan broke the country’s own previous record. Child
and bonded labour remained rampant and labourers including children, continued
to work in hazardous conditions.
With the murder of 14 media practitioners, the country, especially the
Balochistan province, remained among the most dangerous places in the world
for journalists. Rival TV news channels engaged in months of mud-slinging
and even traded blasphemy accusations. Muslims and non-Muslims continued
to be victimised through leveling of accusations under the blasphemy law. The
challenges for human rights defenders grew ever more difficult in the face of
a stubborn refusal by the state to provide a conducive working environment
for them.
Even as the prisons were packed way beyond authorised capacity,
alternatives to penal servitude were not explored. Except for Balochistan, all
provinces dragged their feet on holding local government elections. Housing
for the poor remained a major challenge with disasters like floods putting a
great strain on an already inadequate housing situation.
The justice system moved at a glacial pace and nearly two million cases
were pending in courts at the year’s close. Efforts to counter militancy and
terrorism chipped away at basic due process guarantees and resulted in adoption
of laws that were criticised for compromising human rights in pursuit of
security. Amid pressure to crack down on militants in the wake of the Peshawar
school attack, the government championed military courts and lifted a de
facto moratorium on the death penalty and hurriedly hanged seven convicts
by the yearend.
The challenges for the country at the end of 2014 were by no means
lesser than they had been at the start of that year. However, careful nurturing
and use of the growing resolve for confronting all manners of militancy and
intolerance could perhaps provide just the impetus that the human rights struggle
in Pakistan had for long been yearning for.
Waqar Mustafa
Editor
2 State of Human Rights in 2014

Highlights
Law and law-making
u Parliament made 10 laws, less than half the previous year’s
22. Nine presidential ordinances were promulgated.
u Some important laws passed by the parliament were designed
to address security concerns, working of the judicial system, and issues
related to terrorism, including the controversial Protection of Pakistan
Act, 2014.
u With provincial legislation amounting to 137, a much larger
and diverse set of laws was adopted by the provincial assemblies.
u The highest number of provincial acts and ordinances emerged
from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, followed by Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan
during the year under review.
u The Hindu Marriage Bill and the Christian Divorce Bill, which
were tabled in the parliament in 2011, were still pending. No progress
was possible on the Domestic Bill either.
Administration of justice
u 1.793 million cases were pending in courts across the country
u The gap between the laws and their implementation caused
crime rates and low conviction rates to grow, especially in relation to
crimes against minorities and vulnerable sections of society
u No efforts were seen to institute judicial and legal reforms. The
legislature seemed inclined to promulgate laws that sought to promote
state security at the expense of citizens’ rights and liberties
u According to HRCP research 37 cases were registered during
the year for offences relating to religion. Seven of the cases were
registered under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code that carries
Highlights 3
a mandatory sentence of death.
Law and order
u The country recorded 627,116 cases of crimes against people
and property during 2014 as against 634,404 in 2013 – a nominal fall.
u Sindh police registered 1,261 cases of kidnapping of women
for forced marriages in 2014. There were 114 cases of acid attacks in
Pakistan, involving 159 victims.
u 1,723 people were killed and 3,143 were injured during 2014
in 1,206 terrorist attacks – including 26 suicide hits. Sectarian violence
killed 210 people.
u 12 doctors and 13 lawyers were killed in targeted attacks.
u 45 members of polio teams — vaccinators and their facilitators
—were killed
u HRCP monitored 63 killings of people in custody – including
four women and two minors – while FIR was registered only in 14 cases.
Forty-seven people including seven women underwent custodial torture.
u There were 3,392 encounters in 2014 as against 2,616 in 2013
in Sindh. 925 suspects were killed in shootouts and 160 personnel of
police and Rangers fell in the line of duty in Karachi. Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa police killed 26 persons in encounters. Punjab police
killed 276 suspected criminals and arrested 322 while 27 policemen
died and 59 suspected criminals and 73 policemen got injured in 283
encounters in 2014.
Jails, prisoners and disappearances

u 231 persons were sentenced to death by the courts. The
government lifted the moratorium on executions in the last fortnight of
2014 and by the yearend seven persons had been hanged.
u Jails accross the country, except Gilgit-Baltistan, were
overcrowded. The last countrywide figures available (December 2013)
showed that in 97 prisons of the country there were 78,218 prisoners
as against the capacity for 45,210, of whom 53,345 were under-trial.
So, 24,873 or only 31% (less than one third) of the total were convicts.
The December 2014 figures could not be given for some of the
provinces because the authorities there were not ready to part wih the
information. The total population in 32 prisons of Punjab was 49,560,
32,514 of whom were under-trial. The total population in 11 prisons in
Balochistan was 2,980, 1,214 of whom were under-trial. The total
population in seven prisons of Gilgit-Baltistan was 307, 212 of whom
were under-trial. Other provinces did not provide the prisons data.
u There were 80 HIV positive and 31 AIDS prisoners in Punjab
jails
u 11 political activists went missing in Sindh in 2014
Freedom of movement
u The freedom of movement and to choose one’s residence were
compromised, directly or indirectly, on account of armed conflict,
imposition of curfew or curfew-like conditions, internal displacement,
lawlessness or absence of the writ of state in some areas. Cost of
travel, poor road infrastructure, attacks on trains or railway tracks,
and absence or shortage of means of travel also hindered movement.
u Hurdles to the entry of displaced persons from FATA to some
of the provinces were noticed, particularly in June and July.
u Hundreds of thousands of people in debt bondage remained
in conditions of virtual slavery.
u Some curbs on citizens’ foreign travel under the Exit Control
List and undue delay in provision of passports to citizens in the country
or through Pakistani missions abroad were reported. Attacks on aircraft
and on the Karachi airport, cancellation of flights by some airlines over
security concerns, and the WHO recommendation regarding travel
restrictions on Pakistan due to rising polio cases, represented new
impediments to travel abroad.
u Shia pilgrims’ buses passing through Balochistan and
passenger buses and vans plying between Gilgit-Baltistan and the
rest of the country had to travel in convoys under security escorts.
u The state failed to ensure, in many instances, the right of women
to move freely in public places, without having to be chaperoned by
male relatives.
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion

u 11 Hindu temples and churches were attacked in Sindh. Two
attacks were carried out against the Zikri sect in Balochistan.
u A total of 144 incidents of sectarian violence were reported
from across Pakistan, out of which 144 were sectarian-related terrorist
attacks and three were sectarian clashes.
u A Christian couple in Kot Radha Kishen, Punjab was lynched
and burned by a mob for allegedly desecrating a copy of the Holy
Highlights 5
Quran.
u A total of 11 Ahmadis lost their lives in targeted attacks.
u No laws were made by the federal government to safeguard
the interests of religious minorities and only two bills related to minorities
were passed at the provincial level by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
u Around 157 families belonging to religious minorities were
among those displaced from FATA due to Pakistan army’s operation
against militants in the region. Some of these families reported that
they faced discrimination at IDP camps.
Freedom of expression
u Pakistan was termed the most dangerous country in the world
for media, with 14 journalists and media workers killed in 2014 alone,
making a mockery of the freedom of expression.
u The challenges to and constraints on freedom of expression
did not decline in 2014
u Government response to information requests submitted under
the current laws was dismal, especially from the federal, Balochistan
and Sindh governments.
u The year 2014 saw some distressing new lows, from a major
news network being forced off the cable operators’ list to a political
figure hurling threats at journalists and the National Assembly’s standing
committee wanting to impose restrictions on the scope for reporting.
u Major media issues surrounded allegedly “blasphemous”
content. The media faced crippling fines and blanket bans on coverage
forcing many outlets to practise self-censorship.
Freedom of assembly
u 14 persons were killed and several hundred injured when
clashes erupted between the police and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT)
workers on June 16
u The PAT rallies were held for removal of the prime minister as
well as revamping of the political system of the country
u The PTI’s rallies started on August 14 in protest against alleged
rigging in 64 constituencies during the May 2013 election. They ended
on December 16 after an attack on a school in Peshawar.
u Thousands of people, predominantly women and children, took
to the streets in Panjgur, Balochistan to protest against closure of
private schools under militants’ threats.
Freedom of association
u 134 political activists were killed in Karachi, the capital of Sindh
province.
u According to HRCP’s monitoring of 48 volatile districts in
Pakistan, journalists and human rights defenders suffered 19 attacks
in 2014. HRCP’s South Punjab Coordinator and human rights activist
Rashid Rehman was shot dead on May 7 in Multan for defending a
blasphemy accused.
According to the National Internal Security Policy, a document
published by the government, about 60 banned organisations were
operating in Pakistan.
Political participation
u 2014 saw the people’s active participation in political activities
in the form of protests, rallies, sit-ins, social media campaigns, civil
disobedience, and finally, countrywide shutdowns
u PTI, PAT protests highlighted the need to rethink a balance
between the people’s right to protest and the state’s obligation to protect
the rights and interests of the public.
u The year saw the space for marginalized groups in politics shrink
even further.
u The year saw the “kill and dump” policy, previously used against
dissidents in Balochistan, extended to Sindhi nationalists
u Unprecedented participation of women in political movements
was attacked as immoral by some conservatives and retrogressive
elements
u PTI targeted youth participation by aiding them in procuring
party’s membership
u Violent attacks against religious minorities continued to hinder
every aspect of their lives, including political participation.
u Except for Balochistan, all provincial governments dragged their
feet on fulfilling the legal and administrative requirements to hold local
government elections.
u The new system in Gilgit-Baltistan failed to offer a sense of
empowerment to the local population.
Women
u According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in 2014:
597 women and girls were gang-raped; 828 raped; 36 stripped in public;
923 women and 82 minor girls – including 21 in Gilgit-Baltistan — fell
victim to “honour” killings. Seven women died in acid attacks on 92
women and 13 minors. 60 women expired in other incidents like cylinder
Highlights 7
blast, stove burning and setting on fire.
u Global Gender Gap Report (GGGR), 2014 ranked Pakistan
second to last in gender equality globally in access to health care,
education and work.
u Punjab government regularized 47,000 Lady Health Workers,
announced the establishment of 65 day care centres for working women
and introduction of training programmes for 4,000 women from rural
areas.
u Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recruited 36 women as the province’s
first female anti-terror squad commandos who trained alongside men.
The province also established women facilitation desks at the police
stations to help the female complainants.
u World Health Organization in its July 17, 2014 report recorded
950,000 persons displaced due to the North Waziristan war, out of
which 73% were women and children.
u The Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights set up a 24-
hour helpline 1414 for women in distress, where women could call and
lodge their complaints with women police operators.
u The Punjab Women Development Department launched a
women toll-free helpline for women in distress operational from 8 am
to 4 pm daily and accessible from all parts of the province.
u Punjab Commission on the Status of Women was established
to work for the empowerment and socio-economic development of
women and elimination of all forms of discrimination against them.
u In Sindh, the legally valid age for marriage for girls was raised
to 18 years through an amendment to the Restraint of Child Marriage
Act 1929.
u Balochistan criminalised domestic violence by passing the
Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill, 2014 in June 2014.
Children
u Pakistan failed to achieve MDG 4 target of reducing under-five
mortality to 52 per 1,000 live births by 2015.
u 650 children lost their lives during the year due to drought,
malnutrition and lack of maternal care in Tharparkar, Sindh.
u Alif Ailaan Pakistan revealed that 25 million children, 47% of all
Pakistani children, were out of school. Out of these out-of-school
children, 68% never attended school while 32% did go to school at
some point.
u The much trumpeted legislation for child protection in Sindh,
Sindh Child Protection Authority Act 2011, awaited implementation in
the province despite the lapse of three years since its enactment.
u Sindh was the first province of Pakistan to approve a bill on
prohibition of child marriage.
u Sahil revealed that around 311 cases of sexual abuse of
children had been reported from January to September 30 in 2014,
with 214 girls and 97 boys falling prey in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
u According to HRCP monitoring, 120 children, including 27 girl
children, faced corporal punishment during the year.
u Pakistan ranked sixth on Global Slavery Index 2014 where child
labour was most prevalent.
u According to available date 1126 juveniles were incarcerated
across prisons in the country including Punjab (764), Sindh (313) and
Giglit Baltistan (3).
u To increase the birth registration rate in Punjab, registration
fees at the Union Council level were waived throughout the province
under the Punjab Women Empowerment Initiative of 2014.
Labour
u The European Union granted GSP plus status to Pakistan,
which became effective from January 1. It calls for Pakistan’s
compliance with 27 international conventions including eight ILO core
labour conventions.
u The Privatization Commission announced plans to privatize nine
entities, which sparked countrywide protests by workers.
u The International Trade Union Confederation (IUTC) Global
Rights Index 2014 gave Pakistan ranking of 4 on a scale of 1- 5+. This
rating signified that systematic violations of labour rights were common
in Pakistan.
u Punjab and Sindh governments raised the minimum wages for
unskilled workers to Rs 12,000 a month, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
government to 15,000 and Balochistan government to Rs 10,000.
However, most of the workers did not benefit.
u 82 persons died and more than 88 were injured in at least 38
occupational accidents in 2014.
Education
u The combined federal/provincial budgetary allocation to
education was the lowest in South Asia, at 2% of Gross Domestic
Product (GDP)
u Violent attacks on educational institutions were widespread,
Highlights 9
especially in Balochistan and the North-West. A terrorist attack on an
army public school in Peshawar resulted in 150 deaths, most of them
children.
Pakistan had the second highest number of out-of-school children
in the world, a staggering 5.5 million, only after Nigeria.
Health
u With 306 new polio cases in the year 2014, Pakistan stood out
as the worst polio-affected country. Cases here accounted for 86% of
the 356 detected worldwide during the year. In total, 45 members of
polio teams including vaccinators, facilitators and security personnel
were killed during 2014.
u The infant mortality rate was 95 per thousand as compared to
60 in other countries.
u Deaths from pregnancy-related complications stood at 276 per
100,000 live births and early marriage was a major caused.
u Blood transfusion services in Pakistan were neither organised
nor regulated. A National Policy and Strategic Framework 2014-20 for
Blood Transfusion Services (BTS) was a step in the right direction.
u Pakistan lacked a proper legal framework to cover mental health
patients. Only Sindh government had passed a law but it was yet to
come up with rules and regulations.
Housing
u Housing backlog stood at nine million units — 3 to 3.5 million
units in urban areas — almost all needed by low-income families.
u Despite the huge demand for housing, the overall contribution
of housing finance was very low – less than one percent of the GDP.
u Rental housing was found as a prohibitive option in the urban
contexts in Pakistan.
u Fires in inhabited areas in the country remained a major hazard.
Environment
u With the adoption of Environmental Protection Act by the Sindh
and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies in 2014, all provinces had
legislation related to environmental protection in place.
u The PTI-led government in KP planned to increase the tree
cover from 20 to 30 percent.
u Climate change caused food shortage and floods in many
regions.
u More than 200 black pond turtles, an endangered species,
which had been smuggled to China, were brought back to Pakistan.
u The Balochistan High Court banned the hunting of rare houbara
bustard and other birds in the province.
Refugees
u There were around 1.5 million registered refugees from
Afghanistan and a roughly similar number of unregistered Afghans in
Pakistan at the end of 2014. Only 12,991 registered Afghans returned
home during the year.
u At least 2.56 million people were displaced from Khyber and
North Waziristan regions in FATA amid security forces’ operations
against extremist militants. Hundreds of thousands of citizens from other
FATA districts uprooted in earlier operations remained displaced.
u Large-scale flooding for the fourth consecutive year affected
more than 2.5 million people. Over half a million people were displaced,
mainly in the Punjab province.
u Tens of thousands of desert inhabitants from Thar in Sindh
and Cholistan in Punjab were forced to migrate due to drought-like
conditions.
u Around 40,000 people had to leave their homes in dozens of
villages in Sialkot amid cross-border shelling by Indian forces.
u Nothing was done to end the de facto statelessness of hundreds
of thousands of Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh since 1971.
Highlights 11
Laws and law-making
... fundamental rights, including equality of status, of opportunity and
before law, social, economic and political justice, and freedom of thought,
expression, belief, faith, worship and association, subject to the law and
public morality, [shall be guaranteed] ... the independence of the judiciary
shall be fully secured.
Constitution of Pakistan
Preamble
To enjoy the protection of law and to be treated in accordance with law is
the inalienable right of every citizen, wherever he may be, and of every other
person for the time being within Pakistan.
Article 4
Any law, or any custom or usage having the force of law, insofar as it is
inconsistent with the rights conferred by this chapter [on Fundamental Rights]
shall, to the extent of such inconsistency, be void.
Article 8(1)
It is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last
resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should
be protected by the rule of law
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Preamble
Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country,
directly or indirectly or through freely chosen representatives.
Article 21(1)
In 2014, the federal parliament’s legislative output amounted to 10 laws,

Laws and law-making 15
less than half the previous year’s 22. However, a big increase in legislation
was seen in provinces.
Federal parliament’s legislation

Some important laws passed by the parliament were designed to address
security concerns, the judicial system, and countering terrorism. The president
promulgated nine ordinances, including one that aimed at preventing acts
threatening the security of Pakistan.
With growing concerns for terrorism across the country, the lawmakers
adopted a rather controversial law, the Protection of Pakistan Act, 2014. The
bill, based on an ordinance issued in 2013, faced considerable criticism from
the civil society and politicians. Critics of this law said that it was draconian
and violated human rights. No progress was made on the Hindu Marriage Bill,
the Christian Divorce (Amendment) Bill and the Domestic Violence Bill.
A much larger and diverse set of laws was adopted by the provincial
assemblies, which made good use of the legislative powers given to them
under the 18 thAmendment to the constitution. They enacted laws on
environment, health, education, women’s rights, taxes, security, development,
tourism, and rights of religious minorities.
The highest number of provincial acts and ordinances emerged from
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, followed by Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan during the

year under review.
Provincial legislation
In some instances the provincial assemblies hurriedly passed laws because
the attendance on the opposition benches was thin. A few times this was done
without prior notification of a bill’s introduction in the assembly. Such practices
meant that the proposed laws were not properly scrutinized and deliberated
upon.
On March 13, rejecting the opposition‘s objections, the Punjab Assembly,
where the PML-N had a comfortable majority, passed three bills. The Punjab
law minister also tabled four new bills during the assembly session. The
opposition benches, led by the PTI, sought the bills to be circulated for eliciting
public opinion. But the law minister rejected these arguments, saying that in
the presence of public representatives in the assembly there was no need for
making the bills public.
While the quantity of legislation grew in the province, the jury was still out
on the quality and extent of implementation. In some instances, funds allocation
seemed to be insufficient or was delayed, which affected implementation.
The federal budget was passed in the form of Finance Act in June. The
Provincial enactments

passing of provincial budgets followed this enactment.
The following are some important laws that were made during 2014:
Acts of parliament
♦ The Protection of Pakistan Act, 2014; July; to protect Pakistan against
waging of war and insurrection, prevent acts threatening the security of
Pakistan, and for the speedy trial of related offences.
♦ The Finance Act, 2014; June; to give effect to the financial proposals
of the federal government.
♦ The Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (Amendment) Act,
2014; June; to enable the federal government to appoint a member for each
province and to give the commission approval to enter into a Memorandum of
Understanding with the law commission of any country.
♦ The Anti-terrorism (Second Amendment) Act, 2014; June; to amend
the provisions regarding terrorism and to provide for swifter dispensation of
justice
♦ The Service Tribunals (Amendment) Act, 2014; June; to empower
the president to establish one or more service tribunals and set their territorial
limits.
♦ The Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils (Amendment) Act, 2014;
June; to further regulate the disciplinary proceedings in the cases of grave
professional misconduct and to prescribe the period for expeditious disposal
of complaints.
♦ The National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee (Amendment) Act,
2014; June; to include the Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court as a member

of the National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee.
♦ The Federal Court (Repeal) Act, 2014; June; to repeal the Federal
Court Act, 1937 which was deemed redundant after framing of Supreme
Court Rules, 1980.
♦ The Surveying and Mapping Act, 2014; May; to regulate surveying
and mapping activities.
Ordinances promulgated by the president

♦ The Gas Infrastructure Development Cess Ordinance, 2014; to levy
and collect infrastructure development cess on natural gas.
♦ The Electoral Rolls (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014; to bring the local
government elections within the purview of the Election Commission of
Pakistan (ECP).
♦ The Delimitation of Constituencies (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014;
to carry out delimitation of constituencies for holding local government
elections.
♦ The Federal Judicial Academy (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014; to
convert the Federal Judicial Academy into a Centre of Excellence for Law and
Judicial Education with the status of a degree awarding institution.
♦ The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (Amendment) Ordinance,
2014; March; to reform the regulatory body.
♦ The Sales Tax (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014; to compel gas filling
stations to pay due taxes.
♦ The Gas (Theft Control and Recovery) Ordinance, 2014; January;
for prosecution of cases of gas theft and other offences related to gas.
♦ The Protection of Pakistan (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014; January;
for prevention of acts threatening the security of Pakistan.
♦ The Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013; January; for
punishment for offences relating to theft of electricity.
Laws made by the provincial legislatures

Punjab Assembly
♦ The Punjab Commission on the Status of Women Act, 2013; February;
to provide more opportunities for socio-economic development of women
and eliminate discrimination against them.
♦ The Punjab Shops and Establishments (Amendment) Act, 2013;
February; to make it mandatory for the businesses where 25 or more women
are employed to set up a daycare room for their children under six years of
age.
♦ The Punjab Finance (Amendment) Act, 2014; February; to restore
the previous property tax rates.
♦ The Punjab Fair Representation of Women Act, 2014; March; to amend
Punjab Assembly in session.
certain laws to ensure representation of women in decision-making bodies.

♦ The Lahore Garrison University Act, 2014; March; to establish a
university with two pre-existing campuses.
♦ The Punjab Livestock Breeding Act, 2014; May; to regulate livestock
breeding services, improve genetic potential of breeds and protect indigenous
breeds.
♦ The Punjab Civil Servants (Amendment) Act, 2014; May; for regulating
the appointment and the terms and conditions of service of civil servants.
♦ The Punjab Employees’ Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability
(Amendment) Act, 2014; May; to provide for proceedings against government
and corporation employees in relation to their efficiency, discipline and
accountability.
♦ The Punjab Payment of Wages (Amendment) Act, 2014; March.
♦ The Punjab Development of Cities (Amendment) Act, 2014; March;
to transfer the powers of district nazims in development authorities to the
chief minister.
♦ The Punjab Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health
Authority Act, 2014; March; to regularize 48,000 Lady Health Workers (LHWs)
and management of employees’ affairs.
♦ The Punjab Public Private Partnership Act, 2014; May; for fostering
an enabling environment for public-private partnerships.
♦ The Punjab Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act, 2014; May; for
conformity with conventions C87 and C98 of the International Labour
Organisation ratified by the government.
♦ The Muhammad Nawaz Sharif University of Engineering and
Technology Multan Act, 2014; May; to establish an engineering and technology
university in Multan.
♦ The Punjab Mental Health (Amendment) Act, 2014; May; enacted in
place of the Mental Health Ordinance 2001, as the subject was devolved under
the 18th Amendment.
♦ The Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information
Technology, Rahim Yar Khan Act, 2014; May; to establish an engineering and
IT university at Rahim Yar Khan.
♦ The Punjab Finance Act, 2014; June; to levy and rationalize certain
taxes, fees, and duties.
♦ The Bab-i-Pakistan Foundation Act, 2014; June; to help in carrying
out functions of the Bab-i-Pakistan Trust.
♦ The Management and Transfer of Properties by Development
Authorities Act, 2014; June; to enable the development authorities in Punjab to
strategically manage and transfer immoveable properties.
♦ The Punjab Strategic Coordination Ordinance, 2014; October; for
establishing the institutional mechanism to take effective measures to counter
terrorism and to formulate a security policy.
♦ The Punjab Registration of Godowns Ordinance, 2014; October; to
establish a system for the registration of godowns in Punjab.
♦ The Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board Ordinance, 2014;
September; to ensure preparation, approval and publishing of textbooks.
♦ The Punjab Overseas Pakistanis Commission Act, 2014; October; to
establish a body to receive and redress grievances of overseas Pakistanis
regarding government agencies.
♦ The Punjab Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2014; October; to
permit the establishment of cattle markets in districts.
♦ The Punjab Local Government (Second Amendment) Act, 2014;
October; to empower the Election Commission of Pakistan to carry out
delimitation of constituencies for local government elections.
♦ The Punjab Strategic Coordination Act, 2014; October; to establish a
‘Provincial Security Council’ and ‘Provincial Strategic Coordination Board.’
♦ The Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2014; October; to
provide free and compulsory education to all children between five and 16
years of age.
♦ The Punjab Higher Education Commission Ordinance, 2014; October;
to empower The Punjab Higher Education Commission to regulate funding of
the universities and select their vice chancellors.
♦ The Punjab Arms (Amendment) Act, 2014; December; minor technical
change in the law.
♦ The Punjab Explosives (Amendment) Act, 2014; December; minor
technical change in the law.
♦ The Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute and Research Centre Act,
2014; December; to establish the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute and
Research Center.
♦ The Punjab Institute of Quran and Seerat Studies Act, 2014; December;
to establish an organization for research on Quran and Sunnah.
♦ The Punjab Higher Education Commission Act, 2014; December; to
improve and promote higher education, research and development in the
province.
Sindh Assembly
♦ The Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 2013; February; to
prevent the defacement of walls.
♦ The Sindh Building Control (Amendment) Act, 2014; February; to
take back all powers of town planning from local government institutions and
transfer them to the Sindh Building Control Authority.
♦ The Sindh Emergency Procurement Act, 2014; February; to allow
the law enforcement agencies to procure latest weapons, bombproof vehicles
and other material on short notice.
♦ The Sindh Healthcare Commission Act, 2013; February; for improving
quality of health services and banning quackery.
♦ The Environmental Act, 2014; February; for the protection,
conservation, and rehabilitation of natural resources and controlling pollution.
♦ The Registration (Sindh Amendment) Act, 2013; February; to amend
the Registration Act, 1908 for its application to Sindh.
♦ The Sindh Land Revenue (Amendment) Act, 2013; February.
♦ The NIBD Post Graduate Institute of Life Sciences Act, 2014;
February; to establish the institute.
♦ The Sindh Solid Waste Management Board Act, 2014; February; to
establish a board for the collection and disposal of solid and other waste.
♦ The Sindh Civil Servants (Regularization of ad hoc Appointments)
(Amendment) Act, 2014; March; to grant service benefits to ad hoc government
employees from the date they were hired.
♦ The Sindh Service Tribunals (Amendment) Act, 2014; March; on the
instructions of Supreme Court, to appoint a three-member service tribunal in
consultation with the Sindh High Court chief justice for a period not extending
three years and for one time only.
♦ The Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2014; May.
♦ The Sindh Criminal Prosecution Service (Constitution, Functions and
Powers) (Amendment) Act, 2014; May.
♦ The Sindh Shaheed Recognition and Compensation Act, 2014; May;
to honor and recognize the services of persons who sacrifice their lives in the
struggle against terrorism while performing duty and to provide compensation
to their legal heirs.
♦ The Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013; May; to make marriage
under 18 years of age an offence in the province.
♦ The Sindh Finance Act, 2014; June; to give effect to the financial
proposals of the provincial government.
♦ The Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2014; October; to
Sindh Assembly session at the new building.
hand over the powers of delimitation of local bodies’ constituencies to the

Election Commission of Pakistan.
♦ The Sindh Civil Servants (Amendment) Act, 2014; October.
♦ The Sindh Special Development Board Act, 2014; October; to undertake
low-cost housing schemes, rehabilitate katchi abadis and slums and regulate
multi-storeyed and high-rise buildings.
♦ The Sindh Injured Persons (Medical Aid) Act, 2014; October; to allow
doctors to treat patients without police clearance.
♦ The Sindh Allopathic System (prevention/misuse) Act, 2014;
November; to prevent the misuse of the allopathic system of medicine.
♦ The Physiotherapy Council Act, 2014; November; to establish a
physiotherapy council.
♦ The Pharmacy Council Act, 2014; November; to establish a council
to regulate the working establishment of pharmacies.
♦ The Sindh Nursing Council Act, 2014; November; to devolve the
Pakistan Nursing Council.
♦ The Postgraduate College of Medical Sciences Act, 2014; November;
to establish an institute.
♦ The Sindh Arms (Amendment) Act, 2014; November; to extend the
arms license on merit to facilitate the general public.
♦ The Sindh Condominium Act, 2014; November; to regulate the
maintenance of amenities, façade, parking and common areas in public projects.
♦ The Sindh Epidemic Diseases Act, 2014; November; to consolidate
the law on prevention of the spread of dangerous epidemic disease.
♦ The Sindh Eye Surgery (Ban) Act, 2014; November; to prohibit eye
surgeries by people other than qualified and registered medical practitioners.
♦ The Sindh Tuberculosis Notification Act, 2014; November; to establish
a TB notification system.
♦ The Sindh Public Private Partnership (Amendment) Act, 2014;
December.
♦ The Larkana Development Authority (Amendment) Act, 2014;
December.
♦ The National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (Sindh
Administration) Act, 2014; December; for administration of the affairs of the
National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.
♦ The Sindh Employees Old-Age Benefit Act, 2014; December; to
establish Sindh Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution.
♦ The Sindh Education Standards and Curriculum Act, 2014; December;
for improving quality of education from early years to grade 12.
♦ The Altaf Hussain University in Karachi Act, 2014; December; to
establish a university in Karachi.
♦ The Altaf Hussain University in Hyderabad Act, 2014; December; to
establish a university in Hyderabad.
♦ The Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University in Shaheed Benazirabad Act,
2014; December; to establish a university in Nawabshah.
Balochistan Assembly
♦ The Balochistan Protection and Promotion of Breast-Feeding and Child
Nutrition Act, 2014; February; to ensure nutrition for infants and young children
by promoting and protecting breast-feeding.
♦ The Balochistan Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2014; January.
♦ The Balochistan Introduction of Mother Languages as Compulsory
Additional Subject at Primary Level Act, 2014; January; for teaching the mother
tongue in addition to the national language.
♦ The Civilian Victims of Terrorism (Relief and Rehabilitation) Act, 2014;
January; to provide relief and rehabilitation to the civilian victims of terrorism.
♦ The Balochistan Food Authority Act, 2014; January; for ensuring the
safety and standards of food and to establish Balochistan Food Authority
♦ The Balochistan Compulsory Education Act, 2014; January; to provide
for free and compulsory education in Balochistan.
♦ The Balochistan Sea Fisheries (Amendment) Act, 2014; February; to
prevent illegal fishing.
♦ The Balochistan Chief Minister and Ministers (Salary, Allowances and
Privileges (Amendment) Act, 2014; February; to increase ministers’ salaries
and perks.
♦ The Balochistan Speaker and Deputy Speaker (Salary, Allowances
and Privileges) (amendment) Act, 2014; February; to increase the salaries and
perks.
♦ The Balochistan Assembly Members (Salary, Allowances and Privileges
(Amendment) Act, 2014; February; to increase the salaries, allowances and
privileges.

Balochistan Assembly banned private money-lending in the province.
♦ The Sardar Bahadur Khan Women University (Amendment) Act, 2014;

February; to establish a women’s university in the province.
♦ The Balochistan Family Torture and Protection Act, 2014; February;
to protect family members of a suspect from torture.
♦ The Balochistan Coastal Development Authority (amendment) Act,
2014; February.
♦ The Balochistan Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act,
2014; February; to define forms of domestic violence and protect women.
♦ The Balochistan Wild Life Protection, Preservation and Management
Act, 2014; March; for the establishment and management of protected areas
and to protect, preserve, and conserve wildlife.
♦ The Balochistan Tourist Guides Act, 2014; May.
♦ The Balochistan Travel Agencies Act, 2014; May.
♦ The Balochistan Hotels and Restaurants Act, 2014; May; to provide
for tourist facilities and infrastructure to develop tourism.
♦ The Balochistan Judicial Academy Act, 2014; June; to establish the
institute.
♦ The Balochistan Archives Act, 2014; August.
♦ The Balochistan Antiquities Act, 2014; August; to prevent smuggling
of antiquities.
♦ The Balochistan Borstal Institutions Act, 2014; August; for the
establishment and regulation of borstal Institutions in Balochistan.
♦ The Balochistan Prohibition of Private Money Lending Act, 2014;
August; to ban private money-lending in the province.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission Act, 2014; January;
to establish good governance and prevent corruption.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Promotion, Protection and Enforcement
of Human Rights Act, 2014; January; to promote, protect and enforce human
rights in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and
Privileges) (Amendment) Act, 2014; January.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Deserving Widows and Special Persons
Welfare Foundation Act, 2014; January; to establish a welfare foundation for
helping widows and special persons.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Higher Education Scholarship Endowment
Fund Act, 2014; January; to award scholarships to students and establish an
endowment fund.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sensitive and Vulnerable Establishments
and Places (Security) Ordinance, 2014; February; to provide for the security
of sensitive and other vulnerable establishments and places in the province.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety Authority Bill, 2014; March;
for establishing an authority to regulate and monitor food business to ensure
provision of safe food.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Farm Services Centres Act, 2014; March;
to establish farm services centers in all districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 2014; March.
♦ The Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (Amendment)
Act, 2014; March.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Restriction of Rented Buildings (Security)
Act, 2014; March; for monitoring the business of rented buildings.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Journalists Welfare Endowment Fund Act,
2014; March; to establish a welfare endowment fund for journalists.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Medical Transplantation Regulatory
Authority Act, 2014; March; for establishing an authority to regulate
transplantation of human organs.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Private Partnership Act, 2014;
March; for fostering an enabling environment for public-private partnerships.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2014;
March.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa River Protection (Amendment) Act, 2014;
March.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Surrender of Illicit Arms Act, 2014; March;
to provide for the surrender of illicit arms.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Housing Authority (Amendment) Act, 2014;
March.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hotels Restriction (Security) Act, 2014;
March; to monitor hotels and guests staying in the hotels.
♦ The Tibb and Homeopathic Employees (Regulation of Services) Act,
2014; March; to regularize the appointment of employees on contract or
temporarily in the province.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (Amendment) Act,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly
2014; June; to make Ehtesab Commission the sole body to investigate

corruption practices.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ministers (Salaries, Allowances and
Privileges) (Amendment) Act, 2014; June.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Salaries, Allowances and Privileges Laws
(Amendment) Act, 2014; June.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance (Amendment) Act, 2014; June; to
give effect to the financial proposals of the provincial government.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Regulation of Lady Health Workers
Programme and Employees (Regularization) and Standardization Act, 2014;
June; to regulate the status of Lady Health Workers Programme.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Charitable & Religious Trusts Act, 2014;
October; for more effective control over the administration of charitable and
religious trusts.
♦ The Provincial Motor Vehicles (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) (Amendment)
Act, 2014; November.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Land Revenue (Amendment) Act, 2014;
November.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Registration (Amendment) Act, 2014;
November.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servants Retirement Benefits and Death
Compensation Act, 2014; November; to establish a fund for retirement benefits
and death compensation for civil servants.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education
Foundation (Amendment) Act, 2014; November.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zakat and Ushr (Amendment) Act, 2014;
November.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Injured Persons and Emergency (Medical
Aid) Act, 2014; November; for medical treatment of the injured persons on
priority.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Environmental Protection Act, 2014;
November; to promote sustainable development, prevent and control pollution,
and protect, conserve, rehabilitate and improve the environment.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Appointment of Law officers Act, 2014;
November; to provide for appointments of law officers.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa General Provident Investment Fund
(Amendment) Act, 2014; December.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Services Tribunal (Amendment) Act, 2014;
December.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Emergency Rescue Services (Amendment)
Act, 2014; December.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pension Fund (Amendment) Act, 2014;
December.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Protection of Communal Properties of
Minorities Act, 2014; December; for the protection of properties of non-Muslim
communities.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Evacuee Trust Properties (Management
and Disposal) Act, 2014; December; for the management and disposal of
properties of minorities.
♦ The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senior Citizens Act, 2014; November; for
the wellbeing, comfort and dignity of the senior citizens in the province.
Recommendations
1. There is an urgent need to set up official mechanisms and monitoring
systems to ensure that the many laws enacted each year are also implemented.
Civil society also needs to play a more active role in monitoring implementation.
2. A number of important draft legislations, such as the Hindu Marriage
Bill, have been in the pipeline for a long time. Proposed legislation regarding
such pressing matters need to be expedited without further delay.
3. Due consideration must be given to private members’ bills, especially
on human rights-related concerns.
4. Much more must be done to invite input from the people at the stage
of drafting of proposed legislations. Affording them an opportunity to voice
their opinion would enhance interest in the legislative process and enable the
lawmakers to make informed decisions in the light of public opinion.
5. The websites of the federal and provincial legislatures contain lists of
laws but these are not comprehensive and in some cases all that is mentioned
is the name of the law. It is important to publish, and indeed to publicise, all
new laws in the national and regional languages to increase public awareness
of the laws.

To enjoy the protection of law and to be treated in accordance with law is
the inalienable right of every citizen, wherever he may be, and of every other
person for the time being within Pakistan. In particular (a) no action detrimental
to the life, liberty, body, reputation or property of any person shall be taken
except in accordance with law, (b) no person shall be prevented from or be
hindered in doing that which is not prohibited by law; and (c) no person shall
be compelled to do that which the law does not require him to do.
Article 4(1) and (2)
No person shall be deprived of life or liberty save in accordance with law
Article 9
All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of
law.
Article 25(1)
There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex alone.
Article 25(2)
The state shall ensure inexpensive and expeditious justice
Article 37(2)
No property shall be compulsorily acquired or taken possession of save
for a public purpose and save by authority of law ...
Article 24(2)
Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights
of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and
Administration of justice 29
peace in the world.
Preamble
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the
law
Article 6
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to
equal protection of the law.
Article 7
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national
tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the
Constitution or by law.
Article 8
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an
independent and impartial tribunal in the determination of his rights and
obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 10
No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 17(2)
No one within the jurisdiction of a State Party to the present Optional
protocol [on abolition of death penalty] shall be executed.
Each State Party shall take all necessary measures to abolish the death
penalty within its jurisdiction.
Second Optional Protocol to ICCPR
Article 1
In 2014, the administration of justice in Pakistan continued to struggle.

The 21st Constitutional Amendment was being proposed. Execution of convicts
on death row was revived in the last fortnight of the year. General Pervez
Musharraf’s trial got underway but his legal and public relations team challenged
the neutrality of judges. Spearheading a movement against what he called the
corrupt electoral system, opposition leader Imran Khan accused a former
chief justice and retired judges serving as election commissioners and returning
officers of systematically rigging the 2013 national elections. The judiciary
was up against more than 1.793 million cases pending in courts across the
country. With this backlog taking a toll on individuals as well as the system,
public faith in the efficacy of the justice system to deliver seemed to have
dwindled.
Dispensation of justice
Just as the year was coming to a close, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
attacked the Army Public School, Peshawar killing 145 people, including 132
Rule of law is still not an entrenched value in Pakistan.
schoolchildren, and injuring many more. The question in the aftermath of the
Peshawar attack was whether an event as brutal and horrifying as this would
shake up Pakistan’s conscience and prod the state and society to address the
deep-rooted institutional and societal malfunctions that have made Pakistan’s
collective national mindset a natural sanctuary for terrorists and extremists.
While terrorism is born and bred by a diverse set of institutional and societal
factors, leading among them are a flawed national security doctrine and the
role of religion in statecraft. The anger in the aftermath of the school attack
seemed to focus on why our criminal justice system was failing to convict
terrorists and dispense justice.
Abuse of laws
The chasm between the black letter of the law and its implementation
seems to be growing as manifested in growing crime rates and low conviction
rates, especially in relation to crimes against minorities and vulnerable sections
of society. With coercive laws being abused to persecute minorities and dissident
voices, questions arise about the quality of our laws and their ability to produce
justice. And with disputes being settled outside formal structures of the justice
system with the use of coercion as opposed to the law, a big question mark
hangs over whether our formal court system is even relevant to resolving
thorny disputes amongst state institutions or between citizens and the state.
In view of the complacent manner in which superior courts continued to
perform their functions visibly disconnected from the woes of ordinary
consumers of justice, the callous acceptance of crimes of hate and bigotry by
all components of the criminal justice system, the lack of any sense of urgency
exhibited by the judiciary and the executive to institute judicial and legal reforms,
and the proclivity of the legislature to promulgate laws that seek to promote
state security at the expense of citizens rights and liberties (e.g. Protection of
Pakistan Act, 2014) and refusal to review laws (e.g. blasphemy laws) whose
abuse is acknowledged by lawmakers themselves, a few themes emerge from
the review of administration of justice in Pakistan in 2014.
One, rule of law is still not an entrenched value in Pakistan and there is no
normative consensus across the institutions or power elites in Pakistan that
they ought to conduct their affairs in accordance with declared law. Two, at
the societal level there is growing lack of faith in the credibility of the court
system to timely mete out justice to the average citizen and in the ability of
judges to act as neutral and non-partisan arbiters of the law, highlighted by
public support for the demand to establish military courts to deter terror.
Judicial accountability
By virtue of the National Judicial Policy Making Committee Ordinance,
2002, and the new judicial appointment process introduced through the 18th
and 19th Constitutional Amendments that nominates the Chief Justice of Pakistan
as Chairman of the Judicial Commission and thus further entrenches his role
as pater familias [literally meaning father of the family, a metaphor for the
chief justice because of his role in administrative issues], the federal design of
our judiciary as conceived in the original Constitution of 1973 has steadily
been transformed into a unitary one.
The mention of judicial accountability remains taboo. The constitutional
scheme of trichotomy and separation of powers in Pakistan has been interpreted
and projected overtime to mean that the only form of judicial accountability
acceptable under the Constitution is self-accountability. But that has not taken
root. According to Transparency International, the judiciary in Pakistan is
perceived to be amongst one of the more corrupt public institutions. But the
high courts that possess administrative control of the district judiciary within
each province have made no structured effort to curb corruption within the
courts subservient to them.
The Supreme Judicial Council constituted under Article 209 of the
Constitution also exists as a non-functional accountability structure. There
exists a Code of Judicial Conduct but the SJC has made no apparent effort to
give it effect. For example, in the contempt proceedings undertaken by the
Lahore High Court against ARY News, the judiciary has taken stern notice of
any scandals published by the media regarding the integrity of its members
and exercised its powers under Article 204 of the Constitution and the Contempt
of Court Ordinance, 2003, to clamp down on allegations of impropriety made
against a judge. However, the SJC has neither investigated allegations of
Supreme Judicial Council could serve as an accountability structure for judges.
impropriety or misconduct against superior court judges nor taken measures

to strictly implement the Judicial Code of Conduct.
In Criminal Review Petition 10-L of 2013 in Criminal Petition NO. 896-L
of 2012 Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi vs. State, disposed of through order-
dated 22.01.2014 (and not just approved for reporting but sent to registrars of
all high courts for compliance), the Supreme Court found that in granting bail
a judge of the high court appeared to have taken into account extraneous
considerations and exercised discretion in a manner that was “somewhat
colourable”. Yet despite the passage of such incriminating ruling over exercise
of judicial authority by a superior court judge who hears criminal law matters
including murder references, the SJC was not convened to hold the judge to
account or grant him a clean chit.
The National Judicial Policy Making Committee, headed by the Chief Justice
of Pakistan, is responsible for, inter alia, “improving the capacity and
performance of the administration of justice”, “setting performance standards
for judicial officers and persons associated with performance of judicial and
quasi-judicial functions”, and “improvement in terms and conditions of service
of judicial officers and court staff to ensure skilled and efficient judiciary.”
After restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry in 2009, the NJPMC issued
the National Judicial Policy in 2009. The key objective was, “to clear the huge
backlog that has accumulated over the years at all levels of judicial hierarchy.”
Pending cases
The National Judicial Policy failed to realize this key objective. According
to Judicial Statistics of Pakistan Annual Report 2013 published by the Law
Commission, there were 1,561,060 cases pending across Pakistan on Jan 1,
2013. The number had gone up to 1,709,345 by Jan 31, 2013, almost uniformly
across various categories of cases and across all courts of Pakistan. At the
close of the year 2014, according to the law and justice minister, more than
1.793 million cases were pending in courts across the country. The minister
told the National Assembly that as many as 20,480 cases were pending in the
Supreme Court of Pakistan, 173,037 cases in the Lahore High Court, 66,475
cases in the Sindh High Court, 26,716 cases in the Peshawar High Court,
4,923 cases in the Balochistan High Court, and 13,387 cases in the Islamabad
High Court. As many as 1,107,634 cases are pending in the district courts of
Punjab, 124,190 cases in those of Sindh, 132,762 cases in those of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, 8,444 cases in those of Balochistan and 30,300 cases in those
of Islamabad. The pattern of increase in backlog of cases each year appears to
be steady. According to Judicial Statistics of Pakistan Annual Report 2012,
there were 1,449,494 cases pending across all courts of Pakistan on
01.01.2012, which number by the end of the year had risen to 1,561,060.
Fixing the backlog falls within the exclusive domain of the judiciary and
more specifically the NJPMC, which, other than the Chief Justice of Pakistan,
comprises the Chief Justice of the Federal Shariat Court and the Chief Justices
of the four provincial High Courts.
The scorecard on the issue of judicial appointments fares no better.
According to Judicial Statistics of Pakistan Annual Report 2013, on Dec 31,
2013, 1,193 out of 2,365 sanctioned posts in Punjab’s district judiciary, 81 out
of 446 in Sindh, 112 out of 450 in KP, 89 out of 273 in Balochistan and 48 out
of 101 in Islamabad lay vacant. What is worse is that there is no clear criterion
or process prescribed to guide high court judges in selecting district court
judges. It is up to each high court to determine how to appoint district court
judges. Sometimes they conduct examination, at other times interviews, which
leaves a lot more room for discretion and its abuse. (Islamabad High Court for
example conducted interviews back in 2011 and the results were later challenged
and the matter is pending before the Supreme Court). Back in the day FPSC
used to select civil judges like civil servants. But then the authority was taken
back by the judiciary in the name of independence of judiciary and exercising
administrative control.
Appointment of judges
Since the introduction of Article 175-A that created a Judicial Commission
and a Parliamentary Committee for scrutiny of judicial appointments, the
judiciary has exercised its authority to interpret the Constitution in a manner
that has left the Parliamentary Committee redundant. Notwithstanding the text
and spirit of Article 175-A of the Constitution, judicial appointments still work
more of less the way they did prior to the introduction of the new process:
judicial leadership agrees on judges-to-be through informal consultations
shrouded in secrecy and the constitutional mechanism is then used as a rubber
stamp.
Recent landmark cases (e.g. Ashraf Tiwana, Mohammad Yasin) decided
by the Supreme Court have held that appointment to a public office must be
through an open, fair, transparent and participatory process. In UK, Supreme
Court appointments are made under the Constitutional Reform Act, 2005.
While the legislation prescribes no process, the selection commission voluntarily
advertises vacancies even at the apex court level for transparency. But in
Pakistan, no criteria or credentials have been prescribed to guide appointment
of high court judges. This keeps such appointments mired in controversy. For
example the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council formally boycotted the oath-
taking ceremony of newly appointed Peshawar High Court judges in November
2014. The exercise of administrative authority by judges unfortunately fails to
meet the standard set by themselves for executive appointments.
Arbitrary exercise of powers

The superior courts are being run largely without non-discretionary court
and case management systems, though a process of reform has started and
lists are prioritised. Every day the superior courts bend the executive’s ear for
the arbitrary exercise of authority. Yet there is nothing more arbitrary than the
manner in which benches are constituted and cases fixed, in the Supreme
Court as well as the high courts. While the exercise of arbitrary unstructured
discretion is the foremost ground for judicial review of executive actions, this
practice remains alive and well as part of the administrative authority and
personal prerogative of the chief justices.
On Dec 18, 2009, the Supreme Court decided the Habib-Makro case,
cancelled the lease granted to the Army Welfare Trust over a playground in
Karachi and ordered that the Makro store built thereon be demolished. On
March 17, 2010, while the author judge was posted outside Islamabad, Chief
Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry fixed the review petition against the order before his
bench and granted a stay. The review was dismissed on May 21, 2013 by the
bench headed by the author judge, but the Supreme Court order wasn’t complied
with. In December 2013, the petitioner filed a contempt application to seek the
order’s enforcement, which is yet to be decided.
On the jurisprudential plane, there is no objective test for the exercise of
Article 184(3) powers. The Iftikhar Chaudhry court exercised these suo motu
powers in a manner that attracted much criticism. For example, Imran Khan
continues to ask what justifies suo motu cognizance of recovery of two bottles
of wine from a passenger’s luggage but not over allegations of massive electoral
fraud in a national election. Rule of law rests on legal certainty. There was
hope that the apex court might constitute a larger bench post-Chaudhry to
clearly lay out the legal basis for exercise of Articles 184(3) powers, and also
provide for appeal under Article 184 (3), as demanded by the Bar, so they get
delinked from the whims and wishes of an incumbent chief judge. With a
second chief justice in office since Iftikhar Chaudhry’s retirement, this
unfortunately hasn’t happened, though the number of suo motu cases has
declined and signs of internal restraint are visible.
But the post-Chaudhry Supreme Court is trying to undo some of the
damage done to our constitutional jurisprudence in the past few years since
the restoration of judges. In Dosani Travels (Pvt.) Ltd. vs. M/S Travels Shop
(Pvt.) Ltd. [PLD 2014 SC 1], a bench headed by Chief Justice Tassaduq
Hussain Jillani held that the courts ought to exercise restraint in scrutinizing
policies and ordinarily defer to decisions of administrative bodies entrusted
with policymaking functions of the executive. Earlier, the Chaudhary court
while ruling in Khawaja Muhammad Asif vs. Federation [Constitutional Petition
No 30 of 2013] essentially took the authority to make higher executive
appointments out of the executive’s domain and ordered that it be vested in a
high powered autonomous commission.
The PML-N government refrained from seeking a review of the decision
while Chief Justice Chaudhry was still in office. But after his retirement it
sought to reclaim control over executive appointments and essentially sought
a review of the Khwaja Asif case by raising the issue by filing a miscellaneous
application in an unrelated petition entitled Ghulam Rasool vs. Government of
Pakistan that was being heard by Chief Justice Nasir ul Mulk. In stating that
it was clarifying the Khwaja Asif ruling, the Supreme Court practically reviewed
and overturned it and held that, “it is the exclusive preserve of the federal
government to appoint officers of statutory bodies, autonomous bodies, semi-
autonomous bodies, regulatory bodies etc…”
Having rightly foregone the populist exercise of suo motu powers post-
Iftikhar Chaudhry but without developing or pursuing an agenda for structural
reforms within the justice sector, the apex court has failed to replace Iftikhar
Chaudhry’s catharsis-as-justice model with actual justice delivery through due
process. Consequently, the judiciary is becoming largely irrelevant to the
evolving socio-political milieu in Pakistan even for those who, after the restoration
of independent-minded judges in March 2009, came to see the judiciary as an
agent of change in Pakistan with its focus on entrenching rule of law to promote
democracy and constitutionalism in the country.
Legitimacy of the constitutional structure strained

With (i) the treason trial of General Musharraf, (ii) the clash between
Jang/Geo Group and the military establishment in the aftermath of the
assassination attempt on Hamid Mir, and (iii) the likely creation of military
courts to adjudicate terrorism cases, with no recourse or appeal to civilian
courts, our civil-military strife and imbalance has reemerged as a major fault-
line in the polity. This is coupled with PTI spearheading a movement against
electoral rigging and failure of the court system to deliver justice, with calls to
force reform of a non-performing constitutional system from outside the
system and without concrete suggestions. Together the two developments
have strained the credibility and legitimacy of the constitutional structure and
the role of the judiciary as the ultimate arbiter in disputes between state
institutions or between the state and members of the society.
Historically, the judiciary and the bureaucracy provided required institutional
support to ruling dictators. But General Musharraf’s second coup of November
3, 2007, was primarily against the judiciary. Even though the deposed judges
were restored in March 2009 and the Supreme Court initially exercised careful
restraint, evident in its handling of the missing persons’ case and delay in
taking up the Asghar Khan case [Air Marshal Muhammad Asghar Khan vs.
General Mirza Aslam Beg. Human Rights Case No. 19 of 1996], the eventual
strictures against the military in these cases, together with insistence on trying
General Musharraf, did not help reduce the schism between the judiciary and
the military. Despite the change of leadership at the GHQ and the Supreme
Court, it is safe to say that the military sees the judiciary as standing on the
wrong side of the civil-military divide.
Legally speaking, General Musharraf’s treason case isn’t a ‘hard case’.
He subverted the Constitution in 1999, but had his actions justified by the
judiciary [Zafar Ali Shah case ] and later protected by the parliament through
the 17th Constitutional Amendment. When he subverted the Constitution the
second time on November 3, 2007, he failed to get away with it. The Supreme
Court headed by Iftikhar Chaudhry declared his actions unconstitutional [Sindh
High Court Bar Association case] and the parliament also refused to grant
immunity to his actions under the 18th Constitutional Amendment. Initiation of
the treason trial by the PML-N government under section 2 of the High Treason
(Punishment) Act, 1973, irked the military. It saw the trial as revenge and not
justice i.e. a move by Nawaz Sharif to settle his score with General Musharraf
for the coup of 1999.
As the second coup was against the judiciary, questions were raised by
General Musharraf’s proponents about the impartiality of the judiciary and its
ability to mete out justice to the general. Musharraf’s legal team argued before
the Special Court established pursuant to section 4 of the Criminal Law
Amendment (Special Courts) Act, 1976, that a military court should try him
instead. The Special Court rejected the plea. The object of Musharraf’s legal
team seemed two-fold: delay the initiation of the trial by raising legal objections
and simultaneously try and expand its scope to include all alleged aiders and
abettors of General Musharraf to drag it on indefinitely. The first strategy did
not work beyond a certain point and the Special Court indicted General
Musharraf on March 30, 2014.
The second strategy has worked partially and in November 2014 the Special
Court partially accepted Musharraf’s plea of expanding the scope of the trial
and ordered the federal government to resubmit the complaint after including
the names of Shaukat Aziz who was prime minister on November 3, 2007,
Zahid Hamid who was the law minister then and is now a prominent PML-N
MP, and former chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar. Notwithstanding the ultimate
outcome of the Musharraf trial, it is already marred by controversy. If
Musharraf is punished, many in Pakistan will see the trial as revenge by the
judiciary and Nawaz Sharif. If the trial is delayed indefinitely, it will be seen as
a deal between the military and a weak PML-N regime.
The Musharraf treason trial is a hard case for it is about things that divide
Pakistan: need for democracy and rule of law, and the military’s sense of
entitlement. The Constitution unequivocally provides for civilian control of the
military and the military has no legal basis to interfere in politics. But that for
the most part Pakistan has either been ruled directly by the military or by the
military pulling strings from behind the curtain is a matter of record. The
question thus is not whether Pakistan’s historical civil-military imbalance needs
fixing but what is the best way to go about doing so.
Those opposed to Musharraf’s trial as a means of fixing the civil-military
imbalance argue that if putting the fear of Article 6 in the heart of every general
was the surest way to block military coups, one elected prime minister (Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto) would not have been hanged by a dictator (General Zia-ul-Haq)
and a second one (Nawaz Sharif) would not have been expelled from the
country by another dictator (General Musharraf) since the insertion of the
treason clause in 1973. If Article 6 was the deterrent that could preserve and
protect democracy, Pakistan would not have seen the serving army chief
General Raheel Sharif warn, as reported in newspapers, in unambiguous terms
that the army “will resolutely preserve its own dignity and institutional pride”
while reacting to the trial of a former army chief under the same Article 6.
It will take capable, confident and resolute civil and military leaders to fix
Pakistan’s institutional imbalance, grit to make necessary compromises and
readjustment will be required of both sides. Transforming an army that
perceives any challenge to its holy cow status as a grave affront and a threat
to its vital institutional interests, into one that has no saviour complex and
willingly treats the law and the Constitution as binding legal instruments will
not come easily. This will require instilling change in behaviour and mindset.
The shutdown of Geo after it projected ISI DG as the key suspect in the
assassination attempt on journalist Hamid Mir suggested that such change in
attitudes was not in the offing.
The attack on Hamid Mir, Geo’s response to the attack, the ISI
establishment’s response to Geo coverage, and the acute polarization within
the media and the society caused as a consequence of this back and forth
doesn’t bode well for the rule of law. Pakistan appears to be losing its ability to
distinguish between suspicion and conviction, between fair reporting and slander,
and losing its patience for accountability and due process. Outdated notions of
national security and national interest and an unflinching commitment to
entrenching them oppressively seem alive and well. Those questioning the
security state’s version of national interest are still readily being branded traitors.
Freedom of speech is not freedom to slander or malign. The right to hold
and express an opinion needs to be protected. But presenting opinion as fact is
a disservice to journalism. Geo perhaps crossed a red line in reporting Amir
Mir’s accusation against the DG ISI not because it aired the accusation, but
because the manner in which it did amounted to running a media trial, and not
just indicting but condemning the DG ISI in the public eye.
But Geo was not prosecuted for defamation. It was just condemned as a
traitor and taken off air initially for its audacity to voice a victim’s suspicion
against a ranking general. Its transmission was not restored despite court
orders. When this was not enough, cases under the blasphemy law were
registered against Geo Entertainment and Geo’s owner for airing controversial
content in a morning show. The channel was fined and taken off-air formally
for a 15-day period and it apologized for any hurt caused to the religious
sensibilities of its viewers. But the witch-hunt continued. Geo’s transmission
was not completely restored, about 25 cases against its owner were pursued
in different cities across Pakistan, and an Anti-Terrorism court in Gilgit-Baltistan
awarded 26-year prison term to Geo’s owner for hurting religious sentiments
of people. Press freedom in Pakistan thus remained under attack.
The weakening of the PML-N government due to its tensions with the
military and for being under attack by PTI has ensured that all security matters
fall within the exclusive domain of the military with little interference or input
from the civilian government. Whether it is matters related to foreign policy
vis-à-vis Afghanistan, India and the US, the manner and timing of military
operations in FATA or military concerns regarding required changes in the
legal architecture to enable the military to discharge its security duties, the
military now appears to have a free hand.
Protection of Pakistan Act, 2014

Since its promulgation on July 9th, 2014, the Protection of Pakistan Act,
2014 (“PPA”) has attracted much criticism. The primary question being raised
by its critics is whether as a law that claims to provide for “protection against
waging of war or insurrection against Pakistan, prevention of acts threatening
the security of Pakistan and for speedy trial of offences”, does PPA strike the
right balance between fundamental rights of individual citizens guaranteed by
the Constitution while conferring on the state the requisite authority to fight
terror. The military has argued that the criminal justice paradigm might not be
adequate to fight the transnational threat posed by non-state terror groups and
must be replaced or supplemented by war paradigm affording limited rights to
terrorists.
The state in Pakistan has traditionally exhibited a preference for quick-fix
solutions and reliance on special structures and laws to deal with terrorism,
which include, inter alia, the following: Suppression of Terrorist Activities
(Special Courts) Act, 1975; Special Courts for Speedy Trial Ordinance, 1987;
Terrorist-Affected Areas (Special Courts) Ordinance, 1990; Terrorist-Affected
Areas (Special Courts) Act, 1992; Anti-Terrorist Act, 1997; Pakistan Armed
Forces (Acting in Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance, 1998; The Investigation for
Fair Trial Act, 2013; and Protection of Pakistan Act, 2014. A shared effort in
most of these laws appears to be to make them ‘judge-proof’ i.e. create catchall
categories that make it easier for the state to convict the accused.
Over the years Pakistan has also seen threats emanating from within
Pakistan as the predominant challenge to the country’s national security. The
growing internal threat has not seen a proportionate focus on enhancing the
capacity of civilian law enforcing agencies. Consequently there has been greater
reliance on the use of the military and military-led intelligence agencies as the
front internal security and interrogation agencies. However, as the existing
laws of Pakistan have not conceived such role for the military, the need has
been felt to review and revise these laws to create appropriate legal framework
legitimizing the de facto policing and investigation roles being played by the
military.
The promulgation of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 provided for “the
prevention of terrorism, sectarian violence and for speedy trial of heinous
offences” and constituted Anti-Terrorism Courts that would ensure speedy
trial of offences stipulated under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. In Mehram Ali
vs. Federation case the Supreme Court struck down many of its provisions
for being in conflict with the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution
and thus ultra vires. The Pakistan Armed Forces (Acting in Aid of Civil Power)
Ordinance, 1998, was also challenged for being ultra vires of the Constitution
and struck down in Sheikh Liaquat Hussain vs. Federation case.
Section 54(1) of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-Organization) Act,
1996, stipulates that, “in the interest of national security or in the apprehension
of any offence, the Federal Government may authorize any person or persons
to intercept calls and messages or to trace calls through any telecommunication
system.” While telephone intercepts by intelligence agencies without due process
of law have continued for decades, the Fair Trial Act, 2013 established for the
first time the admissibility of such intercepted material in judicial proceedings
and all other legal proceedings and referred to “modern investigative techniques
such as covert surveillance and human intelligence, property interference,
wiretapping and communication interception” as an “indispensable aid to the
law enforcement and administration of justice.”
The key objections to the Protection of Pakistan Act are as follows: labeling
citizens as enemy combatants and treating them as aliens; the right to shoot on
suspicion [Section 3(2)(a) of the Act provides an officer of the police not
below BS-15 or member of the armed forces or civil armed forces with the
right to shoot any person “who is committing or in all probability is likely to
commit a scheduled offence” and makes it lawful for any such officer “after
forming reasonable apprehension that death or grievous hurt may be caused
by such act” to fire or order the firing upon any such person] ; the right to
search/arrest without warrant [Section 3(2)(c) of the Act stipulates that “in
particular and without prejudice to the generality of sub-section (1), an officer
of the police not below BS-15 or member of the armed forces or civil armed
forces in the above situation may enter and search, without warrant any premises
to make any arrest or to take possession of any fire-arm, explosive, weapon,
vehicle, instrument or article used, or likely to be used and capable of being
used, in the commission of any scheduled offence.”]; the right to detain and
intern without disclosure and oversight [Section 6 of the Act authorizes the
detention of a person if the Government has “reasonable grounds to believe
that such person is acting in a manner prejudicial to the integrity, security,
defense of Pakistan or any part thereof or external affairs of Pakistan or
public order or maintenance of supplies and services.”]; and the reversal of
the burden of proof [Section 15 of PPA presumes that an “enemy alien” or
militant charged with a scheduled offence under the Act or a person arrested
in preparation or while attempting to commit such an offence was engaged in
waging war or insurrection against Pakistan unless he establishes his non-
involvement in the offence. Furthermore, any person apprehended in the course
of “preparation” of an offence and from whom any weapon, which is capable
of being used to facilitate such offence, is recovered shall be presumed to be
guilty of preparation of such offence. Section 15 therefore reverses the burden
of proof and requires the accused to establish his innocence]; enhancing the
legal intercepts regime [Item (1)(xiv) of the Schedule to the PPA now clarifies
that “cyber crimes, internet offences and other offences related to information
technology which facilitate any offence under this Act” would constitute
offences under the PPA]. By promulgating the Investigation for Fair Trial Act,
2013, the Protection of Pakistan Act, 2014 and by introducing amendments to
the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, an attempt was made to legalize the manner in
which law enforcement, intelligence gathering and investigations were being
undertaken in Pakistan, especially in relation to terrorist activities, with an
active role for the military and military-led intelligence agencies.
There had been some debate about whether to use the war or the criminal
justice paradigm while dealing with terrorists. Neither paradigm sits neatly as
on one hand the enemy largely comprises citizens, and on the other it is an
armed militia adept at guerilla warfare effectively fighting the state with foreign
and local patronage. Pre-Peshawar, Pakistan wasn’t willing to grant the military
impunity in fighting terror and thus the military sought tools within the criminal
justice paradigm. But that didn’t appear to be enough in the aftermath of the
Peshawar school attack. The attack created an environment wherein public
sentiment could be guided to embrace the war paradigm and reject the criminal
justice approach to terrorism cases.
The amended Anti-Terrorism Act, the Protection of Pakistan Act and Fair
Trial Act, together, afforded the military control over internal security,
intelligence and investigations. Action in Aid of Civil Power Regulations (for
Fata and Pata) gave the military internment camps. The real missing link was
the courts. In view of the attention given to the missing persons’ cases, the
military saw the courts as an obstacle to producing desirable outcomes in
terrorism cases. The attack on the army school in Peshawar provoked yearning
for revenge and the Constitution, fundamental rights and due process suddenly
came to be seen as luxuries that Pakistan could ill-afford in extraordinary
times.
Military courts
Military courts are undeniably desirable for the military, not because it
thinks these courts form the pivot in Pakistan’s fight against terror but because
as the front-line national agency fighting terrorism, complete control of the
criminal justice system would make the fight more convenient. The military is
not trained to deal with courts, investigation and prosecution and it doesn’t
wish to start learning in the middle of its declared war on terror. The internal
military logic seems to be that while fighting terrorists and capturing them
during combat, it should not have to prove to another agency whether the
fighters are guilty or not and why should due process benefit such combatants
or afford them the possibility of going scot-free for lack of evidence.
The civilian government of Nawaz Sharif and other political parties
represented in the Parliament appear willing to introduce military courts for a
limited period as part of a National Action Plan against terrorism. In view of
the extent of anger generated by the Peshawar school attack within the military
and the public at large, the civilian political leaders need something spectacular
to exhibit their resolve against terror as well as their ability to be wartime
leaders. The proposed 21st Amendment establishing military courts for a limited-
time period to try terror suspects could become such a marriage of expediency
between our civilian and military leaders. [Cicero had stated that, “in times of
war the law falls silent”. The US Supreme Court employed the logic in Fred
Korematsu v. United States (65 S. Ct. 193) upholding an executive order
consigning Japanese Americans to internment camps during The Second World
War. Three judges had dissented. Justice Robert Jackson was most forceful,
for he exposed the danger of molesting the constitution and rule of law in the
name of necessity or expediency: “A military order, however unconstitutional,
is not apt to last longer than the military emergency … But once a judicial
opinion rationalises such an order to show that it conforms to the constitution,
or rather rationalises the constitution to show that the constitution sanctions
such an order, the court for all time has validated the principle of racial
discrimination in criminal procedure.… The principle then lies about like a
loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a
plausible claim of an urgent need.”]
If the 21st Constitutional Amendment is promulgated [On January 6, the
country’s parliament adopted the 21st Constitutional Amendment Bill and the
Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill, 2015 unopposed after 247 members of
National Assembly along with the Senate voted in favour of the laws aimed to
set up constitutionally protected military courts to try civilian terrorism suspects]
creating military courts that are not subject to the oversight of the judiciary,
such amendment will most likely be challenged before the Supreme Court on
the basis that it besmirches the fundamental rights of the citizens and that the
Parliament, even with a two-thirds majority, does not possess the legal
competence to alter the basic structure of the Constitution. [No sooner had
the 21st constitutional amendment been signed into law that a citizen challenged
it before the Supreme Court, along with the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act,
2015] The Supreme Court will be asked to follow the Indian Supreme Court
verdict in His Holiness Kesavananda Bharati Sripadagalvaru and Ors. v.
State of Kerala and Anr. and hold that while the parliament has wide powers it
still cannot deconstruct basic features of our Constitution such as separation
of powers and independence of the judiciary. The Supreme Court will thus be
encouraged to strike down the amendment, reclaim its rightful role as an
independent pillar of the state and redeem its honour.
Article 239 of the Constitution unequivocally states that (i) there is no
limitation on the authority of parliament to amend the Constitution, and (ii) the
court must not entertain legal challenges against constitutional amendments.
Adopting India’s basic structure doctrine would require the Supreme Court to
disregard unambiguous provisions of Article 239 under the garb of constitutional
interpretation, inject judicial assumptions into the Constitution that are not
backed by its explicit words or provisions, and call such reliance flowing out
of the will of the judges to be the will of the Constitution.
If it choses to adopt and apply the basic structure doctrine, which over
the last 40 years it has rejected multiple times, the Supreme Court would be
affirming at least three propositions. One, the legislative assembly that
promulgated the Constitution of 1973 was omnipotent, and some of the
provisions that it has inscribed into the Constitution are akin to divine
pronouncements that can never be altered by parliament. Two, the Constitution
of 1973 is an inflexible document that cannot be changed in certain respects,
even if that is what the people of Pakistan wish to do through their chosen
representatives. And, three, while the judiciary derives its authority to interpret
the words of the Constitution from the Constitution itself, it also has an inherent
power to disregard unattractive provisions of the Constitution or determine at
will that some of its provisions will trump others.
Restoration of death penalty and executions

After a seven-year moratorium, the government reintroduced the death
penalty on terrorism-related cases in December, following the December 16
Peshawar school attack. By the yearend, seven men had been hanged, most of
them convicted for attempting to kill former military ruler General Musharraf
and attacking the military installations. [In March 2015, the government decided
to implement death penalty in all cases eligible for capital punishment, and
began executions in cases where appeals and clemency pleas were no longer
an option.]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the European Union urged Pakistan
to restore its moratorium on the death penalty, which also applies to crimes
such as adultery, apostasy and blasphemy. While some sections in Pakistan
remained in favour of the capital punishment, contending that it acted as a
deterrent, rights groups – like the HRCP — said the retreat to the gallows was
no way to resolve Pakistan’s pressing security and law-and-order problems.
They said the death penalty was an ineffective form of punishment and the
country’s justice system was marred by unfair trials, poor counsel and police
torture. More than 8,000 citizens languish on death row in the country, one of
the highest in the world. During the year under review, 231 persons – 225
male and six female – were sentenced to death by different courts, according
to the HRCP research.
Ascent of coercionists
The lack of normative acceptance of rule of law as an inalienable value
within state institutions is accompanied by growing retrogressive tendencies
within the society. As reported in the media, the chairman of the Council of
Islamic Ideology (CII), Muhammad Khan Sheerani, has stated that prohibition
of child marriage under the Muslim Family Law Ordinance is un-Islamic. He
has also argued that the requirement to seek permission of the first wife before
taking on a second (or third or fourth) is also un-Islamic. He has also opined
that evidence generated by forensic DNA testing can’t be treated as primary
evidence in rape cases. Given this proclivity for regression in all forms, it
would be unjust to conclude that the CII chairman is merely a proponent of
gender inequality.
The thinking of the CII chairman epitomizes the crisis of religious thought
in Pakistan. The divide here is not just between those who advocate absolute
conservation of tradition and those who advocate progressive change, or
between those who have a minimalistic approach to religion and those who
wish the state to enforce a maximalist version, or between proponents of rigid
construction of religious text as opposed to contextual construction. The real
problem is the ascent of coercionists who claim a monopoly over the
understanding of religious texts, and wish to leave no political and social space
for reasonable people to debate and disagree over matters of faith.
Since 1990, at least 60 people have been killed outside the Pakistani justice
system in cases relating to blasphemy, according to the Islamabad-based Centre
for Research and Security Studies (CRSS). The list includes lawyers, alleged
blasphemers and even politicians calling for amendments to the law. While the
core of Pakistan’s laws on offences relating to religion date back to 1860,
during British rule, military ruler Zia-ul-Haq made a raft of changes in the late
1970s and 1980s. As a result, while there were only seven blasphemy cases
lodged from 1851-1947, there were 327 such cases from 1977-2012, according
to the CRSS.
With the ascent of coercionists any talk of reforming the blasphemy laws
to prevent their abuse is now seen as blasphemy itself. The victims include
former Punjab governor Salman Taseer and former federal minister Shahbaz
Bhatti. When religious scholar Javed Ghamidi spoke up in the wake of Salmaan
Taseer’s murder (by his guard for speaking up in favour of Asia Bibi, a Christian
woman accused of blasphemy) he attracted a bomb attack and had to flee
Pakistan along with his family. In 1998, the bishop of Faisalabad, Dr John
Joseph, shot himself outside a courthouse, to protest the persecution of the
Christians in the name of enforcing blasphemy laws.
Pervez Ali Shah, the judge, who sentenced Mumtaz Qadri to death for
killing Governor Salmaan Taseer, has been ‘exiled’ to Saudi Arabia to save his
life. In 1996, Justice Arif Bhatti of the Lahore High Court was shot in his
chambers after the release of an 11-year old charged with blasphemy.
Meanwhile, after hearing the appeal of Asia Bibi, whose case had attracted
considerable attention due to the related assassination of Governor Salman
Taseer and had been awarded the death sentence for blasphemy by a trial
court four years back, Lahore High Court confirmed her death sentence.
Celebrated human rights activist and lawyer Rashid Rehman was told in
court he would be killed for accepting the brief of a blasphemy accused. And
then he was shot dead in his office in Multan.
In July, three female members of the Ahmadi community, including two
minors, were killed and eight others were severely injured when an angry mob
attacked and burnt five houses, a storage building and several vehicles over
alleged blasphemy. Those killed in the attack were a 55-year-old woman
Bashiran, a minor girl Kainat and 7-year-old girl Hira. Police said the trouble
started with an allegedly blasphemous post on Facebook by an Ahmadi youth.
The Lahore High Court Multan Bench restored the case on religious ground
against Ms Sherry Rehman in November 2014. The case was quashed by the
judicial magistrate.
Offences relating to religion

According to HRCP research 37 cases were registered during the year
under Chapter XV of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) which lists offences
relating to religion. Seven of the cases were registered under Section 295-C.
The punishment upon conviction under this provision was death. The offences
under Chapter XV PPC are:
No. Section Offence Maximum punishment
1 295 Defiling places of worship 2-yr prison or fine, or both
2 295-A Malicious acts that outrage religious feelings 2-yr prison or fine, or both
3 295-B Defiling a copy of the Holy Quran Only one penalty, life term
Derogatory remarks about the Holy Prophet
4 295-C Mandatory death penalty
(PBUH)
5 296 Disturbing religious assembly one-yr prison or fine, or both
6 297 Trespassing on burial place one-yr prison or fine, or both
Uttering words or gestures that wound
7 298 one-yr prison or fine, or both
religious feelings
8 298-A Derogatory remarks about holy figures 3-yr prison or fine, or both
Misuse of titles reserved for holy personages
9 298-B 3-yr prison and fine
or places
10 298-C Propagation of faith by Ahmadis 3-yr prison and fine
As many as 24 cases were registered against Muslims, six out of these

under Section 295-C of the PPC. The data does not include registration of
more than 600 cases – with multiple cases against one or more persons at
multiple places – which complainants believed to be acting on behalf of certain
media channels against the staff of the rival channels.
Cases on religious grounds against Muslims in 2014
Date of Arrest
FIR No/ U/S. Police
Sr. Name/s Province Distt/City/ Occur- Alleged Allegation
Dated___ PPC Station /Jail
rence
1 Ashraf Punjab Sialkot 295/B Hajipura Jan 1,2014 Burn the Holy Quran Arrested
Loaded
2 Azam Khan Sindh Karachi Baldia town April 2014 blasphemous sketch Arrested
on face book
3 Unknown Punjab Kasur 295/B Mustafabad Insulted the Quran
Ghulam
Mohammad
4 Ali Punjab Faisalabad May 2014 295/B abad May 2014 Insulted the Quran Arrested
Claimed to be a
5 Ghulam Akbar Punjab Vehari 295/C 6-5-2014 Arrested
Prophet

Date of
FIR No/ U/S. Police Arrest
Sr. Name/s Province Distt/City/ Occur- Alleged Allegation
Dated___ PPC Station /Jail
rence
Case against 492/14 Shouted slogan
lawyers 8 against Hazarat
6 Punjab Jhang 13-15- 298/A Kotwali 13-5-2014
nominated, 60 Umer (R.A) but all it
2014
unknown was name confusion.
Desecrated the Holy
7 Shahid Ali Punjab Arifwala 295/B City Arrested
Quran
Husband+Wife Railway Hurt the religious
8 Sindh Mirpur khas
2 others station feelings
Uttered rough
language against the
9 M. Shabaz Punjab Nankana 298/A Arrested
companions of the
Prophet (PBUH)
Murad Ur Sent blasphemous
10 Sindh Karachi 295/C
Rehman E-mail
loaded disrespectful
material on face
. Azhar Abbas 28-05-
11 Punjab Malsi May, 2014 298/C City book against the
. Shafqat Raza 2014
companions of
Prophet (PBUH)
Insulted the Holy
12 Yasir Mehmood Punjab Lalamusa June, 2014 295/B June,2014 Arrested
Quran
Nausharo Arrested
13 Mahar Ali Shah Sindh 4/14 295/B Tagar June,2014 Burn the Holy Quran
Feroz Jailed
Siddique Insulted the Holy
14 Punjab Chishtian July, 2014 295/B City June, 2014
Baloch Quran
Arrested,
Naseer Desecrated the Holy
15 M Bilal Punjab Lahore April, 2014 295/B April, 2014 Bail denied
abad Quran
on 23-8-2014
Tanveer Tobatake October, October, Burn few pages of
16 Punjab 295/B City Arrested
Ahmed Singh 2014 2014 Holy Quran
Insulted a
17 Alam Punjab Jhang 295/A Kotwali companion of the
Prophet (PBUH)
Uttered
November, November, blasphemous words
18 Tahir Punjab Jaranwala 295/C City
2014 2014 against the Prophet
(PBUH)
Manchan- Meclode November, Desecrated the Holy
19 Manzoor Punjab Arrested
abad Gung 2014 Quran
Arrested,
Died in
Nashtar
Claimed to be a
Jalalpur November, November, hospital
20 Ghulam Yasin Punjab 298/A City Caliph of the
peerwala 2014 2014 where he
Prophet (PBUH)
was shifted
from jail for
treatment
November, November,
21 Punjab Chakwal
2014 2014
Uttered
Prof Hafiz Tahir November, November, blasphemous words
22 Punjab Attock 295/C
Naeemi 2014 2014 during the lecture in
the class
Uttered
Junaid 295/C
23 Sindh Karachi 234/14 Risala blasphemous
Jamshed 298/A
remarks.
722/14
Lahore Sent blasphemous
24 Nazir Punjab December, 295/C Sundar December,
Sundar SMS
2014
Minorities
In November, two Pakistani Christians, Shahzad (26) and Shama (24),
were burnt like pieces of coal in Kot Radha Kishan in the brick kiln they
worked at by fellow villagers after accusations of blasphemy were levelled
against them from the bully pulpit of the local mosque. Chief Minister Shahbaz
Sharif reportedly took ‘strict’ notice of the incident, just as he did after the
Gojra riots in 2009 that claimed the lives of eight Pakistani Christians and the
Joseph Colony attack in Lahore where 150 houses and two churches were
torched (incidents also triggered by allegations of blasphemy). More than 3,000
people had rampaged through the colony in 2013, after the allegations of
blasphemy against Sawan Masih, a Christian man, emerged.
Masih was sentenced to death for blasphemy in March 2014. He appealed
against his conviction, saying the charges were trumped up to speed the eviction
of Christians from the area. Police had initially said they would investigate
whether or not businessmen in the area might have instigated the violence
with the aim of seizing the land, or to exploit the blasphemy allegations for
political gain. But they did not and most of the rioters were released on bail. In
a reaction, rights group Amnesty International (AI) condemned the sending to
death of Masih. “This is a travesty of justice. There are serious concerns
about the fairness of his trial, and an argument between two friends is not a
basis for sending anyone to the gallows. Sawan Masih must be released
immediately and unconditionally,” said David Griffiths, AI’s deputy Asia Pacific
director. Although dozens of the suspected perpetrators [of rioting] have been
charged, nobody has yet been convicted, according to AI and other rights
investigators. “A riot should never have been allowed to effectively destroy
one of Lahore’s oldest Christian neighbourhoods,” Griffiths said. “Sawan
Masih’s harsh treatment under the law is in stark contrast to how others
suspected of deliberately burning down people’s homes have not yet been
brought to trial. It sheds light on discrimination against Christians and other
religious minorities through blasphemy laws and Pakistan’s justice system in
general,” he added. In January, an elderly Briton was sentenced to death in
Pakistan for blasphemy, though his lawyers said the court had failed to consider
“overwhelming” evidence of his mental illness. Mohammad Asghar was detained
in 2010 after a disgruntled tenant living in his property went to police with
unsent letters allegedly written by Asghar in which he claimed to be a prophet.
Dr Mehdi Qamar, a US-based cardiologist visiting Pakistan for a week,
was shot 10 times and killed in Rabwah in May 2014. Dr Qamar was Ahmadi.
The Shias are another vulnerable religious minority. Dr Faisal Manzoor, was
shot dead outside his clinic in Hasanabdal in May 2014. He was Shia. The
stories of attacks on Shias, especially Hazaras in Quetta, are innumerable.
There has been no organized effort by the state to restrain and extinguish
terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi that promote sectarian hatred and
routinely accept responsibility for sectarian killings. Unfortunately a majority
in Pakistan seems to have accepted that one can be killed by hardliners because
of one’s faith.
As many as five cases were registered against Christians, one out of these
under under Section 295-C of the PPC.
Cases on religious grounds against Christians in 2014
As many as six cases were registered against Ahmadis, none out of these
under Section 295-C of the PPC.
FIR No/ U/S. Police Date of Alleged Arrest
Sr. Name/s Province Distt/City/
Dated__ PPC Station Occurrence Allegation /Jail
Arrested
Used derogatory
from
remarks about
1 Qaiser Ayub Punjab Chakwal June, 2011 295/C June, 2011 Lahore in
the Prophet
November
(PBUH)
2014
487/14
Javed Masih Baghadad- Bail
2 Punjab Bhawalpur August, 295/B 29-8-14 Burns the Quran
Anand Lal ul Jadid granted
8, 2014
Insulted Prophet
404/14 Bail
3 Nazir Masih Punjab Bhawalpur 295/A Civil Lines 23-8-14 Lot
23-8-14 granted
(A.S)
442/14
Desecrated the
4 Bashir Masih Punjab Sargodha October, 295/B
Quran
2014
596/14
Pastor Arif and
5 Capital Islamabad December, 295/B 22-12-14 Burn the Quran
ten others
12.2014
Cases on religious grounds against Ahmedis

Two cases were registered against Hindus, none out of these under Section
295-C of the PPC.
FIR No/ U/S. Police Date of Arrest
Sr. Name/s Province Distt/City Alleged Allegation
Dated__ PPC Station Occurrence /Jail
M. Idrees
Abbas M. Badin 96/14
298-B Call worship place
1 Khan Sindh Tando July 24, Granted bail
298-C as a Mosque
Mushtaq Bago 2014
Ahmed
68/2014
Tahir Ahmed Tando Tando Defiling the
2 Sindh March 31 295/B March 2014
Khalid Allah yar Allah yar Holy Quran
2014
M. Yar 224/14
Haveli
3 Wahab ul Punjab Okara March 31, 298/C Preaching
Lakha
Hassan 2014
Khalil Ahmed
Gulam Ahmed
.Ehasan May 12, Sharaq- Protested against a
4 Punjab Sharaqpur 295/A Arrested
Ahmed 2014 pura poster
Mubashar
Ahmed
Mubashar
547/14
Ahmed Baghban-
5 Punjab Gujranwala June 2, 298/C May 27,2014 Preaching Arrested
Khalid Ahmed pura
2014
Javed Ahmed
553/14
People’s Forward SMS of an
6 Aqib Punjab Gujranwala July 28, 295/A July 28, 2014
Colony objectionable sketch.
2014
Cases on religious grounds against Hindus in 2014
Sr. Name/s Distt/City/ Section Alleged Allegation Remark
of PPC /Jail
1 Weergi Kohli Badin 295/A Hurt religions feelings Arrested
Naseeb Kohli
2 Name not confirmed Jacobabad 295/B Desecrated the Holy Not known
(Thal) pages
During the year under review, courts handed out death sentence to three
persons for blasphemy, life term to six persons and a two-year jail to three
persons. One accused was acquitted.
In November, a British national of Pakistani origin who spent five years in
a Karachi prison over blasphemy charges was granted bail by the apex court.
“We have felt inclined to admit the petitioner (accused) to bail at such a
stage of the case not only because the petitioner requires a specialist attention
to his medical condition but also because the delay in conclusion of his trial
has been found by us to be unconscionable. This petition is, therefore, converted
into an appeal and the same is allowed”, the Supreme Court said in its four-
page judgment as quoted in the media.
On May 22, the Sindh High Court had refused to grant bail to Rehman in
the blasphemy case, which was registered at Gizri police station in Karachi on
July 18, 2009. According to Additional Prosecutor General Sindh Saleem Akhtar,
journalist Ansar Abbasi had registered case against the accused after receiving
an allegedly blasphemous email. The charge was framed against the accused
on June 3, 2010, but no significant progress was seen in the trial. The top
court in its order lamented that the petitioner had already spent more than five
years in jail without his guilt being established.
Sentences/acquittal
FIR No/ U/S. Police Date of Alleged
Sr. Name/s Province Distt/City/ Arrest /Jail
Dated___ PPC Station Occurrence Allegation
Death
Claim to be a
1 M. Asghar Punjab Rawalpindi Sep, 2010 295/C Sadiqbad 22-9-2010 penalty on
Prophet
23-2-14
Life
Husnain Raza Burn the imprisonment
2 Punjab Pakpatan 295/B Ahmed Yar 2013
Shah Holy Quran
On 8-2-2014
Uttered
blasphemous Death
112/13 Badami March remarks
3 Sawan Punjab Lahore 295/C sentences
8-3-2013 Bagh 8, 2014 about the
Prophet 27-3-2014
(PBUH)
Insulted the Life
4 Shafique Punjab Lahore 295/B Shadbagh 2012 pages of imprisonment
Quran on 27-3-2014
Insulted the Life

5 Jalal Chandio Sindh Shahdadpur 295/B imprisonment
Holy Quran 2-4-2014

Sr. Name/s Distt/City/ Section of Alleged Allegation Remark
PPC /Jail
6 Ammar Shafqat Lahore Acquitted
7 Malik Muhammad Karachi 295/C Torn a banner bearing Life imprisonment
Farooq the name of the Holy 8-5-14
Prophet (PBHU) and
kalma
8 Abdul Samad Lahore 295/B Burnt the Holy Quran Life imprisonment
on May 2014
9 Ghulam Abbas Sialkot 295/B Burnt the pages of Life imprisonment
Quran on Sep 16, 2012
10 Zulfiqar Lahore 295/C Wrote blasphemous Death penalty on
slogans on walls 14-7-2014
11 Askari Shah Bhakkar 295/A Sms, hurt religious Two years
sentiments imprisonment
12 Shahbaz Tando Adam Sent derogatory sms Three years
about a companion of imprisonment on
the Holy Prophet December 2014
(PBUH)
13 Muhammad Qasim Sargodha 298/C Preaching 2 years
imprisonment
Women
In May 2014, Farzana Parveen, the three-month pregnant 25-year-old,
was hacked in full public view outside Lahore High Court by her father, brother
and their accomplices in the name of family honour. She had married of her
own will. Having transpired right outside Aiwan-i-Adl, Farzana’s gruesome
murder mocked the criminal justice system. The Lahore High Court had ruled
back in the ’90s that women who marry someone of their own choice bring
their parents into disrepute and don’t deserve the court’s sympathy. In November,
an Anti-Terrorism court awarded death sentences to four accused for the
murder of Farzana, including her father and brother. According to some
estimates more than 3000 women have died in so-called honour killings in
Pakistan since 2008.
According to an estimate by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan,
a woman is raped every two hours, and gang raped every eight hours but the
judicial system fails them. While a big number of sexual offence cases were
filed in the lower judiciary, only a few were handed out conviction. Less than
four percent of Pakistan’s rape cases result in a conviction, according to anti-
rape campaigner War Against Rape. Rights activists say that rape goes largely
unpunished because of police manipulation of cases and judges’ skepticism of
survivors and so, ignoring drastic flaws in the investigation process, a lack of
resources for forensics analysis, and confusion about rape laws.
Pakistan’s legal system lacks women judges or male judges sensitised to
gender/rape issues on the bench and a programme to protect rape survivors as
they appear to give their testimony. Some judges still find it easy to blame the
woman. Proving rape is far from easy. The defence puts forth the argument
that the act was consensual. Amidst systemic flaws and cultural attitudes that
criminalise a female rape victim rather than enable her to become a survivor,
the public nature of rape trials, say most experts, is very invasive and humiliating
and a big reason why a survivor may recant her charges. Though recanting
charges should not mean closing of a case of an un-compoundable offence,
which rape is. The state is bound to take it to a logical conclusion.
In 2006, following a previous exclusion in military dictator Zia-ul-Haq’s
period, rape was moved back to the criminal code, to be prosecuted based on
forensic evidence, and the practice of pursuing zina cases against women
who could not prove rape was specifically prohibited. Rights activists heralded
the law as groundbreaking at the time, but it has been enforced sporadically
ever since. Also, there is a lack of resources for forensic analysis.
PML-N MNA Shaista Pervaiz Malik has tabled a bill in the National
Assembly for amendments to laws on rape, which seeks stringent punishment
for the offender, proper investigation into the case, and punishment for
delinquent/corrupt police officials for flawed investigation and protection of
rape victims. A similar bill was tabled in the Senate by Syeda Sughra Imam of
the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) earlier in 2014, which seeks amendments to
remove lacunae in the PPC, CrPC and Qanoon-i-Shahadat Act. Imam told the
Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice that there was zero conviction
in rape cases in the country during the last five years due to the flaws in the
anti-rape laws.
A large number of cases are either withdrawn or a compromise is reached.
However, earlier in 2014, Justice Ikramullah Khan of the Peshawar High Court
denied the bail request of a rapist even after the seven-year-old victim’s family
agreed to a compromise. “The accused does not deserve to be released on bail
despite both parties reaching a compromise because people like him are only
playing with other people’s future,” a news report quoted Justice Khan as
saying.
Intolerance
The causes of our growing intolerance are many. But most relevant to the
justice system are two. One, if there is lack of faith in the ability of the formal
legal process to deliver justice – those subjected to injustice resort to self-help.
And thus revenge and violence fill the space to be occupied by justice. Two, if
there is no certainty of punishment and the justice system is no deterrent,
those who believe in enforcing their views and beliefs through use of force are
emboldened.
The manifestations of intolerance within our justice system include the
following: judiciary’s composition with little representation of minorities; failure
to evolve meaningful jurisprudence on the right to liberty; tolerance for
intolerance manifested in court proceedings; and self-righteousness or inability
of judges to distinguish between the law and personal morality. While courts
have expanded the scope of fundamental rights over the years (citizens’
economic rights have evolved [Muhammad Yasin case], arbitrary decisions
and appointments have been struck down under Article 25 (right to equality)
and Article 9 (right to life) has been expansively interpreted), there has been no
meaningful interpretation or enforcement of the right to liberty beyond its
basic physical manifestation i.e. freedom from arbitrary arrest.
What is most problematic is the judiciary’s manifest tolerance for
intolerance. Legal equality is fiction in a sense that it is meant to exist despite
social and economic inequalities prevalent within the society. But if the function
of courts is limited to endorsing and legitimizing societal power relations instead
of protecting the weak against them, they can come to be seen as chambers of
expediency not justice. Whether it is appointment of judges or cases involving
socio-religious questions, it is hard to distinguish law from personal morality.
If unchecked this trend could oust legal certainty from the rule of law and
replace it with the whims of individual judges.
Recommendations
1. The Supreme Court should review the Judicial Commission regulations,
prescribe objective criteria for appointment of judges and ensure that the
process is fair and transparent. The principles laid down by the judiciary for
exercise of discretionary authority by the executive must first be applied to the
administrative authority of judges. There is need to structure the wide unbridled
discretion vested in the office of the Chief Justice. A starting point can be the
introduction of modern automated court and case management systems across
all courts.
2. A new National Judicial Policy that doesn’t simply pay lip service to
the problem of pendency but looks at its perennial causes and finds sustainable
solutions should be formulated and implemented. Such exercise by the NJPMC
must be accompanied by an exercise undertaken by the Law Commission to
identify lacunae in procedural and substantive laws that cause delay in
adjudication of cases on the one hand and miscarriage of justice on the other.
3. It is time our judiciary indulged in introspection. The 21st Amendment
is less a solution to Pakistan’s problem of terror and more a vote of no
confidence in the judiciary. The judges who have been discharging their duties
fairly, diligently and with integrity would have a right to be angry with the
government for projecting the judiciary as a major cause for proliferation of
terror in the country. Such anger must, however, be directed toward initiating
judicial reform.

Law and order
No person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being
informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for such arrest, nor shall be
denied the right to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner of his
choice.
Every person who is arrested and detained in custody shall be produced
before a magistrate within a period of twenty-four hours of such arrest...
The dignity of man and, subject to law, the privacy of home, shall be
inviolable.
No person shall be subjected to torture for the purpose of extracting
evidence.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 3
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment.
Article 5
Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed
innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has
had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
Article 11 (1)
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family,
home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour or reputation.
Law and order 57
Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference
or attacks.
Article 12
The rule of law and the proper administration of justice play a critical role
in the promotion and protection of human rights. The rule of law protects
individuals against arbitrary exercise of state power, and also obligates the
state to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators where violations of
human rights and other crimes are committed.
Not only general crime and acts of terrorism but also police excesses
continued unabated in Pakistan in 2014. The World Justice Project Rule of
Law Index classified Pakistan amongst the countries having the poorest rule
of law record as experienced in everyday life. Pakistan ranked fifth among six
regional countries in the rule of law performance, ahead of Afghanistan only.
Ineffective enforcement of laws, poor policing, impunity for criminals, frequent
acts of terrorism and faith-based violence and a glut of weapons including
small arms were the main factors that contributed to the poor law and order
situation in Pakistan in 2014. The challenges were starker for some citizens,
mainly on account of their faith, or ethnicity.
Not only was the police, the premier law enforcement agency, ill-equipped
to face the challenge in terms of resources and training, it was also criticised
for inefficiency, corruption and politicisation. There were some police stations
in the country that lacked the resources to even maintain their premises or fuel
their vehicles. Private security companies thrived, though many of them too
lacked training and the wherewithal to counter crime. Ever more security
cameras and fences were installed and walls topped by barbed wire were
built.
Apart from common crime, militant groups, including those buying into
violent sectarian ideologies, targeted professionals, including doctors, teachers
and lawyers, belonging to the Shia sect. Polio vaccinators found themselves a
target of deadly violence only because they were part of efforts to save Pakistan’s
children from a crippling future.
Rashid Rehman, a lawyer and a regional coordinator of the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan, was shot dead in his office for taking up the case of
a university lecturer accused of blasphemy.
Allegations of extrajudicial killings and custodial torture remained
commonplace. These along with the heavy-handed crowd control tactics further
tarnished the image of the police. In the absence of community-based proactive
policing, incidents of mob justice reared their head.
On December 24, the prime minister announced a 20-point
Killed for defending a blasphemy accused
Rashid Rehman, a well-known lawyer and a regional
coordinator for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
(HRCP), was shot and killed by two men who entered his office
in Multan at 8:30pm on May 7 and opened fire. Two others
persons in the office were seriously injured by the gunmen, who
then fled away.
Rashid had complained about receiving death threats after
he took up the case of a university lecturer accused of
blasphemy.
Rehman, 53, was defending Junaid Hafeez, a lecturer at
Multan’s Bahauddin Zakariya University who was accused of
committing blasphemy on the social media in 2013. The only
lawyer who had earlier agreed to represent Junaid had
withdrawn the power of attorney after he was threatened.
No lawyer was willing to defend Junaid in court until Rehman
stepped forward. At a hearing of the case in March 2014, held
inside a prison for security reasons, Rashid was threatened by
lawyers representing the complainant.
Rashid drew the attention of the judge in whose presence
the threat was delivered but he chose to stay quiet. HRCP wrote
to the Punjab chief minister and also issued a press statement
noting that: “During the hearing the lawyers of the complainant
had told Rashid that he wouldn’t be present at the next hearing
as he would not be alive.”
Rashid had also complained to the police but they too took
no action. He had also
complained to the
District Bar Association.
The day after the
murder leaflets were
distributed that justified
Rashid’s assassination
because he had dared
to represent Junaid and
added: “W e warn all
lawyers to be afraid of
God and think twice
before engaging in such Justice dispensed as a favour is like
acts.” cruelty -- Rashid Rehman
Law and order 59

counterterrorism National Action Plan. While progress was slow on several of
the points aimed at tackling terrorism and violent religious extremism, the
government was quick to implement two points: lifting of the moratorium on
the execution of convicted ‘terrorists’ – though most of the hangings by the
yearend were of individuals who had targeted the military directly, and legal
cover was given to the establishment of military courts for expeditious justice.
Even amid a failure to adequately ensure the safety of judges, witnesses,
investigators, prosecutors and lawyers, the government put the blame on the
judiciary for either acquitting those tried for terrorist offences or for taking a
long time to convict them. The move towards establishing the military courts
evoked a range of concerns among the democratic forces, human rights
activists and the judiciary, which was facing not only a very high volume of
pending cases but was also expected to convict suspects even in the face of
ineffective investigative and prosecution mechanisms.
Though certain measures and laws were introduced to counter terrorism,
no real progress was made to reform and restructure the police or to introduce
the required changes in the investigation and prosecution systems. The law
and order continued to plummet as a result.
Crimes against people and property

Unbridled crime against people and property across the country and poor
investigation and prosecution during the year under review saw the government
falling short on its most basic duty, of protecting the safety of citizens and
enforcing rule of law.
According to the statistics reported to the federal interior ministry by the
provinces, there was negligible improvement in the law and order situation in
2014 over the previous year, with the rate of crime reported to police dropping
by 1.16 percent. As many as 627,116 cases of crime against people and property
were reported to police in 2014, compared to 634,404 in 2013. A high proportion
of crime are believed to go unreported, largely on account of police not
facilitating registration of cases because a high crime rate would reflect poorly
on their performance. There was also a perception among a substantial number
of citizens that reporting the cases to police would not lead to substantial
action.
With a slight decrease of 2.7 percent, 114,763 cases of crime against
property were reported in 2014 compared to 117,912 in 2013 and 88,767
cases of crime against people were reported in 2014 as against 88,854 in
2013, a .09 percent decrease.
The official statistics show that 411 people were kidnapped for ransom in
2014 — 81 from the Punjab, 190 from Sindh, 96 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
33 from Balochistan, 10 from Islamabad and one on the rail while travelling.
Additionally, 18,700 people, mostly women, were kidnapped for a number of
reasons.
Sindh police said it registered 1,261 cases of kidnapping of women for
forced marriages in 2014.
Acid, found easily and cheaply across Pakistan, was used in many cases
as a weapon to exact ‘revenge’ on women for decisions such as turning down
marriage proposals. The Acid Survivors Foundation Pakistan, working to
eradicate acid violence from the country, estimated that there were 114 acid
attacks in Pakistan in 2014, involving 159 victims. (See also the chapter
‘Women’)
Some 326 gang-rape cases were also reported in the country, including
263 in Punjab, 35 in Sindh, 11 in KP, and 17 in Islamabad, according to the
official crime figures in 2014. As many as 3,243 rape cases were reported —
2,734 in Punjab, 191 in Sindh, 133 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 19 in
Balochistan, 162 in Islamabad, and four in Gilgit-Baltistan.
A total of 13,199 people were murdered in the country during the year
2014 — 5,953 in Punjab, 3,252 in Sindh, 3,184 in KP, 615 in Balochistan, 144
in Islamabad, four on railways land [location not known], and 74 in Gilgit-
Baltistan.
As many as 114,211 cases of crime against property were reported: 87,933
in Punjab, 18,039 in Sindh, 3,237 in KP, 1,652 in Balochistan, 2,726 in
Islamabad, 353 on railways land [location not known], and 211 in Gilgit-
Baltistan.
A total of 33,115 vehicles were stolen or snatched during the year under
review — 21,072 from Punjab, 8,685 from Sindh, 1,090 from KP, 913 from
Balochistan, 1,300 from Islamabad, three from railways land [location not
known], and 52 from Gilgit-Baltistan.
As many as 81,096 cases of highway robbery, looting of banks and fuel
stations, shoplifting, burglaries and thefts were reported to the police. Of
these, 66,861 took place in Punjab, 9,354 in Sindh, 2,207 in KP, 739 in
Balochistan, 1,426 in Islamabad, 350 on the railway land [location not known],
and 159 in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Extortion
Extortion and violence and threats of violence associated with that crime
not only remained commonplace in Karachi, but were also reported more
Law and order 61
Traders protest against extortion.
frequently from other parts of the country. In Karachi alone, the police registered
more than 1,330 extortion complaints during the year under review, compared
to 891 complaints the previous year, according to official figures. Extortion
cases were reported from almost all major cities, including Lahore and
Faisalabad in Punjab and Peshawar in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
At least 17 people were injured in an explosion in a shop located in Pakistan
Chowk area of Lahore, the capital of the Punjab province, in April. While the
police said they were investigating the matter, the shop’s owner said he had
been receiving threats for not paying extortion money. He stated that
unidentified armed men had also fired on his shop two months earlier.
According to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
around 150 businessmen and industrialists had left the province out of fear of
extortionists, rendering thousands of their employees jobless.
The reported extortion cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa registered a ten-
fold increase, according to the official data. The central police office in
Peshawar put the annual average of reported extortion cases in the province
during the last three years (2011-2013) at 30 cases per year. The reported
cases jumped to 285 in the first three quarters of 2014.
Terrorism
In 2014 also, acts of terrorism took a high toll on the population in Pakistan.
Thousands of civilians and security personnel became casualties of violent
actions all over the country by militant extremist groups, such as the outlawed
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and banned outfits with sectarian agendas,
and in the Balochistan province by nationalist insurgents. The year began with
violent sectarian killings in Balochistan, and ended with one of the worst terrorist
attacks in the country’s history, when 150 people, most of them children,
were killed at the Army Public School in Peshawar.
Pakistan witnessed a 43 percent drop in the incidence of suicide attacks
during 2014, compared to the previous year. Other terrorist attacks and fatalities
Image courtesy PIPS
Law and order 63

Several people were killed and injured in a powerful suicide blast
in Pakistan at Wagah.
went down by 30% during the year under review.

According to Pakistan Security Report 2014 issued by Islamabad-based
Pak Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), around 1,723 people were killed and
3,143 were injured during 2014 in 1,206 terrorist attacks – including 26 suicide
bombings – carried out by militants, nationalist insurgents and violent sectarian
groups.
The number of people killed and injured in these attacks also decreased by
30% and 42%, respectively. In 436 (or 36%) of the total reported incidents,
the targets were the security forces and law enforcement agencies.
Since 2001, 45 doctors have fallen victim to targeted killings. In 2014, 12
doctors were killed compared to seven in 2013. Since 2001, 51 lawyers have
been killed in Pakistan. Thirteen lawyers were killed in 2014, according to a
South Asia Terrorism Portal report.
According to the Portal report, 92 incidents of sectarian violence in 2014
killed 210 people, compared to 525 fatalities in 128 incidents in 2013. The
country was convulsed by such incidents almost every month during the year
with violent or non-violent protests and shutdowns following each. However,
the first half of the year proved more deadly than the second.
The PIPS said that with the exception of Punjab, which witnessed 8%
rise in terror attacks with 41 reported incidents, the rest of the country saw a
30% decline in the number of terrorist attacks in 2014. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
witnessed a 26% decrease over the previous year with 325 attacks, Balochistan
a 32% drop with 341 assaults and Sindh 40% decline with 217 attacks, the
bulk of which occurred in Karachi.
According to the PIPS report, 325 terror attacks were carried out in KP,
in which 542 people were killed and 892 injured. In Balochistan, 375 people
were killed and 926 injured in 341 attacks. In the Federally Administered Tribal
Areas (FATA), 293 people died and 389 were injured in 234 attacks.
Punjab faced 41 attacks, which claimed 126 lives and caused injuries to
274 people. In Karachi, 217 attacks killed 317 people and injured 438. In the
rest of Sindh, terrorists carried out 31 attacks and killed and injured 23 and 63
people, respectively. In Islamabad, 14 terror attacks were reported which left
44 people dead and 212 wounded. In Gilgit-Baltistan, three terrorist attacks
killed three persons.
Also killed in these attacks were 105 military personnel and 45 policemen.
In terms of the number of deaths, January 2014 was the deadliest month
when 168 people lost their lives and 401 others sustained injuries in 42 bomb
attacks. On January 21, a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle
into a bus carrying pilgrims in the southwestern district of Mastung, killing 29
people and wounding over 30 others. Another deadly attack took place on
June 8 when a suicide bomber hit a hotel in Taftan, Balochistan, where a
group of Shia pilgrims returning from Iran were staying, killing 30 people and
injuring many others. On November 2, a bomber exploded his jacket amid a
crowd of over 200 people who were returning after attending a flag-lowering
ceremony and a Rangers parade at the Wagah border crossing between Pakistan
and India. The attack killed at least 62 people and left over 150 others injured.
The federal capital Islamabad also came under bomb attack on April 9,
Protesters outraged against sectarian attacks.
Law and order 65

when at least 23 people were killed and many others were injured in an explosion
in a vegetable and fruit market. Police said the explosives were planted in a
fruit box.
Political violence
According to Conflict/Violence Report 2014, published by Islamabad-based
think-tank Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), 186 politicians
and political activists and 52 persons affiliated with religious organisations
were killed in targeted attacks in 2014.
The main incidents of political violence during the year were reported
from Lahore, Bhera, Islamabad and Faisalabad when police and anti-government
protesters from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek
clashed, leaving at least 30 persons dead and several wounded in separate
incidents. A stone-throwing mob attacked the convoy of former cricketer and
opposition politician Imran Khan as he led supporters through the eastern city
of Gujranwala. Men brandishing ruling-party posters attacked his convoy,
throwing shoes and stones.
At least 15 people including three parliamentarians were injured when
gunmen opened fire on a camp of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) political
party in Karachi.
In October, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of religious-political party
Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on MQM camp.

Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), was attacked in Quetta, the capital city
of Balochistan province. Fazl escaped the bombing unhurt, but three JUI-F
workers were killed and another 30 were injured. Jundullah, a banned militant
group allied with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed
responsibility. The attack was the third attempt on Fazl’s life.
Educational institutions
Although the carnage in Army Public School in Peshawar in December
shook the nation, several other attacks by militants opposed to education,
especially for girls, targeted educational institutions earlier in the year.
In May, in Panjgur, Turbat and Gwadar districts of Balochistan, extremist
militant groups threatened the private co-education schools to shut down.
Parents were also warned not to send their daughters to school and threatened
with consequences if they did not heed the warning. The teachers were told
not to pursue their profession and a school van was burnt in Panjgur. After
this attack, schools remained closed in the district for several months. The
closure prompted nationalist groups in Balochistan to stage protest
demonstrations to mount pressure on the government to re-open the schools.
Since 2013, HRCP has been monitoring more closely 48 districts which it
considers critical because of human rights excesses and violations by organised
actors there. In many of these districts spread across six regions repeated
threats and attacks on schools were reported in 2014. Out of the 28 attacks,
mainly bombings, targeting educational institutions reported from these districts
in 2014, as many as 12 occurred in FATA and 10 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Four attacks were reported from the selected districts in Balochistan and two
2014: Attacks on educational institutions in monitored

districts in six regions
Gilgit- Balochistan Interior South Khyber FATA Total
Baltistan Sindh Punjab Pakhtunkhwa
2 4 0 0 10 12 28
Schools targeted in the monitored districts in 2014

Boys’ schools Girls’ schools Co-education schools
14 11 3
2014: Casualties in attacks on educational institutions

in monitored districts
Females killed Females injured Males killed Males injured Total
3 6 153 121 283
Law and order 67

from Gilgit-Baltistan. The targeted educational institutions included 14 boys’
schools, 11 girls’ schools and three co-education institutions.
Most of the bombings of school buildings took place at night. The majority
of the perpetrators remained unidentified and only in a few cases did they
claim responsibility for the attacks. Some of the schools had also received
threats from militants prior to the attacks. The militants had mainly threatened
the schools for offering co-education, continuing to teach girl students, teaching
in English, and promoting ‘western’ syllabus.
Aid workers
Since 2012, an estimated 75 people involved in Pakistan’s vaccination
efforts have been killed.
As many as 45 polio vaccinators and their facilitators were killed in 2014.
While most attacks occurred in FATA, KP and in the port city of Karachi,
vaccinators were also targeted in Balochistan and Punjab during the year under
review. The deadliest attack of the year took place on March 1 when 11
members of a polio vaccination team died in a roadside bombing in Khyber
Agency, in FATA.
In December, four members of a vaccination team—including a health
worker, a driver, and two security personnel—were abducted by the Taliban
in Balochistan. Their dead bodies were later found.
Women vaccinators were shown no mercy either. One woman vaccinator
Polio vaccination workers shout slogans against the killing of

their colleagues during a protest.

had dogs set upon her in Dera Ismail Khan district in May. Another was tortured
before she was killed and her body dumped near a field in Peshawar. In Karachi,
a woman vaccinator was invited into a house, splashed with gasoline, and set
on fire. Two were killed when a Taliban militant tossed a hand grenade into a
van carrying polio workers. However, most of the women vaccinators who
were targeted were shot, usually by masked men riding on motorcycles.
While there were several reports of men, women and children getting
killed or injured in celebratory fire across the country, two Chhipa Foundation
volunteers, Lal Muhammad and Gul Wahab, died while several others sustained
injuries after being hit by stray bullets in separate incidents in Lyari, Karachi, in
February.
Operation Zarb-e-Azb
During the year, the security forces launched a number of operations in
areas where there had been little writ of the state over the past few years. In
mid-June, the military launched an offensive against the Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan militants in North Waziristan Agency of FATA. The conflict displaced
nearly two million people. In October, a military operation was launched in
Khyber Agency, in FATA. Over half a million residents of Khyber had to leave
their houses for safer areas. (See also the chapter ‘Refugees’)
According to statistics in the PIPS security report for 2014, the military
operations had had some impact on the militants’ capability to launch terrorist
attacks. The report stated that in 2014 suicide bombings had fallen by 43%,
terrorist attacks by 32% and fatalities by 31%, as compared to 2013.
Article 245: army in aid of civil power

The government invoked Article 245 of the constitution, putting the army
in charge of the federal capital security for 90 days from August 1 “to pre-
empt any possible blowback of Operation Zarb-e-Azb”. The government
rejected the impression that the measure was aimed at preventing a protest
march by an opposition political party.
In December the interior minister justified the measure by saying that
after the launch of Operation Zarb-i-Azb, “the government realised that the
police is neither equipped nor trained and would require time to tackle the
current law and order crisis”. He told a security meeting in December that
10,000 army personnel were deployed in the four provinces to assist the
provincial security forces.
Drone strikes
According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, although the US did
not carry out a drone strike in Pakistan for the first five months of the year,
Law and order 69
Source: Bureau of Investigative Journalism
attacks by drones were reported to have killed at least 114 people in 2014. All
but one of the drone strikes in 2014 took place in areas where the Pakistan
military was carrying out air or ground operations, said the London-based
not-for-profit news organisation.
Because of lack of access to parts of the FATA region for journalists and
human rights defenders, it was difficult to determine how many victims of
drone strikes were militants and how many civilians had died in these attacks.
Crimes in uniform
While there were numerous complaints of the police failing in their duty to
protect citizens, instances were reported from almost all provinces of criminals
using police and security forces’ uniforms while committing crime and terrorist
acts. In several cases, policemen themselves were arrested for committing
crime and others where they were caught supporting criminals, including land
grabbers, car snatchers and blackmailers.
In April, three personnel of the Elite Force police were arrested in a raid
on a house in the Khazana police precinct on the outskirts of Peshawar where
two kidnapped businessmen were being kept. They opened fire on police in an
attempt to evade arrest. Police uniforms, a jeep with a police siren, and a
wireless set were also recovered from them.
In February, 18 passengers from the Shia community, who were travelling
on the Karakoram Highway from Rawalpindi to Gilgit, were gunned down in
Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to eyewitnesses the
gunmen were wearing army uniform.
Sulaiman Lashari, an O-levels student, was shot dead on May 8 as he was
studying inside his house in Karachi’s Defence area. The shot was fired by
one of the policemen accompanying Salman Abro, the son of the special
superintendant of police of Sakrand Police Training Centre. The two boys had
earlier had an argument. Abro had come to the Lashari residence to settle
scores, according to the statement by Lashari’s father. The unfortunate episode
ended with Sulaiman and a policeman dead. The policeman died because the
Lashari household also had guards who returned fire.
In July, more than three dozen suspected terrorists wearing Pakistan army
uniform stormed a police station in Diamer district, tied the policemen and
took away weapons, uniforms, wireless sets, and valuables. The Dodishal
police station was situated a kilometer from the Karakoram Highway at the
border of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan regions.
In December, Multan police said it had arrested two members of a robbers’
gang who used to strike in police uniforms. A police spokesperson said the
four-member gang was wanted for more than 200 robberies in the city. He
said the men donned police uniforms and set up ‘pickets’ in small streets
where they stopped unsuspecting people for a search and snatched their cell
phones, cash and jewellery. He said the men had confessed to 70 robberies.
A number of incidents were reported of armed men dressed as cops around
the country’s airports robbing expatriates or local travelers of large sums of
money and valuables soon after they left the airport.
Police abuse and reform

The use of police for personal ends had started in 1958, with the martial
law under General Ayub Khan. The Police Order 2002 had sought to establish
a politically neutral, accountable, operationally autonomous, and professional
police force. But the law failed to meet the objective, mostly because of non-
implementation.
Police Record and Office Management Information System or PROMIS,
involving computerisation of all crime registers of police stations, launched a
decade ago, remained ineffective, because of shortage of funds and frequent
transfer of focal persons for such initiatives.
Federal government
The country’s first National Internal Security Policy (2014-18) was
introduced during the year under review, promising police reform and capacity
Law and order 71
Police-crowd clashes in Model Town, Lahore, badly exposed lack of police
training or their inclination for crowd control without violence.
building.
The head of the National Counter-Terrorism Authority – formed in 2008 –
was appointed only in November when Hamid Ali Khan, an officer of Pakistan
Administrative Service, took over from the interior secretary who had been
managing the authority’s affairs as an additional charge.
The federal government writ in Islamabad was tested when the Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek held prolonged sit-ins in the capital
starting in August – with violent marches on the Parliament House, the Prime
Minister’s House, Pakistan Television and other government buildings. Three
people were killed and more than 600 others injured in the protesters’ clashes
with the police. Hundreds of rioters stormed the state broadcaster. The Pakistan
Television (PTV) news channel’s transmission went off the air for around half
an hour before security forces cleared the mob from the building in Islamabad’s
high security ‘Red Zone’.
Punjab
Punjab had a police strength of 178,000. The Elite Force arm of the police
had 5,700 personnel out of whom over 4,000 were deployed to provide security
to senior government officials, politicians, other influential persons and their
families. It was not clear how many of the non-Elite Force cops were doing
the security duty.
In an attempt to switch to complete automation of police record, Jhang
police made more than 20,000 first information reports (FIRs) filed from
January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2014 available online under its FIR
Management Information System (FIRMIS). Jhang was the first district in
Punjab followed by Toba Tek Singh to have computerised the record in 2014
at all police offices and police stations and kept the complainants informed
through the short message service about the progress on the investigation of
the cases reported by them.
Police officials said FIRMIS performance was better than that of PROMIS,
which was introduced in 2005 but was yet to be implemented.
The poor crowd control and protest management capacity was exposed
time and again during 2014. The gravest example of that occurred in Lahore in
June, when the police clashed with people protesting the removal of some
barriers from roads around preacher-turned-politician Dr Tahirul Qadri’s
residence in Model Town. Fourteen persons including two women were killed
and dozens injured. Later, in August people living around Qadri’s home were
penned in to stop an anti-government protest by his Pakistan Awami Tehreek
(PAT) party. PAT activists clashed with police when they tried to remove
blockades around the area, leaving at least two people dead.
In December, police baton charged protesters with impaired sight in Lahore
during a demonstration to demand that the government implement the official
quota for the physically challenged. Around 70 persons with various visual
impairments had gathered outside the local press club to make the demand.
When they heard that the president was in town they proceeded towards the
Sindh police registered 1,261 cases of kidnapping women for

forced marriages in 2014.
Law and order 73

Governor’s House leading to a clash with the police. Several protesters were
injured and one was hospitalised. The police insisted that they had not harmed
the protesters and had simply pushed them away from the main road where a
security cordon had been established in order to protect the president’s
motorcade. A government spokesperson said five policemen had been suspended
after the incident. “We apologise for this incident, which should not have
happened,” the spokesman said.
Sindh
Out of about 100,000 police personnel for the entire province some 34,000
were deployed across Karachi. More than 4,000 of the Karachi policemen
were on protocol/VIP security duty, while about 12,000 worked as drivers,
gardeners, etc. in the city, meaning that only 18,000 were available for fighting
crime and controlling law and order in a city of roughly 20 million. About
3,000 of the police were deployed for investigation.
Comprising citizens who provided technical support to police and helped
their compatriots seek justice, the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC)
was looking to expand its operation to all districts in the Sindh province. At the
end of 2014, the CPLC had presence in six districts and formal offices in
Karachi and Hyderabad.
A CPLC report showed that out of 113 police stations in Karachi 17 did
not have toilets. There were no police vehicles in four police stations, while in
Renowned social worker Abdus Sattar Edhi's charity was robbed during the year.

eight stations the police did not even have an official motorcycle. The furniture
in more than 50 police stations was damaged to the point that it could not be
used. The police lacked investigation skills and training and basic on-job security
equipment including bulletproof jackets and helmets. Lower salary was also
said to be an obstacle to the honest discharge of duty against the terrorists and
criminal mafias in the province.
Karachi
A bustling metropolis of 20 million and Pakistan’s economic capital, Karachi
is also the nation’s citadel of crime and of sectarian, extremist, and gang
violence that has long afflicted the city.
Hold-ups and robberies in the chaotic environs of Karachi had been very
common but particularly unnerving in 2014 were the robberies at the offices
of respected charities such as Edhi Foundation and Chhipa Welfare Association.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan statistics on
killings in Karachi during the year in review, 2,909 people, including women,
children, suspects and law-enforcers, were killed in the city in 2014.
The law enforcement agencies killed 594 suspects in Karachi in 2014;
some 142 law-enforcers were also killed in the metropolis in the one-year
period. Out of these, 130 were policemen and 12 were paramilitary soldiers.
Twenty-seven private security guards were also killed during the year.
As many as 134 political activists were killed in the port city in 2014,
while 340 unidentified bodies were found in different city areas. 661 people
were murdered for several other reasons.
As many as 120 people were killed on sectarian grounds, 89 were targeted
by some banned sectarian outfits, 70 people were abducted and killed and 28
people lost their lives in bomb blasts. Some 87 people were killed in the lingering
armed conflict between criminal gangs in Lyari area.
According to HRCP statistics based on media reports, 457 and 135 suspects
were killed in encounters with police and Rangers, respectively, while police
torture killed at least two persons during 2014. As many as 134 people were
killed in what were believed to be instances of personal dispute or enmity with
the perpetrators, 107 were killed by robbers, seven were burnt to death and
three were killed by security guards during robbery attempts.
As many as 36 men were killed by stray bullets; 28 were killed on railway
tracks; 61 died due to a drug overdose or consuming toxic liquor, while three
people were reported to have died in prison.
According to the media monitoring of the killings in Karachi, 78 children
were killed during the year. Eight of them were kidnapped and murdered, 15
Law and order 75
Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), displays one of several extortion demands
handed over to them by businessmen based in Karachi.
died in bomb blasts, 20 were killed by stray bullets, 18 due to enmity; five
were raped and killed and one child was killed on sectarian grounds. Of the
154 women killed during the year, 55 were killed by their relatives, 61 were
killed by influential persons; 14 were killed by stray bullets, 11 died in bomb
blasts, three were killed on the railway tracks and four women were burnt to
death.
Six women became victim to the heinous crime of karo-kari, or the killing
in the name of the family’s so-called honour. Four men were also killed in this
‘honour-related’ crime.
The highest number of killings (281) recorded for any one month during
the year under review was in March, while the lowest figure (187) was reported
in December.
In 2014, law enforcement agencies intensified their crackdown on criminals
in Karachi that had started in September 2013. Attacks in Karachi fell 40% in
2014 compared to 2013, the PIPS report said. In December, police killed a
number of TTP militants, including their operational commander Abid Mehsud
(alias Muchar).
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
According to the provincial police, the total number of persons who went
missing during 2014 was 1,066. While 651 persons remained untraced, the
police were able to trace 415. It was not clear from the police record whether
they were abducted or were victims of enforced disappearances. It was also
unclear where they were recovered from.
Abductions for ransom, extortion and illegal activities by organized crime
syndicates along with violent attacks by religious militants added to the hazards
to the lives and fundamental freedoms of citizens. The dumping of bodies in
different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the adjoining tribal areas became
a recurring phenomenon. Targeted attacks on individuals, including cops, went
up from 99 to 129, nearly 30.3% more.
Pakhtunkhwa took some key administrative steps such as intelligence-led
search-and-strike operations, surprise snap checking, vehicle verification
system, raising of the canine unit, use of android-based geo-tagging for
identification of crime hotspots, as well as IT-based capacity building of police
personnel. The provincial police had a strength of 65,000, backed up by an
investigating wing of 3,000 officers responsible for criminal investigation
management, a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), an Elite Force of 6,000
men for high-risk security operations and counter terrorism, and a 10,000-
strong Frontier Reserved Police.
In view of terrorism challenges, several laws such as Restriction of Rented
Building Security Act 2014; Restriction of Hotel Businesses Security Act 2014;
and Security of Sensitive and Vulnerable Places and Establishments Ordinance,
2014 were introduced. A new Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) was
established for intelligence collection, operations, investigations and surveillance
with its wings in all the seven police regions. A Rapid Response Force (RRF)
was raised to deal with organised armed assaults, hostage situations and generally
to take on terrorists and fugitives. The Bomb Disposal Unit (BDU) was also
revamped.
Some public service projects included Dispute Resolution Councils (DRCs);
Police Assistance Line (PAL); Online FIR registration; Police Access Service
(PAS); and establishment of Female Help Desks in police stations. Despite the
introduction of online FIR registration, complaint management remained a
major problem because of limited Internet availability. Complaints could be
made via phone.
For human resource development, School of Investigation at Peshawar;
School of Intelligence at Abbottabad; School of Tactics at Peshawar; School
of Explosives Handling at Nowshera; School of Public Disorder Management
at Mardan; and two additional regional training schools at Swat and Swabi
were established in the province.
The establishment of the Directorate of Police Complaints and Internal
Accountability, and disciplinary action resulted in the sacking of 339 corrupt
Law and order 77
police officials from the service during the year.
Some other initiatives included increase in police salary; providing the
constabulary direct access to the police command through Internal Command
Access Line (ICAL); and fast track promotion for capable officials through
the Public Service Commission.
Balochistan
Against a sanctioned strength of 35,098, Balochistan had 33,618 law
enforcement personnel including the Balochistan Constabulary.
Enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and torture and mistreatment
in custody remained unaddressed human rights concerns in the province in
2014.
According to a Home Department report, a total of 164 bodies were found
in the province in the year 2014. Out of the 164 dead, 71 were identified as
ethnic Baloch, 35 Pashtun, 19 people of other ethnicities, while 41 victims
could not be identified. The home secretary said the unidentified victims could
be either militants or anti-state elements. Of these, 80 bodies were found in
Quetta, 41 in Kalat division — comprising Khuzdar and Mastung districts —
41 in Makran division, comprising Panjgur, Gwadar and Turbat districts, six
Rescue workers collect evidence from a burnt passenger bus

on the outskirts of Quetta.

in Naseerabad division, 13 in Zhob district and eight in Sibi division, said the
report. The report did not say who could be suspected of killing these people.
On January 16, three mass graves were found in Khuzdar, and according to
authorities 17 mutilated bodies were dug up from these graves contrary to the
nationalists’ reports that had claimed that around 169 bodies were found. A
judicial commission was formed to probe the mass graves. In August, the
panel absolved the armed forces and intelligence agencies of responsibility in
the case. In October, nine bodies of abducted labourers were recovered from
Lasbela. The labourers, belonging to different parts of Punjab, had been
kidnapped a day earlier.
The acts of terrorism and some manner of violent crime in the province
registered a decline during the year under review. In 2014, 169 cases of
terrorism/sabotage were recorded as compared to 276 cases in 2013, a 39%
decrease. As many as 69 cases of target killing (of law enforcement officials,
Hazaras, Punjabi settlers, etc.) took place in 2014 against 95 such cases in
2013. As many as 44 cases of kidnapping for ransom were reported to the
police in 2014, as against 67 in 2013.
Police revamped the Crime Investigation Department or the CID, Police
Training College, Balochistan Constabulary and established Anti-Terrorism Force
Training School. Training and capacity building with the help of the armed
forces, including provision of arms and ammunition and increasing efforts to
enhance combat worthiness of the police pitted against hardened criminals
were undertaken. Bulletproof vehicles and jammers were also acquired. Two
command and control centres were set up that will monitor with the help of
CCTVs the movement of suspects and vehicles leaving or entering Quetta.
More than 1,400 close circuit television (CCTV) cameras were to be installed
at more than 250 points in the city.
Illegal weapons
Keeping prohibited or unlicensed weapons is a serious offence in Pakistan,
punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment. Arms proliferation has been a
major security challenge for Pakistan and has not only impacted the law and
order situation but also contributed to militancy, according to the Centre for
International Strategic Studies (CISS), Islamabad. A perception of the state’s
inability to protect the people in various parts of the country has also forced
the citizens to keep arms to protect themselves.
According to media reports, the number of prohibited and non-prohibited
weapons in the country is about 65 million. Of these, only 5 million are licensed.
There were about 17 million legal and illegal weapons only in Karachi, whereas
Law and order 79
Illegal weapons being destroyed.
the number was said to be over four million in Lahore. A large number of
illegal weapons were also reported to be present in the suburbs of Peshawar
and in the tribal areas.
In September, a senior official of the ministry of interior informed the
Senate Standing Committee on Interior that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
government had issued nearly 80,000 arms licences over the last 12 months.
He said KP had issued 79,256 licences and Sindh 17,000 over the past one
year. Punjab had issued 2,482 licences during the same period, including 133
for arms of prohibited bore for securing the Nandipur power project, and
Balochistan had granted 1,132 arms licences.
In 2014, Punjab police recovered about 40,000 and KP 153,793 illegal
arms and ammunition. Data from Sindh and Balochistan was not provided by
the police.
Law enforcers’ excesses

Torture in custody
Pakistan ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture in 2010,
which makes it binding upon the country to pass the necessary domestic
legislation that brings its laws and practices in conformity. While Police Order
2002 did spell out sanctions for inflicting “torture or violence” on individuals
in custody, in practice even the provincial police departments ostensibly
operating under it — in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — did not award the
sanction. Police investigation needed to move away from trying to beat
information out of suspects and towards more modern scientific and forensic
There were several cases of misuse of police uniform during the year.
methods. The Pakistan Protection Act 2014, a new law that went against due
process guarantees, appeared to facilitate custodial torture.
Torture remained widespread in Pakistan, with police and security agencies
being the most frequent offenders. Resort to torture to extract confessions
from suspects and to intimidate individuals in custody or otherwise was
routinely reported from across the country. Dumped bodies of victims of
enforced disappearance often displayed signs of sadistic treatment. An inordinate
number of detainees in internment centres — even young men — seemed to
suffer cardiac arrests during the criminal investigation stage. According to the
HRCP database which relied on monitoring of the news media, 63 people
including four women and two minors died in custody, while FIR was registered
only in 14 cases. According to media reports monitored for the database, at
least 47 people including seven women underwent custodial torture in 2014.
Extrajudicial killings
Encounters
Death of suspects in police encounters was a nationwide phenomenon,
but had become more commonplace in bigger cities, especially Karachi. As
many as 3,392 encounters took place in Sindh in 2014 as against 2,616 in
2013, indicating a substantial increase in the incidents.
In Karachi, a total of 925 suspects were killed in shootouts as were 160
personnel of police and Rangers, according to official figures. Of the total,
701 suspects had been killed in ‘encounters’ with police and 224 had been
Law and order 81
gunned down in shootouts with the paramilitary Rangers, while 143 personnel
of police and 17 of Rangers had been killed in targeted attacks in the metropolis,
said spokespersons for police and Rangers.
The fallen policemen included CID SSP Chaudhry Aslam Khan, who died
in a suicide attack on his vehicle, and five inspectors, sub-inspectors and
constables, said the police spokesman.
In addition, 111 suspected terrorists and gang members were arrested and
50 Rangers personnel suffered injuries during the ongoing operation in Karachi,
said the Rangers spokesman.
The killing of suspects often gave rise to complaints, especially by victims’
families, that the suspects were either in custody or no longer posed a threat
to the police when they were killed.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 26 suspects died in encounters with the police.
As many as 276 suspects were killed in encounters with the police in Punjab,
and 322 were arrested while 27 policemen died in the 283 encounters in 2014.
As many as 59 suspected criminals and 73 policemen were injured.
Vigilante justice
Mob justice, including lynching of individuals suspected of a range of
offences, has unfortunately not been a rarity in Pakistan. At times vigilante
actions have been seen as an expression of lack of confidence that justice
would be done and at other times it has been construed as a sign of brutalisation
of society.
In 2014, incidents of mob violence were reported most commonly following
charges of blasphemy or desecration of the Holy Quran. In Rawalpindi’s Adiala
Jail a prison guard shot and injured an inmate convicted of blasphemy. Since
1990, at least 60 people have been killed extra judicially in cases relating to
blasphemy, according to the Islamabad-based Centre of Research and Security
Studies (CRSS). The list includes lawyers and even politicians calling for
amendments to the law.
In July, a mob in Gujranwala killed three members of the Ahmadi community
after another member of that community was accused of posting blasphemous
content on Facebook. TV channels aired footage showing a mob armed with
sticks, cheering outside Ahmadi houses before setting a number of houses on
fire.
In November, a Christian couple, accused of desecrating the holy Quran,
was beaten up and their bodies burned in a brick kiln where they worked in
Kot Radha Kishen, by a mob. The prime minister reacted to the brutal mob
murder, calling it a “public lynching” and saying the law should pursue and
punish those responsible.
In Lahore, Farzana Iqbal, 25, was killed by a group of attackers, reported
The place where the mob burned Christian couple to ashes.
to include her father, because she had married the man she loved without her
family’s permission.
In some incidents, mob justice seemed to have stemmed from distrust in
police and the criminal justice system. In October, television footage showed
four alleged robbers being mercilessly beaten to death by a frenzied mob in
Karachi and a policeman ruthlessly being clubbed to death by a gang of ruffians
in Sargodha.
Recommendations
1. Pakistan is in urgent need of a properly trained and well-equipped
police force that is familiar with the modern investigation techniques and has
the resources needed to counter the challenge of rising crime and terrorism.
The training programmes need to focus on technology-led policing, crowd
management, intelligence gathering, mobility and connectivity.
2. The police need to reclaim their beat from the criminals by working
with the communities’ and through their intelligence support, especially in
vulnerable localities. Being stationed in the affected localities, police are in a
far better position than military or paramilitary forces to develop an
understanding of local communities, identify stakeholders, conduct effective
investigations and build responses.
3. The state needs to develop zero tolerance for terrorists, violent sectarian
groups and their leaders. It also needs to act with commitment and resolve to
Law and order 83
confront all instigation of hate, be that in the spoken form or in the form of
the written word. Faith-based violence and persecution must be put an end to.
4. The authorities need to depoliticise the police, strengthen the criminal
justice institutions, promote good governance and take steps to de-weaponise
society.
5. There is a need for bold judicial reforms that aim at improving the
legal system and to ensure the safety of all those who are part of the justice
system or engage with that system to ensure that administration of justice
becomes possible.
6. There is a need for a national discourse to evolve a counter-extremism
narrative and strategy.

Jails, prisoners and
‘disappearances’
No person who is arrested shall be detained in custody without being
informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for such arrest, nor shall be
denied the right to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner of his
choice.
Every person who is arrested and detained in custody shall be produced
before a magistrate within a period of twenty-four hours of such arrest.
The dignity of man and, subject to law, the privacy of home, shall be
inviolable.
No person shall be subjected to torture for the purpose of extracting
evidence.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment.
Article 5
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the
law.
Article 6
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 8
The condition of prisoners in the country has remained largely unchanged

in well over six decades since independence. Small improvements aside,
Jails, prisoners and disappearances 85
authorities have ignored calls for the prison system overhaul to serve the jail
rationale of rehabilitating criminals. The lingering issue of overcrowding was
addressed by announcing opening of new jails, especially in Punjab where the
problem is the gravest. However, the practice of using penal servitude that
mainly causes prison overcrowding, continues as the only form of punishment.
Using imprisonment as the sole method of punishment does not merely cause
problems in jail but also upsets entire family structures. Many have been known
to linger in jails for purely civil matters such as giving bad cheques.
No alternatives to penal servitude, like community service, which could
reduce the pressure of overcrowding in prisons, were introduced for minor
offences. A huge majority of people lingering in jails were under-trials whose
actual sentences had not even begun. Visits to jails by judges were encouraging
but these visits, which could allow hearing of the cases of prisoners who have
difficulty in acquiring a defence counsel or their cases linger for years due to
complications besides discouraging jail officials from the torture and ill-treatment
of incarcerated prisoners, were not institutionalised. No special effort was
seen to make the opportunities available to prisoners for vocational training,
improving their level of educational attainment and helping them in becoming
law-abiding citizens.
The healthcare regime in prisons is brought under the limelight only when
inedible items are found in the prisoners’ food and many faint as a result or
when prisoners die as a consequence of insufficient or untimely healthcare.
Though standardised in Pakistan, jail menu is rarely followed by jail authorities.
Prisoners keep complaining about substandard food and resort to buying their
own ration and cooking for themselves.
In a survey of selected prisons in Pakistan in 2013-14, HRCP found jail
hospitals lacking in numbered beds and medication for hundreds of prisoners.
No jail had a full-time female doctor. All serious health issues faced by female
prisoners were referred to the local hospital. There were also reports that
prisoners selected for preferred treatment were often sent to jail hospitals to
avoid the cramped barracks.
HRCP found it difficult to acquire jail population data from provinces. The
statements simply include total population, authorised capacity, and the number
of convicted, under-trial, condemned, female and juvenile prisoners. For two
years in a row, HRCP was unsuccessful in acquiring the statistics from Sindh
despite repeated requests. In 2014, HRCP also failed to receive a reply from
the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to letters and phone calls requesting
prison population statements. Such figures should be readily available to the
public under the provisions of the Right to Information Act 2013.
The plight of foreign prisoners, mostly in jails on drug peddling charges,
Women and juvenile jails are relatively less over-crowded.
was even worse because of language barriers and lack of legal representation.
Most complained that their embassies had abandoned them to their plight and
could not even secure a defence counsel for them. The mistreatment meted
out to Pakistani prisoners in India and to Indian prisoners in Pakistan stems
from the two countries’ troubled relations. Generally treated as enemy, these
prisoners aroused no sympathy from either the prison authorities or their fellow
prisoners.
An unofficial moratorium on death penalty remained in effect for 11 and a
half months in 2014 after which it was overturned in the wake of the attack on
Army Public School in Peshawar on December 16, as a part of the government’s
tough rhetoric to indiscriminately target terrorists. By the end of the year,
seven persons had been hanged.
The flaws in the criminal investigation system where the likelihood of
wrongly convicting persons remains high undermine any argument in favour
of the death penalty. In August, death warrants were issued for some
condemned prisoners and it seemed likely that the moratorium would be
reversed. However, no official announcement or explanation was available.
The worrying trend of enforced and involuntary disappearances continued
in Balochistan, KP and Sindh where dozens of students and political workers
of nationalist parties were picked up, tortured to death and their bodies thrown
in far flung areas. Enforced and involuntary disappearances have been
recognized as a heinous crime and a grave violation of human rights, not just
because oftheir impact on the victims but also because of the severe pain and
suffering they cause to the loved ones of the disappeared. Pakistan has not
only failed to ratify the convention against enforced disappearances but also to
Prisoners’ relatives / friends throng an apparently crowded prison van.
penalise the violation at home. Enforced disappearances are increasingly seen

as a legitimate method to counter terrorism in the absence of a judicial system
capable of speedy justice. Whatever the crime is, no person deserves to be
taken outside the protection of law and kept in illegal detention for years. The
UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances visited
Pakistan in 2012 and made a host of recommendations to the government on
how to curb this menace. None was complied with. Instead, the government
passed laws contrary to human rights standards and in denigration of
fundamental rights in the constitution.
Prisoners in Pakistan
The condition of prisoners in Pakistan remained dismal. Chronic issues
such as overcrowding, lack of proper healthcare system, inferior quality food,
corruption and rampant torture continued in the year under review.
According to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
report, 800 or so female prisoners in Pakistani jails were facing harassment,
insanitary conditions and lack of proper healthcare. It is widely believed that a
majority of the female prisoners experience sexual harassment and sexual
violence at the hands of jail wardens. During prison surveys, UNODC found
prevalence of suicidal depression, sleep disorders and other mental illnesses
among female prisoners. No gynaecologist was available on call to attend to
female prisoners in Punjab.
In February, the Punjab government approved the release of Rs 1 billion
to the prisons department for the 2014 fiscal year. Till then Rs 6,099 million
from the previous budget had been spent on projects such as construction of
new jails, security, barracks, gadgets and medical facilities. For the 2013-14
financial year, the total allocation was Rs 1.09 billion of which only Rs 819
million were utilised. Though the prison system in the country was in shambles,
Rs 271 million out of the budget allocated to the prisons department was
returned to the government as unspent.
Overcrowding: 2/3rds of prisoners under trial
Region Women Juveniles Total prison

population
Punjab 887 764 49,560
Sindh (till 168 313 18,726
02/09/14)
Balochistan 24 46 2,980
Khyber Data not Data not available Data not available
Pakhtunkwa available
Gilgit-Baltistan 3 3 307
Total 1,082 1,126 71,567
No. of Authorised Total prison
Regions Under-trial
prison capacity population
Punjab 32 21,527 49,560 32,514
Sindh (till
25 12,416 18,726 15,248
02/09/14)
Balochistan 11 2,585 2,980 1,214
Khyber Data not
22 7,982 Data not available
Pakhtunkhwa available
Gilgit-Baltistan 7 700 307 212
Total 97 45,210 71,567 49,188
In jails across the country, except for Gilgit-Baltistan, the population

exceeded the authorised capacity. In Punjab, this excess was about 130%. In
some prison barracks, a few convicts had to stand while the others slept or
prisoners could not access the washroom in the night because sleeping prisoners
covered the entire barrack floor. Such conditions amount to ill-treatment and
are beyond the punishment of penal confinement that prisoners have to bear.
Living in such close quarters to each other without access to sunlight for
most of the day leads to health concerns like skin diseases and a deterioration
of the general hygiene level.
The Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Prisons informed the Lahore
High Court (LHC) on November 15 that six new jails would become operational
within one month in Punjab. The statement came in response to a petition filed
by a lawyer against overcrowding in jails in Punjab. The DIG said that the
construction of a high security prison in Sahiwal, District Jail Pakpattan, District
Jail Bhakkar, District Jail Layyah, District Jail Okara and family rooms in
Lahore Central Jail had been completed and their staff had already been recruited.
The court asked the DIG to submit details about the 11 other prisons under
construction in the province. Till the end of the year, however, none of these
In jails the population exceeded the authorised capacity.
jails had become functional. The announcement for these new jails was made
in March 2012 when a preliminary budget of Rs 400 million was approved for
new jails to be built in 10 districts of Punjab. During a Punjab Assembly session,
the prisons minister noted that jammers had been installed in 14 prisons in
Punjab while provisions had been made to install the devices in all the prisons
in the province by the end of the financial year. Multan and Faisalabad jails
constructed family rooms in 2014.
Insanitary conditions in the prison, unhygienic food as well as overcrowding
caused major health concerns. During a Punjab Assembly session, the Punjab
prisons minister stated that in prisons across the province, 80 HIV positive
and 31 AIDS patients were present in December 2014. He said the per-head
cost of food for prisoners had increased to Rs 80.9.However, HRCP’s fact-
finding missions in 13 prisons all over Pakistan in 2013 and 2014 failed to see
improvement in food quality. In October, 17 prisoners in District Jail, Swat
fainted after consuming contaminated food. The affected prisoners were sent
to Saidu Sharif hospital for treatment while the two jail officials held responsible
for the incident were suspended. The quality of food observed in HRCP’s
prison survey confirmed that there was room for significant improvement.
Riots proved increasingly difficult to control, especially in prisons where
high profile terrorists were confined. On January 5, two factions of the Taliban
clashed in Central Prison, Peshawar, during a row over Asr[afternoon] prayer.
One group wished to perform collective prayer first but was not allowed to do
so by the opposing faction. Prison staff was able to control the situation in
half an hour but by then seven prisoners had been injured. Army personnel
also reached the prison but the situation had already come under control. The
security forces, which had carried out an 18-hour search operation in the
Art work by prisoners.
prison only two days earlier, remained deployed at the prison to bolster security.
On January 10, a brawl broke out between Christian and Muslim prisoners
at Kot Lakhpat Central Jail, Lahore. A few weeks earlier a Muslim teacher had
warned a Christian teacher not to preach Christianity in the prison. The argument
escalated and resulted in a clash. Subsequently, the jail officials isolated some
Christian prisoners for complaining to their families about ill-treatment and
beat them with clubs. The police beat them for half an hour and severely
injured 33 prisoners, according to some inmates. The prison authorities said
they had filed an FIR against five Christian prisoners. However, no such FIR
was found, nor was there a record of the clash in the prison’s daily diary.
A person claiming to be a spokesperson for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP) called a local newspaper in Karachi and warned the officials
of the Karachi Central Jail to stop what he called torture and ill-treatment of
100 or so Taliban prisoners. The caller threatened jail officials, stating that
their fate would be similar to that of Crime Investigation Department’s
Superintendent Chaudhry Aslam, who was killed in a bomb attack on his car
in Karachi on January 9 in 2014. He said that in Sukkur Jail, Taliban prisoners
were stripped and tortured while in Central Jail, Karachi, they were not allowed
to meet their families. He said that if the Taliban prisoners were transferred
from one jail to another, they would also transfer former prime minister Yusuf
Raza Gillani’s son, who remains in Taliban custody since May 2013, to a place
‘from where his return would be impossible.’
There were some positive efforts to introduce advanced technology to
facilitate provision of justice to needy prisoners. In early 2010, prisons in
Punjab installed video conferencing facilities to conduct trials in jails for
dangerous criminals, thus diminishing the risks faced while transferring them
to and from courts. It could also prove useful for identification of prisoners
without legal representation and to provide them with free legal aid. However,
the system was marred by problems in Kot Lakhpat Jail Lahore where it had
been installed for many years. Several hours of load shedding meant that the
system could not function properly. Since courts had hundreds of cases to go
through in a day, waiting for electricity for hours so that the case could proceed
wasted precious time.
Prison break
Though the discourse surrounding prisons in the country almost exclusively
revolved around greater security and completely ignored aspects such as
rehabilitation, actual or suspected prison breaks remained a problem throughout
the year. The security equipment in use at the prisons was largely found to be
either defective or non-existent. Phone jammers were installed in 15 jails in
Punjab at the end of November. Otherwise, the use of cell phones to commit
crimes and carry out terrorist activities from within jails had remained a cause
of alarm for authorities. Another problem that added to the lax security was jail
officials’ corruption. Bribes were paid to help prisoners escape or to allow cell
phone use inside the prisons.
Two prisoners managed an easy escape from the Sadar Police Station in
Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On February 9, when prisoners were
brought outside their cells in the courtyard for prayers, three prisoners managed
to escape by the front gate. Their absence was only noted by the police when
a head count was done afterwards. One of the prisoners was caught while the
search for the other two was going on. That the escape was such a simple
affair was perhaps because the judicial lockup with a capacity of 15 housed
62 under-trial prisoners.
On January 3, the army conducted a search operation in Peshawar Central
Prison after receiving intelligence reports that terrorists had passed on jackets,
potentially believed to be stuffed with explosives later for use in suicide
bombings, to Taliban prisoners in the jail. The search operation started at 10
pm when 150 army personnel carried out a thorough search in the prison to
recover any hidden explosives. A day before, a Taliban prisoner had requested
a policeman to receive some jackets at the gate of the prison. The policeman
took the jackets in his possession but they were not passed on. An operation
was carried out by security forces with explosive detectors and sniffer dogs.
The security forces confiscated some SIMs recovered from prisoners. They
allegedly took control of the prison for two days and afterwards kept making
surprise visits. They also detained a police constable and shifted him to an
unknown location for allegedly having links with the incarcerated militants.
The jail administration was told that the entire operation was nothing more
than a security rehearsal. Later it was also reported in the media that the
A briefing on the tunnel dug to help prisoners to escape.
jackets were perhaps ordered by the prisoner only to cope with the cold
weather.
In October, Rangers personnel in Karachi managed to foil a major jailbreak
attempt involving an underground tunnel. Some five months earlier, several
suspects had purchased a house in Ghausia Colony near Central Jail, Karachi
and proceeded to dig a 45-metre tunnel to free some 100 or so prisoners.
When the tunnel was discovered after intelligence reports informed the local
police, it had to be dug only another 10 meters more in order to reach the jail
barracks, which lay at approximately 55 meters from the purchased house. A
representative of the Pakistan Rangers in Sindh confirmed that the persons
arrested belonged to a banned outfit though he did not confirm their number.
It was later revealed by the provincial minister of prisons and IG prisons that
the house was bought from a policeman at four times its market price. A
committee headed by the home secretary was also constituted to carry out
investigations into the incident and find out if any inside help was provided.
On February 4, six prisoners undergoing trial for murder, robbery, theft,
kidnapping and other heinous crimes managed to escape from the Dalbandin
Police Station’s judicial lockup in Balochistan province. The six men managed
to break the rear wall of the lockup and escape in the night of February 3.
Subsequently, 11 policemen were suspended for negligence. A search operation
was launched in Chagai and Noshki districts to re-arrest the prisoners.
Custodial torture
According to the penal code, any piece of evidence acquired through
torture cannot be used in a court of law. However, custodial torture remained
rampant in jails and police stations across Pakistan. Torture is yet to be defined
in the penal code of Pakistan. So, all matters relevant to it are dealt with under
grievous hurt clauses. Also the narrow definition of torture given in the Police
Order 2002 limits it to torture by police officials and only when the intent is to
extract a confession. Thus, for example, torture committed by the law enforcers
to extract bribes is not covered. Lack of use of sophisticated methods of
investigation, like DNA testing etc, leaves the investigation team with only one
method to solve a crime i.e. confession. A cursory glance at convictions in
any year shows that in a majority of cases, the primary evidence used to
convict someone is confession. Perhaps then the only thing standing between
a conviction and a lingering case for police officials is the use of torture to
extract a confession. The government must invest in alternative and more
sophisticated methods of investigation so that the police officials do not feel
entitled to torture the accused.
According to HRCP’s media monitoring, 72 prisoners died in jails in 2014
while 47 others were injured due to accidents or in various clashes. At least 50
of these deaths were confirmed to have been caused by illness or old-age and
at least three as a result of custodial torture. The high incidence of deaths in
custody of young or apparently healthy men due to heart failure was a worrying
trend. Persons, either accused or arbitrarily arrested, were often picked up by
the police and their bodies handed over to the family within a few days. Post
mortem reports were rarely made public and few policemen found guilty were
ever tried or punished otherwise.
On November 21, a man was accused of drug peddling and taken into
custody. The next day the police said he had died in custody and his body was
handed over to the family. The family staged a demonstration in front of the
Green Town Police Station in Lahore and demanded registration of case against
its Station House Officer (SHO). Instead of lending an ear to the aggrieved
family, the police arrested 10 protestors and registered a case against them.
The demonstration was called off after the DIG wrote to the Capital City
Police Office (CCPO) requesting for a judicial inquiry into the matter.
There were reports of the prison officials demanding heavy bribes from
the prisoners in order to escort them to court for a hearing. Those who could
not pay or refused to do so were severely tortured. In June, a prisoner was
beaten so badly by the jail superintendent of Central Jail, Lahore that the
prisoner’s right leg was fractured. The prisoner petitioned in court against the
torture. While hearing the case, the additional district and sessions judge asked
the jail authorities to step outside so that the victim could record his statement.
The detenu said that the prison officials shaved off prisoners’ head and eyebrows
and subjected them to brutal torture if they failed to carry out their demands.
Later on, however, the prisoner proceeded to forgive the officials involved.
In May, a 68-year-old man with four Masters degrees, convicted for
72 prisoners died in jails in 2014 while 47 others were injured in
accidents or in various clashes.
murder and incarcerated at Adiala Jail, was tortured and stripped naked after
he protested against the jail authorities’ attitude. During routine search, the jail
assistant superintendant (ASP) took away his two vests to which the prisoner
protested. The ASP forced him out into the lawn and in full view of the other
prisoners tortured him and stripped him naked while hurling abuses at him.
His daughter filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the jail
officials. During a hearing on May 28, the judge directed the Prisons IG to
submit a detailed report after inquiry into the incident. He also highlighted the
dual standards observed in prisons in which some favoured prisoners were
given LCD televisions while others did not even have access to pain-killing
medications. The victim also noted that the jail staff regularly demanded bribes
from him and though he was entitled to a B class status, he was kept with C
class status prisoners.
As per law, it is the obligation of the state to carry out a medical examination
of an accused before and after the physical remand at a judicial lockup in a
police station. On the basis of the second report, the court decides whether
the evidence is admissible or not depending on whether it was acquired through
torture. However, medico-legal reports are rarely accurate and the police officials
are known to influence their findings. Medical officers sometimes sign the
report without having examined the accused. Such practices make it difficult
to detect torture and to curb it.
Indian and Pakistani prisoners

India and Pakistan continued arresting each other’s fishermen and seizing
their boats for violating their territorial waters though their borders are not
clearly defined in the Arabian Sea. Many are sent to jail where they often
languish for at least a year before being handed over to the authorities in their
homeland. India freed 37 Pakistani fishermen held for almost 16 months in
May. Pakistan also freed 151 Indian prisoners in the same month and returned
57 fishing boats as a goodwill gesture before Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s
attendance at Narendra Modi’s swearing-in as India’s prime minister.
In December alone, 58 Indian fishermen were arrested from Pakistan’s
territorial waters. By the end of the year, they were waiting for an appearance
before a magistrate.
On December 11, a 30-year-old Indian fisherman died while imprisoned
at the Malir District Jail in Sindh. He had been arrested along with other fishermen
by the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency 10 months earlier. The initial report
submitted to the sessions judge stated that there were no marks of torture on
his body. According to the medical officer of the prison, he had suffered from
hypertension and asthma. The cause of death was withheld until the autopsy
and chemical examination reports were released.
After a delay of several months, some headway was made in the murder
case of Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national sentenced to death by the Supreme
Court of Pakistan in 1991 over terrorism charges. On September 10, in a trial
resumed through video-link due to security concerns, the Lahore additional
district and sessions judge summoned prosecution witnesses. Sarabjit Singh
was murdered in a high security jail in Pakistan in an assault by fellow death
row prisoners in 2013. Initially a one-member judicial commission was
constituted to probe the murder. In the commission’s report, Sarabjit’s killers
confessed to the crime, stating that it was revenge for his involvement in
bomb blasts in Lahore and Faisalabad.
Death Penalty
An informal moratorium on death penalty had been in place since 2008,
with only one execution till December 19, 2014. The death penalty had been
halted through a temporary executive order and the HRCP had been calling for
years to formalize it by banning the death penalty. In early August it seemed
the moratorium would be lifted because of the PML-N government’s initial
statements. After a meeting of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with out-going
President Asif Ali Zardari, it was decided that the moratorium would continue.
Though rights bodies welcomed the move, they criticized the government for
not sharing with the public the reasons for the decision.
The moratorium on death penalty was lifted after an attack on the Army
Public School in Peshawar on December 16. On December 17, the president
announced the resumption of executions only for those convicted of terrorism
charges. By the yearend, seven men had been executed in different jails across
Pakistan. Of these 11, at least six were convicted for an assassination attempt
on the then president and army chief, General Pervez Musharraf in 2004. Till
December 23, President Mamnoon Hussain had rejected the mercy petitions
of 50 prisoners on death row.
The Punjab and Sindh
governments were set to amend
execution rules in the Prison
Rules of 1978 to allow execution
of a convict a day after their
black warrant was issued. Such
measures aimed at speedy justice
often ignore procedures and
laws. The Prison Rules required
that an execution must take
place at least 14 to 21 days after
the issuance of the black
warrant. Such rules give room
for pardon so that a life can be
spared if the victim’s family
pardons the perpetrator after
their death warrant has been
issued. Pakistan had one of the largest
populations of death row prisoners in
In a conversation on the world, more than 8,000
December 25, UN Secretary-
General Ban Ki Moon urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to halt executions
and revive the moratorium. After offering his condolences for the school tragedy
in Peshawar, he stated that while it was important to respect the sentiments of
the people of Pakistan, the need for an independent judiciary to uphold the rule
of law could not be stressed enough.
Pakistan had one of the largest populations of death row prisoners in the
world, more than 8000 by the end of 2014. Of the 231 persons condemned to
death in 2014, 105 were sentenced for murder. Though it has been clearly
stated that the ones to be hanged will be only those convicted of terror charges,
the issuing of a black warrant for Shafqat Hussein indicated that perhaps the
death penalty would not be restricted to the most serious offences. In 2004,
the 15-year-old Shafqat Hussein was sentenced to death by an Anti-Terrorism
court. The judgment was based on a confession which was retrieved after
nine days of brutal torture, evidence of which was available in medico-legal
reports. His crime did not have anything to do with terrorism either. Shafqat’s
death warrant was soon to be issued at the end of the year and numerous
human rights groups from around the world campaigned against it. He was
also scheduled for execution in August 2013 along with seven other men but it
was cancelled merely a week before the execution was set to take place.
In 2011, religio-political Jamaat-e-Islami party had written a letter to the
president, seeking a pardon for
Death Penalty in Pakistan
Mumtaz Qadri, the self-
2004-2014
confessed killer of Punjab
Year Convicted Executed
governor Salman Taseer. The
2004 455 21 letter said the case should be
2005 362 52 withdrawn because the murder
2006 445 83 was ‘in the public interest’ and
2007 319 134 ‘in line with the sentiments of
2008 237 36 the masses’. In a statement
2009 277 0 issued on December 20, 2014
2010 356 0 however, the party’s secretary-
2011 313 0
general said death sentence
created a sense of respect for
2012 242 1
and sanctity of the law in
2013 227 0
society. He also said that
2014 231 7 ‘murderers, terrorists and
Total 3,463 338 enemies of humanity’ don’t
deserve concessions. Such dual
standards in dealing with murderers and terrorists brought the resolve of the
proponents of death penalty into question.
In January, Muhammad Asghar, a 70-year-old Briton, was sentenced to
death by a court in Rawalpindi over allegations of blasphemy. Asghar had a
long history of psychiatric problems; he was diagnosed with and treated for
depression in as early as 1993. In 2010, he was diagnosed with late onset of
paranoid schizophrenia. He was initially arrested in 2010 after he wrote letters
claiming prophethood. During his trial, Asghar claimed to be a prophet in
court in the presence of the judge and the prosecutors. Despite the overwhelming
evidence of psychological disease, he was found mentally fit to stand trial and
subsequently sentenced to death. Politicians, including British Prime Minister
David Cameron, academics and numerous rights groups in Britain and Pakistan
pleaded for mercy. His family
Death Penalty convicts in Pakistan 2014 appealed that Asghar remained
Region Convicts unsafe in Adiala Jail as Pakistan
Punjab 5,779 had seen numerous cases of
Balochistan 98 mob justice in cases of
blasphemy. On October 28, a
Sindh Data not
available prison guard at Adiala Jail
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Data not proceeded to shoot and
available seriously injure Asghar.
Gilgit-Baltistan 19 Subsequent investigation and
Total 5,896 interrogation revealed that the
guard had served two weeks
March against enforced disappearances in Balochistan and elsewhere in Pakistan.
at Mumtaz Qadri’s jail cell. During this time, Qadri had regularly given him
religious sermons and motivated him to target blasphemy accused prisoners in
the jail.
For some years now HRCP has been calling for a reduction in the number
of offences which carry the death penalty. Till 2014, more than two dozen
offences carried the death penalty including adultery, sabotage of the railway
system and stripping a woman’s clothes. The argument that the death penalty
is a deterrent to heinous crime is countered by the falling number of death
penalty convictions in Pakistan. In the moratorium years, the courts continued
to hand down death sentences but the number reduced consistently from 455
in 2004 to 231 in 2014, potentially indicating a fall in serious crime in recent
years.
Disappearances/arbitrary detention
A grave human rights violation in the form of enforced and involuntary
disappearances continued unabated in Pakistan during 2014. The momentum
gained in 2013 in trying those responsible for enforced disappearances by the
Supreme Court all but faded into oblivion as further cases were reported from
all regions of Pakistan except Punjab. By the end of 2014, in the entire Asian
region, only Philippines had a specific law outlawing enforced disappearances.
Where once cases of enforced disappearances were reported only from
Balochistan and more recently from KP, the year under review saw the worrying
trend grow in Sindh. Pakistan, instead of taking steps towards prohibiting this
serious human rights violation, moved towards providing the perpetrators with
legal cover. Completely disregarding the recommendations by the United Nations
Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances made in 2012,
the government passed the Protection of Pakistan Act (PPA) 2014 which was
a defeat for human rights groups,
civil society, families of the
disappeared and all concerned
citizens of the country.
The government’s
seriousness in ensuring justice and
protection of human rights for the
population and ending impunity
was seriously doubted in July
when the National Assembly
passed the Protection of Pakistan
Bill 2014. Within one week of its
passing, it was challenged in the
Islamabad High Court by an MNA
for having provisions contrary to
the fundamental rights enshrined
in the constitution. The PPA aimed
at protection against waging war
against Pakistan, prevention of
acts threatening security of
Pakistan and for speedy trial of
A boy poses for a portrait holding a offences, though these were
photograph of his father, who went already covered under a host of
missing in 2010, while he and other existing laws including Pakistan
relatives take a break from a long march
protest, in Rawalpindi.
Penal Code. The PPA, vide a
number of provisions, stripped the
citizens of Pakistan of their most basic rights. Any person even suspected of
about to cause death, grievous hurt to or destruction of property of the armed
forces and its subsidiaries could be arrested or fired upon. It granted the
armed forces immunity for arbitrary detentions when it said “Government
may not in the interest of the security of Pakistan disclose the grounds for
detention or divulge any information relating to the detainee”. According to
international human rights standards, the involuntary abduction or deprivation
of liberty by agents of the state and subsequent denial of information regarding
the detainee are the conditions which qualify as enforced disappearance. Despite
the obvious breach of constitutional guarantees, the bill was passed, effectively
legalizing arbitrary arrest and detention, and enforced disappearances.
According to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances
(CIED) report submitted to the interior ministry at the end of 2014, there were
as many as 1,265 cases of missing persons pending with the commission.
According to the interior ministry, 155 bodies of missing persons were found
in 2014, 67 of which were Baloch. A Supreme Court judge said on record
“…the involvement of intelligence departments has been found in every case
[of missing persons] which the court took for hearing.” Despite these well
documented cases and officially accepted figures, HRCP was not aware of a
single case in which the security forces or the intelligence agencies had faced
prosecution or even an inquiry for unlawful deprivation of liberty, arbitrary
arrest and illegal confinement in Pakistan. International human rights law and
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) place a burden
on the authorities in Pakistan to investigate gross violations of human rights.
The CIED was able to trace 56 missing persons in October alone but prosecution
and conviction details were not available.
According to data from HRCP’s monitoring of 48 critical districts of
Pakistan, 129 new cases of enforced disappearance were reported in the year
under review, 106 of which were from only nine districts of Balochistan. In
November, the bodies of five persons, who had been missing since July, were
recovered from a field in village Kotarpan in Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The bodies were thrown in gunny bags and a post mortem revealed that the
cause of death was poison administered through injections. They were identified
through their identity cards in their shirt pockets. All wore the same clothes
they had worn when they had disappeared four months earlier. Two of these
men, namely, Asghar Ali and Irshad Ali, had been charged with numerous
crimes but had been acquitted by the Anti Terrorism Court in 2010. A third,
Zulfiqar s/o Fazal Ilahi was charged with car lifting but was on bail when he
was picked up in July 2014. The remaining two, Mushtaq Ahmad Jan and
Noor Rahman, had no cases registered against them. The case was unlikely to
make much headway in the courts, especially in terms of convictions for the
perpetrators though it was a clear case of extra-judicial killing and enforced
disappearance.
On January 1, the Supreme Court sought a reply from the defence ministry
regarding the disappearance of Atiqur Rehman, an engineering student at the
University of Lahore, who went missing from Sheikhupura in July 2012. The
Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (CIED) presented its
report to the court in which it stated that prima facie the case was one of
enforced disappearance and held the intelligence agencies responsible. However,
a report submitted by the Military Intelligence (MI) and the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) said they had no information on Atiq ur Rehman’s
whereabouts. In July 2012, Atiq ur Rehman had received a phone call from his
friend to arrange a meeting. The two met at a nearby shop when personnel of
the Punjab police, some persons in plainclothes and a few commandos picked
up both of them and took them away in separate cars. Atiq ur Rehman’s
friend, who was released four months later, explained that the two had been
kept separately in captivity.
In late January, a local farmer in Tootak area of Khuzdar district in
Balochistan province discovered some human remains near his house. When
security forces arrived and started digging around, a mass grave was discovered.
Immediately afterwards, the chief minister of Balochistan constituted a judicial
commission to conduct an inquiry. According to official reports, 17 dead
bodies were retrieved from the graves, though rights groups and families of
missing persons said the figure was severely understated. Human rights bodies
also dismissed the findings of the commission which absolved the armed
forces and intelligence agencies of any responsibility in the case. The site itself
was almost immediately cordoned off by the authorities and subsequently no
rights groups were allowed to visit to conduct impartial fact findings.
Organizations and groups working for missing persons in Balochistan said
that the Tootak mass graves were one among many found all over the province.
HRCP expressed alarm at the rising number of cases of enforced
disappearances and dumping of bodies in Sindh in 2014. According to HRCP’s
media monitoring, 11 political activists have disappeared from Sindh in 2014.
The persons picked up and dumped later were all young men, often associated
with nationalist political parties. The victims included Sindh University students,
activists of Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz
(JSQM) and others. In the numerous cases reported, the involvement of the
agencies and security forces was either confirmed by eye-witnesses or was
actively suspected due to the precedent they have set in dealing with dissent
over the last few decades in Pakistan. On October 30, a JSQM activist Waheed
Lashari was travelling with his sister on public transport when he was abducted
from Qambar Shahdadkot district in Sindh. His bullet-riddled body was found
from a sewerage pond in Karachi’s Malir area. On September 18, a 28-year
old Sindhi named Rano Khan was taken into custody by the police during a
raid in his village. When the villagers and Rano Khan’s family visited the police
station the next day, they denied involvement in any raid or in the arrest of
Rano Khan.
Despite orders from the sessions judge for Khan’s release, his whereabouts
remained unknown.
The charred bodies of three JSQM activists, including that of Maqsood
Qureshi, the brother of Bashir Qureshi, were found in a burnt out car in
Hyderabad on 21 March. No headway was made in investigations while the
party blamed the incident on intelligence agencies.
Pakistan has not yet signed or ratified the convention against enforced
disappearances. Nor has it defined the crime in domestic legislation. But the
government still has a responsibility to investigate and prosecute cases of
enforced disappearance under Article 9 and 10 of the Constitution of Pakistan
which prevent deprivation of life or liberty of a person and provide safeguards
against arbitrary arrest and detention. All persons who have been denied justice
by being arbitrarily detained or disappeared and kept under illegal confinement
should be paid compensation by the state. The laws which were in place to
provide protection against crimes committed by state agents should have
provisions for compensation and reparation so that the victim’s faith in the
rule of law and justice can be restored.
Internment centres
For several years thousands of persons, kept outside the ambit of the law
under illegal detention, have been confined in unaccounted for internment
centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. There was no official record of
these prisoners, nor any access to courts in the country. They could simply be
picked up and hidden away for years under various security laws application
to FATA and PATA regions. These prisoners did not enjoy the safeguards other
prisoners did in the country i.e. visiting rights of families, right to appeal for an
inquiry in case of torture or custodial death.
In 2014, the Peshawar High Court directed the head of the Kohat internment
centre to produce a report on the deaths of four internees whose families were
handed over their bodies without fulfilling the legal requirement of a post-
mortem examination. The families had complained that their loved ones’ bodies
bore visual marks of torture with at least one aging man saying his son’s legs
were blackened perhaps due to poisoning or electrocution. The court directed
the FATA additional chief secretary and provincial home secretary not to hand
over an internee’s body to their family without first ascertaining the cause of
death. The court inquired from the person in charge of the internment facility
and the superintendent of Kohat Jail why the post-mortem had not been
conducted. When their reply was received by the court in October, it was
immediately rejected. The death certificates produced before the court said
that the deaths were natural and despite provision of medical facilities, the
internees had not recovered. The officials failed to produce post-mortem
reports. On November 18, the court issued arrest warrants for the two officials
for their failure to comply with the court orders. Till the end of the year, the
death certificates had not been produced.
In November the Peshawar High Court dismissed six habeas corpus
petitions by families of missing persons after they were traced to an internment
centre in Ghalanai in Mohmand Agency, FATA. The detainees had been interned
under the Action in Aid of Civil Powers Regulation 2011 and had been declared
‘black’, which meant that the authorities possessed evidence of the persons’
involvement in terrorist activities and thus the courts could not proceed any
further in the case. Simply an acknowledgment by the authorities of having
detained a person does not provide any legal remedy to the accused as they
remain vulnerable to torture, ill treatment and even extra-judicial killing.
Recommendations
1. The government should immediately codify enforced disappearance
and declare it unlawful and prosecute those held responsible for this heinous
human rights violation.
2. Pakistan should immediately ratify the International Convention for
the Protection of All Persons From Enforced Disappearance
3. Since Pakistan ratified CAT in 2012, it should be codified into law
and provisions made to provide compensation and reparations to the victims
of torture. According to international standards of human rights, reparation
and compensation is due to all those who have been denied justice under the
law. Provisions should be made to provide reparations for persons who have
been disappeared, arbitrarily arrested and detained or their next of kin.
4. Human rights groups should be allowed to visit internment centres so
that persons confined there can be brought under the ambit of the law.
5. The judicial system should devise alternatives to penal servitude so
that the problem of overcrowding of jails can be addressed.

Freedom of movement
Every citizen shall have the right to remain in and, subject to any
reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the public interest, enter and move
freely throughout Pakistan and to reside and settle in any part thereof.
Article 15
Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the
borders of each state.
Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to
return to his country.
Article 17(1,2)
1. Everyone lawfully within the territory of a State shall, within that territory,
have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose his residence.
2. Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own.
3. The above-mentioned rights shall not be subject to any restrictions
except those which are provided by law, are necessary to protect national
security, public order (ordre public), public health or morals or the rights and
freedoms of others, and are consistent with the other rights recognized in
the present Covenant.
4. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Article 12
Freedom of movement is a vital prerequisite to the free development of a

Freedom of movement 107
person, not least because several other human rights depend on it.
It is the freedom for anyone lawfully within the territory of a state to
move without undue restriction, to choose one’s place of residence and to be
able to leave and return to one’s country.
Pakistan, as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR), is permitted to place limitations on movement, but these
must comply with the requirement of necessity under Article 12 (3) of the
ICCPR as well as the need for consistency with the other rights recognised in
the covenant. The UN Human Rights Committee has observed (in General
Comment 27) that the restrictions on Article 12 rights should be exceptional
and no limitation must have the effect of nullifying the principle of liberty of
movement.
The constitution of Pakistan acknowledges every citizen’s right, “subject
to any reasonable restriction imposed by law in the public interest”, to enter
and move freely within the country and to reside and settle in any part of it.
In 2014, Article 12 rights were compromised in Pakistan, directly or
indirectly, on account of a range of factors including armed conflict and absence
of the writ of state in some areas, general lawlessness and targeted attacks,
and the inability of the people to travel because of absence or shortage of
means of travel, including scarcity of flights for domestic travel for areas that
were either too remote or too disturbed for safe road travel. The citizens’
freedom of movement was also at times hindered by conditions that made
travel difficult, including the cost of travel and poor road infrastructure.
The right to move freely and to establish oneself in a place of one’s choice
relates to the entire territory of a State. This entitlement was tested by
circumstances that forced a large number of citizens to flee their homes.
Major population exodus occurred in Federally Administered Tribal Areas
(FATA), mainly in North Waziristan Agency of starting in June and in Khyber
Agency in October after military operations were launched in the two districts
to dislodge militant extremist groups. Anti-IDP rhetoric and at least some
opposition and hurdles to the entry of displaced persons from FATA to the
provinces of Sindh and Punjab were noticed, particularly in June and July.
Hundreds of thousands of people in debt bondage remained in conditions
of virtual slavery. The so-called bonded labour was endemic in agriculture in
Sindh and brick kilns in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
As in previous years, the government barred several clerics from a number
of cities during the month of Muharram in 2014 with a view to preventing
them from fanning sectarian hatred. Apart from this once-a-year curb, however,
little action was initiated against these clerics for hate speech.
The right to leave the country came under what some affected individuals
Natural disasters and armed conflict led to involuntary internal displacement
of hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis.
called arbitrary curbs on travel abroad by inclusion of individuals’ names in

the Exit Control List. In some cases, courts found the restriction to be arbitrary.
A more general complaint of undue delay in provision of passports to citizens
in the country or through Pakistani missions abroad was highlighted by the
media and attracted judicial attention.
Imposition of curfew amid security forces’ operations against militant
extremists in parts of FATA and some districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province, occasional curfew-like situations, such as strike calls in Karachi and
closure of roads by the Punjab and federal governments to thwart two
somewhat coordinated protests and sit-ins in Islamabad from August onwards
also affected the citizens’ liberty of movement.
Closure of the relatively more affordable compressed natural gas (CNG)
during winter months and even otherwise for most days of the week, particularly
in the Punjab and to a lesser extent in Sindh, made travel expensive and served
as a deterrent to all but the most essential travel for many middle-income
citizens.
Media reports seemed to suggest that provision of basic facilities in rural
areas and small towns could have prevented a large number of citizens from
relocating to bigger cities.
Freedom of movement
From natural disasters to armed conflict and even harassment by criminal
gangs, a number of factors led to millions of Pakistanis becoming victims of
involuntary internal displacement. Hurdles in liberty of movement even as they
were uprooted made life particularly difficult for the conflict affected. [See
also the chapter ‘Refugees’]
The military operations in North Waziristan and Khyber district in FATA
aimed at ousting extremist militants forced more than two million residents
out of their homes. In late June and early July, the provinces of Punjab and
Sindh were reported to be opposing entry of the displaced citizens from FATA.
In mid-June, the Sindh information minister was reported as stating that
individuals coming from outside Sindh would be registered at the inter-provincial
borders and allowed entry only after satisfying the authorities about the purpose
of their visit and giving the name of the person they intended to visit. He urged
the citizens to carry their national identity cards while travelling to avoid
hardship. However, the leader of opposition in the National Assembly, who
belonged to the ruling party in Sindh, stated in the beginning of July that the
constitution guaranteed the freedom of movement to every Pakistani and no
one could bar displaced persons from entering any part of the country. The
Punjab government also quickly rebutted any impression of barring access to
the internally displaced.
However, in July, a number of Sindhi nationalist parties announced ‘Sindh
Bachao’ (Save Sindh) movement against the influx of IDPs, and blocked traffic
between Punjab and Sindh for a couple of days. The protesters stopped traffic
entering Sindh from Punjab through a major route for one whole day. The
following day they staged sit-ins at Ghotki and Kandhkot bypasses. However,
on that day the protesters were content to bar buses, coaches and trucks
carrying the IDPs, while allowing all other vehicles to pass through.
Safety of travel
Several instances of targeting of passenger trains and railway tracks were
reported, representing a disturbing method of sabotage, considering the large
number of people who used the railways as their primary mode of travel,
especially across provincial boundaries.
Insurgent groups in Balochistan claimed responsibility for indiscriminate
targeting of passenger trains. These included a blast targeting a train at a
railway station in Sibi district of Balochistan, which killed 16 persons and
wounded 40 others in April. In another attack in the same month, three people
were killed and six others injured when armed men opened fire on a passenger
train in Bolan district of Balochistan.
An explosion on the main railway track near Karachi, in the Sindh province,
killed one girl and injured 23 persons when a train was targeted in February.
Train tracks had been targeted in Sindh before, with suspicion falling on fringe
separatist groups, but those had not resulted in loss of life.
Other attacks or botched attempts to target trains or railway track were
Suicide attack on two buses carrying Shia pilgrims returning from Iran in Mastung, Balochistan.
reported from Nawabshah, Kotri and Hyderabad in Sindh, Rahim Yar Khan in
Punjab and some parts of Balochistan.
Attacks on vehicles also targeted Shia Muslims in many parts of the country.
On January 21, at least 28 people were killed and around 40 injured when
a suicide bomber targeted two buses carrying Shia pilgrims returning from
Iran in Mastung district of Balochistan.
Because of previous acts of terrorism against pilgrims, their travel to and
from Iran without official security escorts had been barred a couple of years
ago.
Two vehicles of security forces’ personnel escorting the buses were also
damaged and four personnel injured in the Mastung attack.
Banned militant organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), claimed
responsibility and warned of more such attacks.
The January 21 bombing in Mastung was the second attack on Shia pilgrims
in that part of Balochistan over three weeks. On January 1, one person was
killed and 34 injured when an explosives-laden vehicle targeted an Iran-bound
bus carrying Shia pilgrims in Hazar Ganji area of Quetta. Jaishul Islam, a
banned militant outfit, had claimed responsibility for the attack. [See the chapter
on ‘Freedom of thought, conscience and religion’]
Skirting the issue

On January 24, the Balochistan government suspended the movement of
buses carrying Shia pilgrims from travelling through the province to neighbouring
Iran due to security concerns.
The government then arranged C-130 flights for 301 pilgrims returning
from Iran and flew them to Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, from
Dalbandin town for fear of more attacks on the Taftan-Quetta highway. Earlier,
law enforcement personnel had escorted the buses of the 301 pilgrims from
the border crossing with Iran to Dalbandin airport.
On June 9, the government banned road trips to Iran for Shia pilgrims
after four men targeted two restaurants in Taftan, near the Iranian border a
day earlier. As many as 30 pilgrims returning home from Iran were killed in
that attack. The bodies and injured were shifted in army helicopters from
Taftan at the Pakistan-Iran border to Quetta.
Hundreds of protesters from the Shia Hazara community held a
demonstration in Quetta on June 15 against the ban on road travel to Iran.
They called for better security for pilgrims travelling to Iran and Iraq through
Balochistan. They said that not every pilgrim could afford the cost of air
travel.
Toward the end of October, the government was considering starting a
ferry service from Karachi to Iran for Shia pilgrims, who had been demanding
action to facilitate protection en route to the pilgrimage. The ferry service was
supposed to be a means to bypass the hazards in Balochistan.
At that time the ferry service was reported to be waiting only for a formal
no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ports
and shipping minister said the paperwork and other necessary arrangements
had been completed and the service would be launched immediately after the
NOC was issued. However, it did not start operating until the end of 2014.
Some faith-based attacks on the roads were also reported from other
parts of the country.
On October 2, three people were killed and nine injured when a roadside
bomb hit a passenger van near Gilgit in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region. All
the passengers belonged to the Shia community and the van was bound for
Haramosh valley, where the entire population is Shia. Police called the bombing
a sectarian attack.
Convoys and security escorts

The system of formation of convoys of passenger buses and assigning
security escorts to the vehicles was not confined to Balochistan.
Travel for passenger buses and vans in convoys was made mandatory in
Gilgit-Baltistan following terrorist attacks in 2011-12, when buses were stopped
KKH blocked by anti-convoy transporters in Kohistan.
by armed men, who murdered Shia passengers after verifying their sectarian
identity.
However, substantial efforts were not made to deal with the threats and
actors behind the targeting of vehicles.
In April, two transport associations in Gilgit-Baltistan threatened to suspend
the bus service between the region and Rawalpindi. They were unhappy over
the system where usually around 40 passenger buses had to wait for hours
until a convoy was formed and escorted by security vehicles. They said that
travel in convoys doubled the time of the journey which used to take 15 hours.
Travel from other Gilgit-Baltistan districts, such as Skardu, Astor and Ganche,
took much longer. The transport associations said buses were made to stop in
Besham for eight hours at night owing to security risks. However, that added
to difficulties for passengers as the area lacked proper hotels.
Magnified distances
Failure to complete or repair important highways made travel longer and
arduous than it had to be in many parts of the country. There was no shortage
of locations in the country where, on account of inadequate or missing road
infrastructure, a journey of a few dozen kilometres took more than a day in
this day and age.
In June, hundreds of passenger and goods transport vehicles remained
stranded for nearly four days in Lowari because of blockage of an unpaved
part of Dir-Chitral road passing through a stream. The passengers, including
women and children, were stuck in the deserted area without food. The same
route also routinely closed for weeks or even months in the winter due to
Passenger and goods transport vehicles stranded at Daro Khwar area of Lowari
because of blockage at the unpaved part of Dir-Chitral road passing through a stream.
snowfall, virtually cutting off the residents of Chitral from the rest of the
country. In January, media reports stated that the army engineering corps had
been directed to keep the Lowari Top route open. The residents of Chitral
earlier used to reach other parts of Pakistan after passing through Afghanistan
during the winter months. However, after the closure of Pak-Afghan border
the residents of Chitral district had been dependent on the Lowari Top route.
Snowfall in March again caused closure of the route.
In some parts of the country, travel on some highways became such a
hazardous endeavour at night on account of poor law and order that citizens
routinely avoided using those roads after nightfall.
The cost of air travel meant that only a fraction of the population could
afford that mode of travel. The lowest return airfare within the country cost
more than the minimum wage. Even the airfare for one-way domestic travel
cost more than the minimum wage for most destinations.
Even those who could afford air travel had to suffer frequent and
unannounced delays and cancellation of flights. Timely departure of flights,
rather than delays, was the exception, especially for the ones operated by the
state-owned airline.
For the mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region, the flights were highly weather-
dependent and the alternative was a solitary road, where landslides were not
uncommon, and where the journey often took an entire day, and at times
much longer.
Media reports suggested that a large number of citizens in rural areas or
small towns felt compelled to move to bigger cities because of absence of
basic needs, especially the health and education infrastructure, as well as crime
and lack of economic opportunities. It appeared that provision of adequate
education and health, livelihood opportunities and better road links to urban
areas could have persuaded many of them against relocating.
Imposition of curfew during security operations created difficulties in
citizens’ movement, especially in parts of FATA where security forces were
engaged in operations against militant groups.
In February, the authorities imposed curfew in most parts of North
Waziristan (including Mir Ali, Miranshah, Datta Khel, Razmak and Dosali) for
an indefinite period and security forces were authorised to shoot any violators.
The curfew, announced through loudspeakers, was imposed at a time when
hundreds of residents of the area were preparing to flee their houses after a
deadlock between the government and the Taliban. [See also the chapter
‘Refugees’]
Curfew intermittently remained in effect in many parts of North Waziristan
and was eased in June to allow civilians to escape a long-awaited crackdown
on the Taliban and other militants in North Waziristan.
Freedom to choose residence

The protection against all forms of forced internal displacement was denied
to citizens in several parts of the country, including those affected by floods in
the summer months and in FATA where over two million people had to flee
their homes amid a military operation against militant extremists. The victims
of conflict-induced displacement from FATA were again denied the freedom
to choose their place of residence as they initially faced hurdles in travelling to
destinations of their choice in the country, particularly in Sindh.
Some groups of citizens were reportedly forced to choose their place of
residence for safety. These included members of the Shia Hazara community
in Balochistan, who were increasingly concentrated in two localities in Quetta
and Shia Muslims who moved to Shia-only neighbourhoods even in big cities
such as Karachi, with a view to remaining safe from sectarian violence.
In some cities, such as Gilgit, some areas were off-limits to citizens from
members of certain sects. In Karachi, for people perceived to be associated
with a gang or political party localities of influence of a rival gang or political
party were no-go areas. Parts of Karachi remained under the control of the
Taliban and even the police could not enter those areas.
Violence in Balochistan against the so-called settlers, members of non-
Baloch ethnicities, mainly from Punjabi and Sindhi ethnic groups, compelled
many living in the province for generations to relocate to other parts of Pakistan.
Reports from Balochistan also offered accounts of members of the Shia
Hazara community going abroad in search of safety from faith-based attacks.
Accounts of Pakistani Christians languishing in abysmal conditions in Thailand
after fleeing persecution at home were also reported by the media.
Freedom to leave the country

Some delay in the grant of passports to those aspiring to travel abroad and
complaints of arbitrary use of Exit Control List, a system of border control by
the government, were reported during the year under review. Complaints of
Pakistan’s foreign missions not being equipped to issue machine-readable
passports led to the Supreme Court directing the government to expedite steps
to issue such passports to applicants.
Critics of the Exit from Pakistan (Control) Ordinance slammed the law
for taking away the right to leave one’s country without judicial review. They
stated that the law not only prevented from travel abroad individuals who
faced ongoing criminal or corruption investigations but even those who were
suspected of such violations. Their concern emanated from the potential for
the law to be used to victimise and harass political and other opponents of
whoever happened to be in authority.
While inclusion of names in the ECL was frequently challenged in courts
and these matters were adjudicated upon in 2014, no steps were taken to
address the concerns regarding the way the law was enforced.
Impediments to travel abroad

Attacks on aircraft and on the Karachi airport, the busiest in the country,
represented new threats to air travel, particularly international travel.
On June 8, at least 36 people, including 10 militants, were killed when the
militants attacked Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport. The banned Tehreek-
Attacks on aircraft and airports represented new hazards in air travel.

Government tried to block protest marchers by placing containers on roads.
i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack.

At least some airlines cancelled flights to Karachi after the attack and
media reports indicated that several airlines were reviewing Karachi flights.
On June 24, a woman was killed and two stewards were injured when a
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft coming from Saudi Arabia was
fired upon before landing at the Peshawar airport.
Following the attack, almost all international airlines operating from
Peshawar announced suspension of flight operations at the airport, citing
consideration for passenger and crew safety. Others briefly diverted Peshawar
flights to Islamabad. Most of these airlines resumed flights around a month
later. Qatar Airways, which had resumed flights to Peshawar in early July,
announced after the December 16 terrorist attack on Army Public School in
Peshawar in which around 150 people, mainly school children, were killed
that it was halting flights in and out of Peshawar “until further notice”.
In May, the World Health Organisation recommended strict travel
restrictions on Pakistan due to the rising number of polio cases in the country.
In a statement, the WHO said Pakistan, Cameroon, and the Syrian Arab Republic
posed the greatest risk of further wild poliovirus exportations in 2014. The
public health arm of the United Nations issued new guidelines to fight the
disease, recommending that Pakistanis traveling abroad should present a polio
vaccination certificate.
While the WHO could not impose travel restrictions itself, based on its
recommendation, any country could make travelling abroad for Pakistanis a
more difficult task than it already was.
Movement ‘contained’
In August, actions taken by the Punjab and federal governments after two
political parties, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek
(PAT), announced and later started somewhat coordinated protest marches
towards Islamabad caused considerable obstruction to citizens’ liberty of
movement. Both parties started their marches from Lahore.
The PTI was protesting against what it called organised poll rigging and
the PAT called for revamping of political system and bringing to justice those
responsible for the killing of several party workers in Lahore on June 17 in a
violent clash with the police. The government initially tried to block the marchers
by placing cargo containers on roads, hindering travel between several cities.
A simultaneous fuel shortage, whether accidental or planned, affected the
citizens’ ability to travel. Both parties held sit-ins at adjacent locations in
Islamabad. The closure of busy parts of the federal capital by a combination
of the sit-ins and security forces’ deployment made travelling around Islamabad
very difficult and time consuming. The sit-ins even made it difficult for members
of the superior judiciary to get to their offices in time.
‘Seasonal’ curbs
As in previous years, the authorities banned the entry of hundreds of
religious leaders in various districts in 2014 in a bid to prevent sectarian violence
in the month of Muharram. The ban announced in late October and
Novemberwas aimed at preventing clerics “from disturbing peace and
harmony” in these districts by fanning sectarian hatred. However, as had been
the practice, no action was initiated against these clerics apart from the roughly
month-long ban on entry into some districts.
Curbs on women’s movement

The obligation of the state includes ensuring that the freedom of movement
is protected not only from public but also from private interference. A number
of instances of an inability to fulfil that obligation were observed during the
year under review. These included interference with the right of women to
move freely in public places, without having to be chaperoned by male relatives.
In July, acid attacks targeting women in Balochistan, where such attacks
had been largely unheard off, fuelled suspicions that these were part of rising
religious extremism in the province, aimed at scaring women into staying at
home. On July 22, two men on a motorcycle sprayed acid using syringes on
two teenaged girls returning from a market in Mastung district of Balochistan.
A day earlier, men on two motorcycles had targeted four women aged between
18 and 50, in the same manner in Quetta, as they shopped for the upcoming
Eid celebrations in the market area of Sariab. Shopkeepers in both Quetta and
Mastung reported a drop in women customers following the attacks.
Hundreds of cases of acid attack, whose victims are overwhelmingly
A man stabbed around 50 women in public places in Cheechawatni over six months.
women, are reported in Pakistan every year. The attacks, which disfigure and
often blind the victims, have long been used in so-called ‘family feuds’, often
to ‘punish’ women deemed to have sullied family “honour”, or are suspected
of “indecent” behaviour, or even daring to turn down a marriage proposal. In
acid attacks around Pakistan, a majority of victims know their attackers. That
was not the case in either of the two acid attacks in Balochistan in July.
Political and human rights activists in Balochistan, which had long had a
liberal tradition and strong political participation by women, called the attacks
an attempt to create a climate of terror to prevent women from participating in
education, and social, political and economic activities. Others saw the attacks
as an attempt aimed at moral policing.
In somewhat similar attacks on women who ventured out to shop in
Sahiwal district of Punjab, the man believed to be responsible stated as much.
In May, police arrested a man accused of stabbing around 50 women in
public places in Cheechawatni town in Sahiwal district over a period of six
months. He reportedly confessed to targeting women unaccompanied by men
on roads or in marketplaces because “they were spreading vulgarity in society”.
Police officers engaged in the investigation told the media that the accused had
been influenced by local clerics who had convinced him that his actions were
‘very noble, moral and religious’. “My attacks have controlled vulgarity in
Cheechawatni… fearing my attacks, women now keep away from roads,”
the accused had reportedly told the investigators.
Recommendations
1. There is an urgent need for the state to fulfil its obligation to guarantee
the citizens freedom of movement across the entire territory of Pakistan, to
make sure that there are no no-go areas, and that the people are safe while
travelling throughout the country.
2. Freedom of movement should be protected not only from public but
also private interference. Special efforts should be made to ensure that women
are denied none of the rights available under Article 12 of the ICCPR.
3. The ECL should be made public, as should the reasons for placing
anyone’s name on it, and its arbitrary use should be stopped. The delay in
issuance of passports needs to be addressed and the facility to issue machine-
readable passports provided at all Pakistani missions abroad.
4. Special efforts must be made to protect citizens’ right to reside in a
place of their choice by protecting them against all forms of enforced
displacement. Implementation of laws against bonded labour should be ensured
as the most vulnerable sections of society find themselves in conditions of
virtual slavery.
5. Steps must be taken to make journey by road, train and air affordable,
efficient and reliable.

Freedom of thought,
conscience and religion
... It is the will of the people of Pakistan to establish an order ... wherein
shall be guaranteed fundamental rights, including equality of status, of
opportunity and before law, social, economic and political justice, and freedom
of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship and association, subject to law
and public morality
Preamble
Subject to law, public order and morality (a) every citizen shall have the
right to profess, practise and propagate his religion; and (b) every religious
denomination and every sect thereof shall have the right to establish, maintain
and manage its religious institutions.
Article 20
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are
endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in
a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 1
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion;
this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom,
either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest
his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 18
No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to
have a religion or belief of his choice.
No one shall be subject to discrimination by any state, institution, group
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion 121
of persons, or person on the grounds of religion or other belief.
UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of
Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief
Articles 1(2) and 2(1)
Pakistan’s religious minorities, which constitute 3% of the country’s

population, continued to face maltreatment during the year under review.
Discriminatory laws, militancy, the state’s failure to protect religious minorities,
and deep-rooted intolerance gave rise to many incidents of persecution.
No laws were made by the federal government to safeguard the interests
of minorities. Out of the four provincial assemblies only the Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa assembly passed two bills related to religious minorities. The
acts provided for the protection and management of properties of non-Muslim
communities.
A report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom pointed
out that Pakistan topped the list of countries that jailed citizens for allegedly
attacking religion the most. Though courts gave death sentence to people who
were charged with blasphemy, no one had ever been executed by the state.
However, the accused often faced mob attacks and vigilante violence. A majority
of the people charged with blasphemy were Muslim. More Ahmadis were
booked under these laws than Christians, Hindus, and Sikhs.
Many people from religious and sectarian minorities were targeted by
militants across Pakistan. The Zikri sect was also attacked twice and many
Zikris had to move from Balochistan to other parts of Pakistan. Representatives
of Christian and Hindu communities said they were fleeing from Pakistan to
other countries for safety.
According to the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA),
114 Christian, 29 Hindu, 10 Baha’i and four Buddhist families were among
those displaced from FATA due to Pakistan army’s operation against militants
in the region. Some displaced families talked to the media and said that they
were facing discrimination at the IDP camps in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtankhwa
where they had taken refuge. They also said they were being ignored at the
food distribution points.
The HRCP Expert Group on Communities Vulnerable because of their
Belief—a forum that has since 2010 brought together representatives of religious
minority communities with a view to finding answers to the challenges
confronting them on account of their faith—met twice during 2014. In the
first meeting held in July, the group dwelt at length on attacks on places of
worship of religious minorities and the motives for the attacks. In its second
meeting in November, the expert group discussed various aspects of access
to justice for members of religious minority communities and sects.
HRCP jointly organized a consultation with the Paris-based International
Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in January at which members of the
Increasing impact of the law
Source: Dawn

minority communities from across the country expressed their concerns. The
main issues highlighted by them included faith-based discrimination and
persecution in all spheres of their lives – from political and legal to education
and employment. Forced conversions were a matter of great concern for
Hindus and Christians. A Sikh participant talked about having to pay jazia to
militants in parts of KP (particularly Malakand division) in order to enter or
leave a place.
Religious minority groups

Some of the main trends, incidents and challenges faced by Pakistan’s
religious minorities are as follows:
Sikhs
In Pakistan lies the birthplace of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism.
However, life for the Sikh community, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has
become an ordeal because of the targeted killings and kidnappings they have
been facing. A lot of them had to resort to moving to other places like Rawalpindi
so that they did not have to live under constant threat to their life and could run
their businesses in a relatively secure environment.
On September 3, unidentified assailants gunned down a Sikh in his shop
in Shaheedan Bazaar, Mardan. Just three days after this incident, on September
6, unidentified persons opened fire on three shops run by Sikhs in Hashtnagri,
Peshawar. One Sikh trader who ran a grocery shop was shot and killed while
two other traders were injured. The assailants escaped before police arrived.
Members of the Sikh community took to the streets after these attacks
and demanded measures to increase their security.
Kidnappings from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas have also
Source: Dawn

Sikhs protest in Peshawar.
been reported. According to some media reports, the abductors often set the
ransom so high that the families of victims were unable to pay it and the
kidnapped Sikhs were killed. Two Sikhs businessmen were kidnapped from
Dera Ismail Khan in February. They were released after four million rupees
were paid to the abductors.
Though Peshawar too has become a hostile environment for the Sikh
community, at least 500 families migrated to this city from Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) because of the military operation against
militants.
The Sikh community said they were afraid to go to Gurdwaras to worship
and many of their religious places were closed due to the poor security situation
in the region. A lot of Sikhs also had to close down their shops. Many parents
were not sending their children, especially boys, to school because they could
be easily identified by their headdress.
On May 8, a copy of Guru Granth Sahib was burned when the hall in
which it was kept was put on fire. This incident took place at Jai Ram Das
Darbar in Shikarpur. A day earlier, another copy of Guru Granth Sahib was
desecrated at Bhagnari Temple in Karachi’s Lea Market. Reports of desecration
of the holy book of the Sikh religion had previously come from various parts
of Sindh. On November 14, a Hindu man was arrested for tearing off pages of
Guru Granth Sahib in a temple. Keeping the holy book of the Sikh religion in
Hindu temples had been a tradition but after such incidents the Sikh community
was having second thoughts about keeping their holy book in temples. Ramesh
Singh, the head of Pakistan Sikh Council said, “If they can’t take care of our
books, then they should just return them.”
In the wake of this incident Sikhs from Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
stormed the parliament in Islamabad. The protesters demanded better protection
for their religious sites. The Pakistan Sikh Council also addressed a press
conference and warned the government that the Sikh community would hold
protests across the country if the perpetrators were not arrested. On May 15,
the National Assembly passed a resolution urging the government to deploy
security personnel to guard the holy places of religious minorities.
More than 1,000 Sikhs arrived from India to Pakistan to observe the birth
anniversary of Guru Nanak. The Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) was
expecting to receive 3,000 Sikh pilgrims but many did not come to Pakistan,
possibly because of the recent blast at Wagah border. The Punjab government
deployed rangers and police to protect the pilgrims and keep security high at
the Gurdwaras.
Hindus
Forced conversion of Hindus was a common complaint in Sindh. In most
cases Hindu girls were abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and then married
to Muslim men. The Secretary-General of the All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat
stated that almost 1000 girls in Sindh were forcibly converted each year. Even
Hindu children were being subjected to forced conversion. On February 4,
two little girls who sold toys and utensils from door to door did not return to
their family. Investigation revealed that they were with a Muslim man who
presented them in a court as Muslim girls. The court sent both of them to
Darul Amaan, women’s shelter home, on suspicion that they were facing
abuse at their house. One of them was later returned to her parents. Children
also complained of discrimination at schools. Many parents were said to have
started giving Muslim names to their children to protect them from such
treatment.
The immediate step that needed to be taken to prevent forced conversions
was to draft a Hindu marriage law. The Hindu community had long been irked
by the lack of codified Hindu personal laws, particularly Hindu marriage law.
A Hindu Marriage Bill was tabled in the parliament in 2011 but it had still not
been passed. The Supreme Court of Pakistan also directed the government to
take measures to register Hindu marriages. Muslims and Christians can obtain
marriage certificates from the government but Hindus have no documentary
proof of their marriage. Once passed, the Hindu Marriage Act would offer the
Hindu community some protection against forced conversion and harassment
by police. It would also enable them to settle other issues such as divorce and
inheritance.
The Hindu community in Balochistan has been targeted by kidnappers
who mostly pick up Hindu traders and businessmen and ask for ransom. On
May 28, five children were picked up by armed men while returning from
Arson attack on Hindu temples in Larkana.
their school. They were daughters and sons of a Hindu trader. The police
arrested four suspects but the children had yet to be recovered. A lot of Hindus
are moving to other parts of Pakistan due to lack of security in the province.
According to Ramesh Kumar Wankwani, a PML-N lawmaker and head of
Pakistan Hindu Council, around 5,000 Hindus migrate from Pakistan to India
every year due to religious persecution. He said that scores of Hindu girls
were being abducted in Sindh and married to their kidnappers after forced
conversion. The lawmaker said the government had failed in its duty to protect
the Hindus from attacks and to prevent forced conversions effective laws
needed to be enforced.
More than a hundred members of the Hindu community had to abandon
their homes because of the military operation against the Taliban in FATA. It
was reported that 29 Hindu families had to take refuge among IDPs in Bannu,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Reportedly none of these families was allowed to stay
in the government-run camps in the city. An official said the families had not
registered themselves and measures were being taken to resolve the issue
quickly. According to one of the Hindu families, minorities were not treated in
the same way as other IDPs.
Many religious places of Hindus were attacked during the year. On January
26, two unidentified men gunned down a policeman guarding a Hindu temple
in Peshawar. Police suspected that it was a militant attack. On March 15, just
before midnight in Larkana, Sindh, a mob burned down a Hindu temple after a
rumour spread that a member of the Hindu community had desecrated a copy
of the Quran. Hundreds of students of local Islamic seminaries stormed and
damaged the temple and the community centre. The mob ransacked and set
the buildings on fire and destroyed all statues. However, the police arrived
quickly and allegedly saved the accused by making him put on a police uniform.
On March 17, a temple in Badin was attacked. On March 28, a small Hindu
temple was torched in Hyderabad. On March 30, the Faqir Par Braham Ashram
in Tharparkar was desecrated. On November 21, an idol of Lord Hanuman
and some religious books were burned down by unidentified men at a temple
in district Tando Mohammad Khan, Sindh.
Pakistan Hindu Council issued a statement that around 1400 Hindu religious
places were in dire need of the government attention. The army was reported
to be planning to demolish a Hindu temple in Rawalpindi to build a barracks
and an educational complex. They also wanted to evict the Hindus living in the
vicinity of the temple in Gracy Lines area. The Hindu community got a
temporary stay and the army offered resettlement.
In March, an unauthorised development project also threatened the 160-
year old Shri Ratneshwar Mahadev Mandir in Clifton, Karachi when Bahria
Town started excavating the roads leading to the temple to build flyovers for
the convenience of its residents in a nearby project. The vibration from
excavators was damaging the roof of the historic underground temple. On the
basis of a letter from HRCP, the then chief justice of the Supreme Court took
suo motu notice and summoned the relevant officials. The case is in the Sindh
High Court which has asked the builders to restore the damaged parts and
ensure that all construction work takes place further away from the temple.
The SC chief justice, hearing a petition on non-payment of compensation
to victims of the Peshawar church massacre, instructed the government to
ensure protection of places of worship of the minorities and to set up a
minorities’ commission. HRCP also submitted a report on destruction of Hindu
temples in Sindh.
The leaders of the Hindu community asked the government to make Diwali
a national holiday and also give bonuses to the Hindu employees. The Pakistan
Hindu Council urged the government not to hold a Senate session on Diwali
day. The government agreed to this request and the Senate observed a holiday
on Diwali for the first time in the history of Pakistan. The Chief Minister of
Sindh also announced that all Hindu government employees would be given a
holiday and bonus on Diwali. The federal government officially patronised the
festival and many political parties, including PML-N, PPP, and PTI also
celebrated Diwali.
Christians
Many Christians had to face persecution after being accused of committing
blasphemy during the year. Pakistan’s blasphemy law can prove deadly for the
Students chant slogans against burning of Christian couple to ashes.
accused even before they are arrested and tried in court. The prime example
of this was the lynching of a Shama and Sajjad in Kot Radha Kishan, Punjab.
On November 4, the Christian couple was beaten to death and then burned by
an angry mob that had been told that they had desecrated a copy of the Holy
Quran. Local clerics used loudspeakers to incite the mob. The victims were
working as bonded labourers at a brick kiln. It was reported that the couple
knew that they were in danger before the attack and went to the kiln owner to
seek permission to leave. But he locked them in a room and told them that they
could not leave before they cleared their debt. The mob found them there, beat
them to death with bricks and shovels and then burned their bodies in a brick
kiln. Shama was expecting her fifth child. The suspects were apprehended
after a few days.
Christians living in village Torey Wala, Punjab, were looking for a way to
get some land to bury their dead because there was no space left in their
cemetery. A Muslim landowner gave them a two-acre plot but on September 2
around 500 Muslims confronted the Christians and said that there were some
graves of Muslims on that land. The landowner whose family had been in
possession of the plot for many generations insisted that there were no graves
on the site. On the following day, some Muslims in the neighborhood charged
53 Christians with blasphemy and the police arrested eight villagers including
a two-year-old boy. However, the charges were dropped a week later. After
this incident, the Christian community in the village had to resort to cramming
bodies in the existing graveyard.
The Movement for Solidarity and Peace in Pakistan published a report in
April, which alleged that every year around 700 Christian women were being
abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and then married to Muslim men.
According to the report, when a victim’s family registers a first information
report the abductor registers a counter FIR stating that the girl converted of
her free choice. In most cases, these girls remain in the custody of abductors
during the judicial proceedings.
A media report stated that activists and members of the Christian community
said that thousands of Christians had left the country because of threats,
persecution and lack of security. Many of them went to Thailand because it
was an easily accessible and affordable option. Some representatives of the
Christian community in Thailand said the country had around 10,000 registered
Pakistani asylum seekers.
Victims of last year’s mob attack face marginalization
In Michael Town, Korangi, Karachi, the Christian and Muslim communities
had been living in harmony with each other till last year when a fight broke out
between them. Around 2,000 Christians lived in that area. On September 23,
2013, some members of the Christian community protested against the killing
of Christians in a suicide attack on a church in Peshawar. However, Muslims
in the neighborhood alleged that some Christians threw stones at a mosque. A
scuffle followed and a Muslim man died in the melee. The Christians said he
died in a stampede by the Muslims. A mob then ransacked and burned homes
of Christians. Around 300 Christian families had to flee from Michael Town
and were too afraid to return to their homes. The commissioner of Karachi’s
east district called a meeting to broker peace between the two communities
but the terms that the Christian families had to accept to return to their homes
were seen as punishing the Christians for raising their concerns through public
protest. The town’s name was changed from ‘Michael Town’ to ‘Khulfa-e-
Rashideen Colony.’ The Christians were asked to remove external loudspeakers
from their church. Three Muslims who were injured in this incident received
compensation but none was given to the Christians who had been injured. No
FIR was registered against the persons who attacked the homes of Christians.
The community was warned not to present evidence in the case relating to the
Muslim man who died in this incident. Christians, who continue to face taunts,
have to avoid confrontation to co-exist in the area and keep their heads down.
Even children are subjected to marginalization and are not allowed to enter the
playground to play cricket.
Christian laws were made during the colonial times and need to be updated.
In August, the federal government proposed amendments in the Christian
Marriage Act and Christian Divorce Act after consultations with the leaders of
Christian organizations. In the proposed Christian Marriage Act, the role of
Church of England, Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic Church had
been omitted. It states that the age of persons getting married should not be
less than 18 years and each church would have the right to solemnize a marriage.
The proposed Christian Divorce Act included nine grounds on which a marriage
could be dissolved. Previously, divorce could only be sought on the ground of
adultery. The Christian community also urged the government to draft inheritance
laws for Christian women.
Around 114 Christian families had to leave their homes in FATA and seek
refuge among IDPs living in Bannu because of the army operation against
militants in the region. Some families reported that they faced discrimination
at the government camps and food distributors ignored them.
Ahmadis
The many problems that Ahmadis in Pakistan have been facing since a
1974 constitutional amendment declared them non-Muslim continued in 2014.
On July 27, a mob went to a police station in Gujranwala to register a
blasphemy case against an Ahmadi youth and said that he had posted something
blasphemous on Facebook. At the same time, another mob went to an Ahmadi
Ahmadis’ belongings were looted following accusations

of blasphemy, in Gujranwala

neighborhood in Gujranwala and burned down eight houses. An Ahmadi woman
and two girls died in the attack due to suffocation. The mob also stopped fire
brigades and ambulances from reaching the houses under attack. The police
did little to stop this violence.
However, this was not the only attack carried out against the Ahmadi
community during the year. A total of 11 Ahmadis were killed in targeted
A rallying call for protest against Ahmadis.

attacks in 2014. On May 16, while Khalil Ahmad was in police custody for
allegedly committing blasphemy, a man entered the police station and shot
him. He died and the perpetrator was arrested by police. On May 26, Dr
Mehdi Ali Qamar, a Canadian-American cardiologist who had come to Pakistan
to serve his community, was gunned down by two unidentified motorcyclists
while he was walking to a cemetery in Rabwah.
Some Ahmadi places of worship were also attacked. On January 23, some
unidentified persons set an Ahmadi place of worship on fire. However, only a
door was damaged in this incident. On January 26, some people stormed a
place of worship of Ahmadis in Faisalabad and tope up their religious texts. On
February 18, the police razed minarets of two Ahmadi places of worship in
Rahim Yar Khan. In June, some men accompanied by the police destroyed a
place of worship under construction in Dera Ghazi Khan. During the same
month, in Narowal, police told Ahmadis to stop building a place of worship. In
addition, burial places of Ahmadis were often desecrated.
The Ahmadi community faced discrimination and harassment at various
educational institutions and government offices. They were also not given
equal employment opportunities.
The Ahmadis continued to face hostile comments in the media. Hate speech
against Ahmadis was seen in posters, rallies, pamphlets, and sermons. On
December 22, Geo TV telecast Aamir Liaquat Hussain’s programme in which
a cleric called Ahmadis enemies of both Muslims and Pakistan. Within a week
of this telecast, an Ahmadi was gunned down in Gujranwala.
Blasphemy law
A total of 12 cases were registered under section 295-C (blasphemy law)
of the Pakistan Penal Code during the year. As soon as someone in Pakistan is
accused of committing blasphemy his or her life is endangered. Those arrested
by police are often the lucky ones.
However, even police custody is no protection anymore. Mohammad
Asghar, 70, who had returned from Britain and was a psychiatric patient, was
arrested for claiming to be a prophet. He was shot multiple times by a police
officer and had to be taken to a hospital. A Christian pastor, another man
booked for blasphemy, who was sharing the cell with Asghar was gunned
down during the attack by the same police officer.
On November 4, Shama and Sajjad, a Christian couple accused of
desecrating a copy of the Holy Quran,were beaten to death and then burned in
a brick kiln by a mob. This incident took place in Kot Radha Kishan, Punjab
where they were working as brick kiln bonded laborers. The Supreme Court,
the prime minister and the provincial chief minister took notice of the incident
and the suspects were swiftly apprehended.
Be they rich or poor, marginalized or influential, blasphemy accused have
little hope of getting a fair hearing. A blasphemy case was registered against
Junaid Jamshed, a television personality, for making blasphemous remarks in
one of his televised sermons. He released a video in which he apologized for
his remarks and asked for forgiveness but in vain. But someone who had
committed blasphemy could not be forgiven under Pakistan’s blasphemy law.
He fled the country and took refuge in London.
Even lawyers and judges pursuing blasphemy cases are not safe. HRCP
Multan office coordinator for South Punjab, Rashid Rehman had been threatened
in open court in front of a judge in April for defending a blasphemy accused
that no other lawyer in Multan agreed to represent. On May 7, at around 8:45
pm two unidentified assailants entered the HRCP office on the pretext of seeking
legal advice and opened fire on him. A bullet that hit him in the head killed him.
A fellow lawyer and a client were also injured in the attack. A case was registered
in Chehlik police station Multan. No progress was made in apprehending
Rashid’s killers or even in arresting the men who had issued the threats to him
in open court in the judge’s presence.
Sawan Masih was accused of making blasphemous remarks in a fight
with one of his Muslim friends in 2013. After this accusation was made, an
angry mob raided Joseph Colony, a Christian neighbourhood in Lahore, and
burned down many houses. In March, Masih was sentenced to death. An
appeal was filed against this sentence in the Lahore High Court. Shafqat
Emmanuel and Shagufta Kausar, a Christian couple arrested from Gojra in
2013 for allegedly sending a blasphemous text message, were also sentenced
to death. An appeal against the sentencing was filed in the Lahore High Court.
Following these sentences, the Christian community held demonstrations in
some parts of Lahore.
Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, was arrested for making blasphemous
remarks four years ago. Her death sentence was upheld in October by the
high court. She filed an appeal in the Supreme Court in November.
Sectarian violence
Sectarian attacks by militant groups outnumbered sectarian clashes. Militant
groups that claimed responsibility or were suspected in these attacks included
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Jaish-ul-Islam, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Sipah-
e-Sahaba. According to a report by Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS),
a total of 144 incidents of sectarian violence were reported from across
Pakistan, out of which 141 were sectarian-related terrorist attacks and three
were sectarian clashes.
After the targeted killings of many Shia Hazaras, in 2014 militant groups
also started targeting the Zikri sect in Balochistan. In July, a bus carrying
people belonging to the Zikri sect was attacked with an IED in Khuzdar and
seven persons were injured. The Zikri community was targeted again on August
29 when six Zikris were gunned down by three unidentified men at a shrine in
Awaran, Balochistan. Many Zikris had to move from Balochistan to other
parts of Pakistan after these targeted attacks.
On October 23, eight Shia Hazaras were killed by unidentified gunmen
who boarded their bus and opened fire. No one claimed responsibility but
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was the main suspect because they had been targeting
Hazara Shias previously. On October 4, a suicide bomber attacked a crowded
Eid bazaar in Hazara Town, Quetta. Five people were killed and 20 injured.
In January, buses carrying Shia pilgrims were targeted by Lashkar-e-
Jhangvi in Mastung, Balochistan. At least 23 persons were killed and 32 injured.
The casualties included children and women and led to countrywide protests
by the Shia community. On the first day of the new year, militant group Jaish-
ul-Islam targeted a Shia pilgrim bus travelling from Iran to Quetta in a suicide
Death threat against Zikris.

attack. Three Shia pilgrims were killed and 34 injured, including the policemen
escorting the vehicle. On January 21, another bus carrying Shia pilgrims from
Iran to Quetta was bombed. At least 20 people including women and children
were injured.
In March, a gathering of Ismailis celebrating their ritual of Nauroz (religious
new year) in Hunza-Nagar, GB, was attacked by members of Shia and Sunni
communities and forced to disperse. The attackers, arrested by police, later
stated that they attacked the gathering because in their opinion the Ismaili
community was spreading obscenity in the area.
On October 2, some Shias who were traveling in a van were targeted with
a bomb near Haramosh village on Gilgit-Skardu road. Five women, two men,
and three children were injured in this incident. The local police said this was
a sectarian attack.
In November, fighting erupted between members of a Shia procession
and activists of a Sunni religious group called Ahl-e-Sunnat-wal-Jamaat (ASWJ)
over the route of the Muharram procession through Badin, Sindh. Members
of both groups threw stones at each other and beat each other with wooden
sticks. Ten people were injured. In Orakzai Agency, FATA, on the 9th of
Muharram, a roadside bomb exploded in an imambargah at noon, killing two
persons and injuring 28 others. Another attack took place a few days later
when a procession was passing through a road in Lower Orakzai. Militants
targeted the crowd with a bomb and rockets. Two persons were killed and
seven injured.
In December, hundreds of members of Imamia Students Organization
(ISO), a Shia youth organisation, were inside a hall at Degree College for
Boys, Gilgit, a government college, to commemorate a religious day when a
mob of over 100 students belonging to a Sunni sect gathered there and chanted
slogans against Shias. The two groups pelted each other with stones. Shots
were also fired and three students were injured. The local administration and
police intervened to stop the clash. Police registered a case on a number of
charges including rioting, causing hurt, etc., against 17 students. After this
clash, the police cleared the campus and left. An hour later unidentified persons
entered the campus and set three classrooms and a portion of the library on
fire.
A number of shrines were also attacked by militants in 2014. On January
7, bodies of six men whose throats had been slit were found at the shrine of
Ayub Shah Bukhari, a Sufi saint. The shrine is situated on the outskirts of
Karachi and three of the victims worked at the shrine, while the other three
frequently visited it. The police found a note along with the bodies in which
A suicide bomber slammed an explosive-laden car into a passenger bus carrying Shiite
pilgrims in Akhtarabad, on the outskirts of Quetta.
the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility and warned people against visiting
shrines. On February 9, six to eight unidentified gunmen on motorbikes fired
indiscriminately at the people present at the shrine of Baba Pir Mehrban Shah,
which is located in a Karachi suburb. Eight people were killed and more than
a dozen injured. On June 20, a bomb blast took place at the shrine of Chan Pir
Badshah in Islamabad and 32 persons were injured. On August 26, a bomb
explosion at Sheikh Taqi’s shrine in Mastung, Balochistan, injured a man and a
woman. On January 28, the police found and defused a bomb near Ghazi Baba
shrine in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On September 6, unidentified men
attacked a shrine in Sargodha, Punjab and gunned down a religious leader, his
brother who was a brigadier, and another man. Seven other men participating
in the religious festival at the shrine were also injured.
Courtesy pervasive impunity for the killers, the perpetrators were arrested
in very few cases.
Recommendations
1. The government should ensure that the blasphemy law is not misused.
Protection should be provided to lawyers, judges and witnesses involved in
blasphemy cases. Police should carry out preliminary investigation before
registering a case against a person accused of committing blasphemy.
2. The government needs to tackle militant groups that frequently target
religious minorities. Security forces need to take a more active role in protecting
vulnerable minorities.
3. Hate speech and activities of banned extremist organizations should
be curbed.
4. Steps need to be taken to increase tolerance and harmony between
religious groups and promote peaceful co-existence.
5. Outdated laws such as Christian Marriage Act and Christian Divorce
Act need to be updated and new legislation like the Hindu Marriage Bill
should be enacted swiftly.

Every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression,
and there shall be freedom of the press, subject to any reasonable restriction
imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or
defence of Pakistan or any part thereof, friendly relations with foreign states,
public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court or
commission of or incitement to an offence.
Article 19
Every citizen shall have the right to have access to information in all
matters of public importance subject to regulation and reasonable restrictions
imposed by law.
Article 19-A
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive
and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 19
Freedom of expression, as well as press freedom and freedom of

information, are indispensable to the attainment of all human rights. Article 19
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has four key elements; the right
to hold opinions without interference, the right to seek information, the right
to receive information and the right to impart information to others. Without
the freedom of expression, other rights deteriorate.
Freedom of expression is broadly understood as the notion that every
Freedom of expression 139
person has a natural right to freely express himself / herself through any media
and across any frontier without outside interference, such as censorship, and
without fear of reprisal, such as threats and persecution. Rule of law, freedom
of information, free, independent and pluralistic media and active civil society
are the conditions needed for freedom of expression to flourish. The advent of
the Internet and the World Wide Web led the advocates of freedom of expression
to believe that with the new technology, the people could truly experience the
full range of freedom of expression, from simple speech to artistic expression
to political and religious debates.
However, various tactics such as denial of licence to publish or broadcast
or access to online content, physical or emotional intimidations; undue denial
of or limitations on the access to information; abuse of defamation, slander or
libel suits; and restrictive laws and regulations are commonly employed to
stifle freedom of expression.
People in Pakistan encountered several challenges and constraints to the
rule of law, freedom of information, free, independent and pluralistic media
and civil society – the prerequisites to freedom of expression – in 2014.
Rule of law
The rule of law provides a basis for a fair relationship between society
and the state. When the rule of law prevails, authorities get the mandate to
govern and deliver services, among others to the vulnerable communities.
Injustice, insecurity and exclusion contribute to political instability and violence
and thus, establishing the rule of law is essential for reducing tensions and
societal divisions, and giving people the confidence to secure their livelihoods.
But in Pakistan, armed violence and insecurity continued to inhibit freedom
of expression in 2014. Also, a high level of violent crime perpetuated a lack of
trust among individuals, communities and the state. Minorities and women
and girls were disproportionally affected.
The existence of different legal systems – common law governing the
mainland, the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) for tribal areas and informal
tribal courts — resulted in unequal treatment and often led to arbitrary and
unjust decisions.
The police and the security forces continued to enjoy impunity for
indiscriminate or excessive use of force. Extrajudicial killings, enforced
disappearances, torture, and other abuses were common. (See the chapter on
Law and order) Laws expanded the power of law enforcement agencies to
engage in detention without trial, electronic surveillance, searches and seizures,
and the use of deadly force, ostensibly to combat terrorism and other serious
crimes.
The Human Rights Watch said: “Such provisions can easily provide legal
Media was often accused of pushing some agenda.
cover for abuses by law enforcement agencies and open the door for the
violation of fundamental rights to freedom of speech, privacy, peaceful
assembly, and a fair trial.”
Multiple forms of discrimination against a number of religious, ethnic,
and linguistic minorities and other marginalized groups were common. Non-
Muslim and Muslim religious minorities were especially exposed to violent
attacks and legal persecution under blasphemy laws.
According to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) “the
criminalisation of blasphemy endangers freedom of information in around half
of the world’s countries” noting that religious extremists sometimes also go
after journalists or bloggers they believe do not sufficiently respect their religion.
Pakistan’s blasphemy law was invoked against the owner of Geo TV, a
popular television channel, for the alleged mockery of highly revered
personalities of Islam by the host of a morning show. The owner of Geo TV
and the programme host, Shaista Lodhi, faced a trial under the Anti Terrorism
Act.
In May, gunmen killed Rashid Rehman, a human rights lawyer and HRCP’s
regional coordinator in Multan, in apparent retaliation for representing people
accused of committing blasphemy. At the time of his murder, he was
representing Junaid Hafeez, a university lecturer facing blasphemy charges,
and had received death threats.
Naya Zamana magazine editor and publisher Shoaib Adil fled his home in
Lahore and went into hiding with his wife and children. Adil faced threats and
possible charges of blasphemy in connection with a book he had published in
2007, written by a judge belonging to a religious minority group in Pakistan.
While serious human rights violations are common, including violations to
the right to life and security of the person, the World Justice Project’s Rule of
Law Index 2014 said the country afforded greater protection to the freedoms
of speech and assembly than most of its income and regional peers.
“The most significant rule of law challenge facing Pakistan is in the area
of order and security (ranking last in the world), due to civil conflict, terrorism,
crime and the use of violence to resolve personal grievances,” the report said.
The International Federation of Journalists termed Pakistan the most
dangerous country for media, with 14 journalists and media workers killed in
the country in 2014 alone rendering impossible the notion of freedom of
expression.
In 2014, eight journalists Shan Dahar (Larkana); Jeewan Arain (Ghambat
Khirpur); Irshad Mastoi (Quetta); Afzal Khawaja (Usta Muhammad, Jaffarabad);
Yaqoob Shehzad (Hafizabad); Nadeem Hyder (Hafizabad); Shehzad Iqbal
(Mianwali) and Ibrar Tanoli (Abbotabad); and six media workers Muhammad
Mustafa (Lahore); Muhammad Abdur Rasool and Muhammad Yunus (Quetta);
and Waqas Aziz Khan, Khalid Khan and Ashraf Arain (Karachi) were killed.
In its report, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists termed the incident of
January 17, in Karachi and of August 28 in Quetta as the worst examples of
attacks on the media. On January 17, three employees of the Express News
were killed in an attack on their Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) van
in North Nazimabad, Karachi. On August 28, unidentified assailants stormed
into the office of the General Secretary of Balochistan Union of Journalists
and ARY NEWS Assignment Editor, Irshad Mastoi and sprayed bullets. Beside,
Mastoi, reporter Abdul Rasool Khajjak and accountant Muhammad Younas
were killed.
More than 30 journalists have fallen victim to targeted killing in Balochistan
over the last five years. The figures served as a reminder of the growing
threats to journalists in the province’s complex political environment where
survival depends on an almost impossible delicate balancing act amid insurgent
organisations, feuding tribes with shifting allegiances, extremist groups, as
well as the security forces, political parties and the courts.
All this affects journalists badly and so the number of stringers and reporters
in volatile regions such as Khuzdar is diminishing. According to some media
reports the membership of the Khuzdar Press Club is down from 20 to seven
as a result of targeted killings and that in the Qalat Press Club from about 10
members to four. Most journalists have either left the profession or relocated
to Quetta.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Pakistan 159
out of 180 countries in ranking for media freedom. The same group had
placed Pakistan at 158 last year in its annual report. Uncertain security
conditions, risk of terrorism related activities and overwhelming political
influence have been cited as the reasons behind Pakistani media’s lack of
A protest against journalists’ killing at Quetta Press Club.
freedom.
In March, the driver of television anchor Raza Rumi was killed in a shooting
on his car.
In April, Hamid Mir, a senior reporter for Geo TV, was fired at by gunmen
on motorcycles while on his way from the airport to his office in Karachi.
Though he survived the attack, and had to undergo a surgery, his assailants
are still at large, and the threat to his life was still very much alive. The
assassination attempt became a major controversy when Mir’s brother accused
“certain elements” within the powerful Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency
of orchestrating the attack.
In June, Zafar Aheer, resident editor of the Daily Jang, was attacked by
unknown armed men while returning home from work in Multan. He was
struck with gun butts and received serious injuries to his head, shoulders, legs
and other parts of his body.
The house of Jamshed Bhagwan, the bureau chief of Express News TV
was attacked with an explosive device for the third time on July 2 in Peshawar,
the capital of Khyber-Pakhtukhuwa province.
At least four crew members from Aaj News, including digital satellite
news gathering engineer Iqbal, cameramen Usmaan, Iqbal, and Samaarat,
(identified by single names only) were beaten on August 25 by workers from
the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party while covering a speech
by PTI leader Imran Khan during a sit-in in Islamabad. The four were treated
in hospital for minor injuries.
The largest number of injuries occurred on August 31 when 28 journalists,
camerapersons and other media workers were injured during clashes between
police and the protest demonstration led by the opposition Pakistan Tehrik-e-
Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PTI). The injured media persons
were cameramen Khuram Fayaz, Ajab Khan, and Awais Qazi, belonging to
Sama TV; cameramen; Atif Yousuf, and Imran Iqbal, Mohammad Zahid, DSNG
operator; Jameel Kiyani, driver of Waqt TV; reporters Essa Naqvi and Asad
Ayub; Adnan, DSNG Engineer; Anjum Fatemi, TV cameraman belonging to
Dunya TV; Asif Abdullah, cameramen; and Iqbal Zaib, of ARY News; Kashif
Abbasi, cameramen; and Naushad Abbasi; reporters Yasir Malik and Samar
Abbas; Ashfaq Hussain, cameramen; Imran Chaudhry and Mansoor Ahmed of
Dawn News cameramen; Express News cameramen, Amir Alam; Majid Shah
and Usman Afzal, Express News; Rana Tariq, Haroon Khursheed and Ghulam
Ali belonging to Aaj TV. They were beaten up despite having identified themselves
with their press cards and while flouting the norms to protect men and women
in the media around the world with shameless impunity.
In August, columnist Kamran Shafi and his family received two threats
via email.
On September 1, protestors belonging to PTI and PAT attacked the offices
of the state-owned Pakistan Television (PTV). They took over the control
room and broadcasts of PTV were disrupted for some time.
On November 30, journalists and technicians from two television channels
were attacked, and their satellite trucks damaged. A cameraperson from Dawn
News was injured by small explosives allegedly thrown by PTI members,
while two technicians from Dunya News were wounded by a grenade explosion
and rushed to the hospital.
The investigative reporting team of a private television channel ARY was
arrested and criminally charged on December 3 for an exposé on the transport
of illegal arms and ammunition on state-owned railways. ARY News said two
of its investigative journalists, Asif Qureshi and Zulqarnain Sheikh, were not
only arrested but also assaulted by the Railway Police. Instead of investigating
the serious security lapse, the railway authorities registered a case of arms
smuggling against the media team itself.
ARY News said its programme caught railway officials taking bribes to
transport illegal weapons from Karachi to Lahore. General Manager of the
Railways, Javed Anwar, later told journalists that the railways employees who
are guilty of aiding in the transport of arms and explosives had been suspended.
In Faisalabad on December 8, PTI activists abused Geo News anchorperson
Maria Memon, reporters Irfanullah and Hammad Ahmad and threw sticks at
them when they were covering their protest rally. Their DSNG van was damaged
in this attack. Infuriated PTI workers also wrote provocative slogans on their
van with spray guns.
In Karachi on December 12, when PTI chief Imran Khan finished his
speech and left the venue of his protest rally, PTI workers harassed the Geo
News team including its female reporters Sidrah Dar, Umaimah Malik, and
cameraman Zubair Memon from Abb Takk television. They threw stones and
empty bottles at the Geo News DSNG van. They also threw sticks and empty
bottles and stones at the senior analyst, Mazhar Abbas, and other Geo News
staff. They also harassed a female reporter, Sidrah, and used abusive language
against her.
On December 15, in Lahore, PTI activists attacked and harassed a media
team of Geo News as it was covering their protest demonstration, and prevented
them from reporting. Geo TV said that the protesters attacked their
anchorperson Sana Mirza, Sohail Warraich, reporters Jawad Malik, Ameen
Hafeez, Ahmed Faraz and cameraman Khwaja Amir with stones, glass projectiles
and bottles, besides using slingshots to hurl bricks at them. PTI workers
hurled bottles and harassed reporter Sana Mirza and shouted hostile slogans to
the point where she was unable to hold back her tears. They pelted the Geo
News DSNG van with stones. The protesters also threatened a Geo team at
the Liberty Chowk area of Lahore and stopped them from carrying out their
coverage.
The ARY News channel also complained that workers of the ruling political
party, PML-N, hurled rotten eggs at their Digital Satellite News Gathering
(DSNG) van while they were covering the PTI protest in Lahore.
On the positive side, on March 1, a court convicted six men for their roles
in the murder of Wali Khan Babar, a Geo TV journalist who was shot dead in
Karachi in January 2011.
Freedom of information
Right to information is a UN-mandated universal human right. According
to the UN General Assembly statement of 1946: “freedom of information is a
fundamental human right and is the touchstone of all other rights to which the
UN is consecrated”. The right ensures maximum disclosure, minimum
exemptions, simple, quick and cheap access procedures, effective enforcement
through independent appeals mechanisms and penalties and monitoring and
promotion of open governance. The right strengthens the link between the
state and the citizen.
Article 19 in Pakistan’s constitution states: “Every citizen shall have the
right to have access to information in matters of the public importance subject
to regulations and reasonable restriction imposed by law”. But the situation in
the country regarding the right to information was far from ideal till the end of
2014.
In 2001, the Asian Development Bank approved a comprehensive action
plan for Pakistan that included judicial and administrative reform. Freedom of
information legislation was considered part of the reform programme. Against
Paramedics move an injured journalist at a hospital after clashes in Islamabad.
this backdrop the military government of General Pervez Musharraf

promulgated the existing Freedom of Information Ordinance in 2002. It was
later sanctified by Parliament through a constitutional amendment that validated
all laws promulgated by the military dictator.
Because the law was promulgated through an ordinance, it was never
debated in Parliament. It remained inoperative for two years until its rules
were formulated and published in 2004, following a sustained campaign by
civil society and key stakeholders. The Act is believed to be a very weak law,
and in view of its lacunae, the government introduced a bill in the Parliament in
2008 to improve the existing legislation. That bill was yet to be approved by
the yearend.
Balochistan and Sindh replicated the Freedom of Information Ordinance
2002 in the form of the Balochistan Freedom of Information Act 2005 and the
Sindh Freedom of Information Act 2006. These laws remained in vogue in
Balochistan and Sindh.
In 2013, the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab enacted RTI
legislation as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Act 2013 and the
Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act 2013 respectively.
Government response to information requests submitted even under the
current laws was dismal, especially so from the federal, Balochistan and Sindh
governments.
According to the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI)
the Punjab law is the strictest of all, requiring departments to revert on
information requests within 14 days.
“To test the response of top officials, we sent as many as 1,231 information
requests between March 1, 2014 and October 30, 2014: 749 to Punjab , 409
to KP, 31 to Sindh, 2 to Balochistan and 40 to federal government departments,”
the CPDI said. “We received only 143 responses: 48 from Punjab, 91 from
KP, just one from Sindh and no response from Balochistan or the federal
government,” it said.
Following the first round, the CPDI said that 771 complaints had been
filed across the country: 462 in Punjab, 256 in KP, 24 in Sindh and 29 with
federal government departments. These yielded 81 more responses: 53 from
Punjab, 18 from KP, 10 from the federal government but none from Sindh.
A 28-year-old computer operator, Sabahat Ghaznavi, successfully used
the law to apply for and secure a job that had been ‘de-advertised’ by the
government.
In Punjab, the executive district officer from Vehari was fined over 60-
days’ pay for delaying action on an information request. The information
commission in Punjab was formed after the one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but
it set a precedent for others to follow though it was working without a budget
and a proper place to operate from.
The military launched an operation against Taliban insurgents in North
Waziristan in June and handed out updates regularly. But the lack of independent
media’s access meant the impact of the offensive could only be guessed at.
Free, independent and pluralistic media

The year 2014 saw some distressing new lows, from a major news network
being forced off the cable operators’ list to a political figure hurling threats at
journalists and the National Assembly’s standing committee wanting to impose
restrictions on what can be reported on. Major media issues surrounded
allegedly “blasphemous” content, caused rising tensions, including claims of
censorship of international media outlets. In most cases, stringers worked
without formal appointment letters making them vulnerable to threats as well
as financial corruption. The media faced crippling fines and blanket bans on
coverage forcing many outlets to practise self-censorship in an effort to stay
afloat.
Employers and news managers left journalists vulnerable to attacks in the
thirst for ratings and the lust for footage thought to increase viewership and
too frequently failing to provide the protective gear such as flak jackets and
head-gear.
Press
An article about Pakistan’s relations to al-Qaeda was censored from the
front page of about 9,000 copies of the international edition of the New York
Times in March. An image of the front page with a large blank space in it,
On March 21, the International New York Times front page printed
in Pakistan looked like this.
spread on social media. The decision was allegedly made by the NYT’s local
distribution partner – the Express Tribune — who had been under attack by
an extremist group. The international edition was also subject to further content
change by the local partner over an article exploring the relationship between
Pakistani authorities and militant Islamic extremism. The article, however,
was available online. The Express Tribune also deleted an article on the subject
in the international edition of the New York Times, which it carries as a daily
insert. An opinion piece by Lahore-based author Ali Sethi discussed the case
of Rashid Rehman. In May, Jang Group, owner of Geo TV, which had been
battling against accusations of blasphemy and the intelligence agency, published
an apology on the front pages of two newspapers, the daily Jang and The
News. It said its coverage of the gun attack on Hamid Mir had been “excessive,
distressful and emotional.” Two Indian journalists were expelled from Pakistan.
Meena Menon, a correspondent for The Hindu, and Snehesh Alex Philip, a
correspondent for The Press Trust of India, were told their visas would not
be renewed and ordered to leave within seven days.
Broadcast
On June 6, Geo News, was ordered off the air and fined by the Pakistan
Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA). The regulator said if the
channel did not pay a fine of 10 million rupees (US$100,000) by the end of the
15-day suspension, it would remain off the air. In June the Pakistan Broadcasting
Association suspended Geo’s membership. The Human Rights Commission
of Pakistan (HRCP) voiced concern over what it called a malicious campaign
seeking to close down Geo, saying that such a negative movement was a
threat to media freedom.
Irrespective of what the HRCP or anyone else might think about Geo’s
editorial judgment, instigating people to come out on the streets following
charges of blasphemy is an extremely dangerous trend, it said.
“HRCP must point out that the environment of fear that has been created
is making the lives of journalists working for Geo extremely vulnerable. They
are being intimidated and a large number of them have faced attacks. This
trend is likely to escalate if the temperature is allowed to rise and it has the
potential to spin out of control,” it further said.
“HRCP is curious how cable operators have illegally banned Geo without
instructions from Pakistan Electronic Media Regularity Authority (Pemra) and
expects that the authorities would investigate this matter, if they have not done
so already, and punish those acting out of bounds.”
The HRCP called upon the government, civil society and media organisations
to take all necessary steps to de-escalate the situation, and put an end to this
malicious campaign and intimidation of journalists so as to protect media freedom
from taking any further blows.
In February two television news channels, Aaj and Waqt TV were attacked
with hand grenades on the same night. A security guard was injured in a blast
outside Aaj offices and an unexploded device was found outside the Waqt TV
offices in Karachi.
Media lows
News channels routinely violated the rules of good and responsible
journalism, several under the editorial influence of their owners. And the Geo-
Jang group — sacrificing the editorial independence to the notion of its
kingmaker status — was no exception. Yet the murderous attack on Hamid
Protests were held in several cities of Pakistan to condemn the attack on Hamid Mir.

Mir and the ensuing tension between Geo-Jang group and ISI resulted in
severe setbacks for the Pakistani media in the reversals in media freedoms and
divisions between media organisations isolating the Geo-Jang media group,
and in tarnishing the image of the media among the public. The distribution of
the group’s newspapers and of television channels was severely disrupted.
Also the prosecution of the Jang group on charges of hurting religious sentiment
after Geo Entertainment was fined and even taken off air, and the Jang/Geo
group had apologised for any hurt caused, smacked of persecution. The HRCP
highlighted that divisions in the media ranks did not augur well for the hard-
won freedom that the media had. “It is regrettable that competitive media
houses are adding fuel to the fire, without realising what they are being complicit
in or what a dangerous precedent they are setting and that the same fire can
engulf them too. It is in no one’s interest to unleash forces that are neither
accountable nor answerable to anyone HRCP said.”
Intense media coverage of the two sit-ins in Islamabad provoked an
observation that all that was required to thwart a revolution was to switch off
the television channels. People complained of partisanship by the media. News
anchors were accused of instigation and provocation, while some anchors
took part in the protests as protesters.
Internet
Freedom House, a rights organisation, ranks Pakistan among countries it
considers to be “not free” in the online world.
In February 2014, angry gamers — who had paid for high speed internet
connections and gaming memberships — reported that they were unable to
temporarily access Xbox Live, PlayStation Network and Game Ranger.
Pakistan’s ban on YouTube remained in place till the close of the year and
there were fears it would stay “indefinitely.” The country blocked the video-
sharing site in September 2012 after it hosted “Innocence of Muslims,” a film
that sparked protests worldwide for appearing to mock Islam. In keeping shut
down a site that is the gateway to information and entertainment for millions
of people, the authorities exposed the state’s attitude towards citizens’ right to
access information. While those with the ability have found means of bypassing
the ban, officials said they had found no way to filter out blasphemous content
other than by blocking YouTube entirely.
In May Twitter announced it would block posts in Pakistan that had
“blasphemous” content. It follows Twitter’s country specific censorship policy,
started in 2012.
Hate speech is a real threat to Freedom of Expression. And it made way
into the online world in 2014.
In June, the Pakistani digital rights group Bytes For All launched a research
titled Hate Speech: A study of Pakistan’s cyberspace “to study the impact
online hate speech is having in Pakistan, whether that be the well-organized
anti-Malala campaign online, how social media fueled sectarian divides during
the Rawalpindi riots, the arrest of a professor on grounds of alleged blasphemy
for posts run on Facebook, and even the most recent online campaign of hate
against media persons”. It said the uncontrolled spread of hate speech on the
Internet and social media was reaching dangerous levels, threatening society
on many levels. “Clearly the issue needs to be addressed, but without regressive
action such as state-led censorship and bans,” Bytes For All said.
According to the study the two largest groups that were a target for hate
speech on Facebook were politicians (38% of all hate speech) and members
of the media/media groups (10%). These attacks on politicians and the media
formed nearly half of all hate speech on the Facebook pages analyzed. On
Twitter, 20% of total records were targeted at pillars of the state, with attacks
on politicians (11%) and media (7%) registering highest. This high level of
hate speech is especially worrying given the context of the ongoing war against
terrorism and the threats to life both politicians and those working in the media
face.
The country’s record on blocking hate speech by militants or even sectarian
terror groups remained unimpressive in 2014.
Civil society
Islamabad police halted a protest organized by Pakistan’s civil society
against the pro-Taliban statements of the head cleric of Lal Masjid, allegedly
Civil society activists stage a protest in Islamabad against the

killing of Rashid Rehman.

because it ‘went beyond limits.’
Commenting on the Peshawar massacre of schoolchildren at the hands of
the Taliban, the cleric refused to condemn the militants, adding that the military
and Taliban were ‘brothers’ and should unite.
The civil society activists said Taliban apologists like Aziz should not be
allowed to continue spreading their messages of hate.
Asmatullah Junejo, a police officer present at the protest, said the protesters’
right to freedom of speech was not being hindered. “There is a right to freedom
of speech for every Pakistani but the protesters went beyond their limits,” he
said. “They started using loudspeakers and were chanting slogans directly
against the cleric, which is illegal,” he added. “We simply dispersed the protesters
from the area to defuse tension between students of the Lal Masjid madrassah
and the protesters.”
Maulana Abdul Rehman Muawiya, the general secretary of the Ahle Sunnat
Wal Jamaat group, filed an FIR against the protesters with the police.
A few protesters were arrested for “disturbing the peace” but Interior
Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ordered their immediate release.
Recommendations
1. The government should strongly prosecute attacks on journalists to
dispel the air of impunity. The government, the media organizations, the civil
society and the political groups should collectively arrest the deterioration in
freedom of expression and the media safety situation in Pakistan.
2. There is a need to further strengthen the Freedom of Information
(FOI) laws as per the UN guidelines. Improvement in FOI laws would improve
the level of governance in the country.
3. There is a need to counter the spread of hate speech in Pakistan’s
online space through a multi-pronged approach that educates, creates awareness
and discourages hate and intolerance, prohibits and criminalizes the most
extreme and dangerous forms of hate speech by law, yet guarantees that
fundamental human rights to free speech and information are safeguarded.
4. There is a need for better regulation — clearer rules, better enforcement,
more transparency and fairness — of broadcast media content after meaningful
consultation with the main stakeholders.
5. The media should develop effective codes of conduct to promote a
more ethical working environment. Effective mechanisms should be developed
to resolve complaints against the media.

Freedom of assembly
Every citizen shall have the right to assemble peacefully and without
arms, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest
of public order.
Article 16
Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
Article 20(1)Freedom of Assembly
Assemblies give citizens a collective right to seek a government’s

accountability and decide on how they are governed. A democratically elected
government has the responsibility to not just allow peaceful assembly but also
facilitate it, protecting it against any undue interference by the state apparatus.
Though many large-scale protests were held in the country in 2014, the
government did not ensure the freedom of assembly, as guaranteed in the
national and international laws, for most protesters. It differentiated between
different groups of protestors on the space provided to them to exercise their
right to peaceful assembly. As in previous years, authorities’ negligence and
poor management allowed routine administrative problems and demands for
basic rights to fester and develop into mass protests.
A large number of people pressed their demands for basic amenities such
as gas, electricity, petrol and affordable food.Relatives of missing people took
to streets in Balochistan and other areas in the country for their recovery.
Freedom of assembly 153
Persons with disabilities sought better inclusion in social life. Widespread
condemnation and protests also followed the murder of a Christian couple,
who were tortured and then incinerated in a brick kiln after being accused of
blasphemy in a village near Lahore. But for most of the year much of the
media spotlight was fixed on political protests by the opposition Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party – against what it called a systematic rigging of
2013 general elections — and a religio-political Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT),
a party with no seats in the parliament, that wanted Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif to cede power to a “national government” led by technocrats who
“should halve food prices, reduce income disparities and end terrorism”.
Some analysts believed that the rallies and the disruption they caused to
routine life, especially in Islamabad, could have been avoided had the
government set up a tribunal to investigate the rigging claims. The government’s
decision to place large containers around Model Town, the housing society in
Lahore where PAT leader Tahir-ul-Qadri resides, allegedly to curtail the PAT
protesters’ movement, was an undue interference by the state. Also, the
excessive use of bullets, tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons and batons
during protests in the country during 2014 proved that protesters’ protection
was not a government priority. A violent clash between police and PAT workers
on June 17, led to the deaths of at least 14 PAT workers and injuries to 100
others after the police tried to remove barriers placed around Qadri’s house.
The incident highlighted the use of excessive force by the police that allegedly
used live rounds to disperse the crowd. HRCP, in a statement issued on June
18, questioned the police’s reasoning in removing the barricades in place for
many years around Qadri’s house on the eve of his arrival in Pakistan. An
operation to remove barricades alone should not have led to so many deaths
and injuries, hinting that the move was politically motivated. It was clear that
Qadri and his stated aim to mount a revolution against the government were
the threats at issue.
International covenants as well as national laws say that participation in
peaceful public assemblies should be voluntary and un-coerced. However,
there have been reports, not verified by the HRCP, that some people, who
joined the PAT and PTI protests, had been promised payment for their
participation. Many months into the sit-ins, many families wished to return to
their homes but were allegedly not allowed to leave by the leaders of the
protests. A woman filed a petition in December in a Lahore court against
Tahir-ul-Qadri and other PAT leadership for allegedly refusing to pay the dues
she was promised in exchange for attending the sit-in in Islamabad. The
petitioner, Hajan Momina, stated that her ID card, along with other women’s
cards had been collected by PAT workers to ensure their attendance and each
attendant was promised Rs 3,500 per sit-in day. When the sit-in ended 70 days
later and the women demanded their dues, they were allegedly mistreated by
the party workers at their Lahore office. The judge sought comments from
the Station House Officer (SHO) at Faisal Town police station on December
25. Such practices have been commonly reported about political gatherings in
Karachi where it is alleged that ID cards are collected in a door-to-door campaign
and returned at the venue of the gathering to ensure attendance.
Power and fuel protests

With 60% electricity load shedding, i.e. 15 hours in 24 hours, and a shortfall
of nearly 6000 MW, people bore the brunt of the summer without electricity in
45 degree Celsius temperatures. Officials at various energy departments
continued to claim that the electricity shortfall did not exceed 2,300 MW. With
the country producing only 49% of the energy requirements, natural gas also
fell short of the demand.
Due to increasing shortfalls and hiring of private firms to provide expensive
electricity, the price of electricity had to be increased every year to meet the
rising costs. In August, people said they received highly inflated power bills
which led many to protest in the streets. In September, the local businesses of
Islamabad protested against inflated bills by the Islamabad Electric Supply
Company (IESCO). Similar protests were held in Faisalabad, Lahore, Gujranwala
and other cities.
On September 11, protests were held in Gujranwala and Gujrat against
16- to 20-hour electricity load shedding. Even during Eid, gas load shedding
made cooking food at home impossible. Load shedding and over-billing forced
residents to protest in front of Wapda and Gujranwala Electric Power Company
People protest continuing energy shortfall.

(GEPCO) offices.
As the winter season progressed, the people had to face gas shortage. On
December 16, the residents of Rawalpindi staged protest demonstrations by
burning tyres and raising slogans against authorities. Similar protests were
held throughout December all over the country as gas supply remained low in
most residential areas.
Protests against attacks

The year began with the usual spate of senseless violence against Shiite
Hazaras. On January 21, two buses of Shiite Hazara pilgrims were targeted in
Mastung, Balochistan, by suicide blast and indiscriminate firing. At least 28
persons were killed and 37 injured, including women and children. A sectarian
group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, claimed responsibility for the attack. The families
of the victims, along with other members of the Shiite Hazara community,
once again staged a sit-in on Alamdar Road in Quetta, Balochistan, for almost
60 hours, braving the fierce cold. In a sad replay of previous year’s protests,
the families refused to bury the dead until justice was served. Despite
‘successful’ negotiations which ended the sit-in, attacks against Shiite Hazaras
were repeated thrice in October, all three of which occurred in Quetta. Despite
repeated attacks on ethnic and religious minorities and acceptance of
responsibility by certain militant groups, the government failed to prosecute
those responsible for the violent acts. The government’s laxity in going after
militant groups responsible for targeting minorities indicates either incompetence
or collusion.
Following a barbaric attack by the Taliban on the Army Public School in
Peshawar on December 16, in which more than 150 persons, at least 132 of
whom were young students, lost their lives, many emotionally charged protests
were held all over Pakistan. The most sustained and systematic of these was
held on December 19 in front of the Red mosque in Islamabad, against which
the army had led an operation in July 2007 to what it called fight armed militants
inside. The Imam of the mosque, Maulana Abdul Aziz, known for his extremist
views, had refused to condemn the attack in Peshawar. In a move to hold the
Maulana accountable for his sympathetic views on the Taliban, hundreds of
members of civil society, students, journalists and politicians gathered outside
the mosque in a movement labelled ‘Reclaim Your Mosque’ and demanded
that the Maulana condemn the attack. At the request of the mosque management,
a case was registered against the protestors under section 144 for blocking
the road and delivering ‘hate speech’ against the mosque administration. In
response to the protest, Maulana Aziz threatened the protesters of launching
suicide bombings against them if they did not disperse. The protesters then
marched towards the Abpara police station to register a case against Maulana
Abdul Aziz under section 506 (2) of the Pakistan Penal Code, concerning
A sit-in on Alamdar Road in Quetta against killing of Shia pilgrims.
offence of criminal intimidation. Later in the evening, after civil society camped
outside the police station, the case was registered. The protesters, however,
pledged to continue their sit-in until the Maulana was arrested. The police
demanded time till December 26 for investigation and promised to act when
the deadline expired at 6pm on the date, though no action was taken till the end
of the year. The leader of the ‘Reclaim Your Mosque’ movement received a
phone call allegedly from Ehsanullah Ehsan, the spokesman for the TTP, who
threatened the protestors of dire consequences if they did not disperse. Protests
and vigils in solidarity with the Red mosque protests were held in Lahore,
Karachi and Faisalabad.
In January, a number of people, mostly belonging to PTI and Sunni Tehrik,
protested the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran and a mosque by forcibly
closing down shops and bazaars in Sialkot. The protesters burnt tyres and
blocked the main Allama Iqbal Chowk for up to six hours. The accused, who
was allegedly mentally challenged, had set some mats in the mosque on fire
which engulfed some copies of the Quran as well. The police said intelligence
agencies took the accused to an unknown location for interrogation.
On January 4, Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), a pro-Shiite politico-
religious organisation, held protests in several cities including Lahore, Rawalpindi,
Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Multan as well as in London to protest growing
targeted attacks against the Shiites and the government’s failure to apprehend
the killers. Despite the pleas another deadly attack on Shiite pilgrims in Mastung,
Balochistan on January 21 took the lives of 26 people.
On the death anniversary of Governor Salman Taseer in January, journalists
and members of political parties made speeches in his support at a candlelight
vigil held by the civil society in Lahore. Also, 250 madrasa students participated
in a rally in support of Taseer’s convicted killer Mumtaz Qadri organised by
Mumtaz Qadri Lovers’ Forum.
On June 16, the Hazara Shiites of Quetta staged protests against the ban
on road travel to Iran through the restive province of Balochistan. The
protesters demanded that the ban be lifted and better security provided to the
pilgrims travelling to holy sites in Iraq and Iran. The ban came as a result of
incidents of terrorism against pilgrims in the remote town of Taftan. Four
suicide bombers struck two restaurants, killing 24 pilgrims on their way home.
The protesters urged lifting of the ban because they could not afford expensive
airplane tickets. Such moves indicated that the government was not only ill
equipped to provide security to its citizens but also openly admitted this. The
at-risk populations were left to their own devices to seek private security or to
barricade themselves inside their homes to avoid untoward incidents.
In February, several civil society and human rights groups staged protest
demonstrations all over the country against a government decision to hold
peace talks with the Taliban. Speakers at the demonstrations said the Taliban
were responsible for countless acts of terror and negotiating peace with them
would not prove successful. They demanded a strict military operation to
wipe out terrorism from the country. Women’s rights groups also resented
non-inclusion of women in the team selected for talks with the Taliban. They
argued that the Taliban’s barbarity was felt most strongly by the women under
their rule and they had the most to lose if the Taliban gained control of any
territories in Pakistan.
The threats faced by the religious and ethnic minorities were manifold.
According to HRCP media monitoring, 11 Hindu temples and churches were
‘Reclaim Your Mosque’ protest in Islamabad.

Kali Mata Colony residents converge on a road leading to Tando Mohammad
Khan against the attack on Hanuman Tempe.
attacked in Sindh alone. On May 24, about 300 people belonging to the Sikh
faith stormed the parliament building in Islamabad to protest against the
desecration of their holy book. The storming, later termed a major security
lapse, interrupted the House proceedings. After almost an hour, the leader of
the House talked the protesters into calling off the protest.
On March 29, residents of Kali Mata Colony in Larkana, Sindh protested
on the streets against an arson attack on a Hindu temple. They burnt tyres and
blocked traffic on Tando Muhammad Khan road, demanding greater security
for religious minorities. The attack came only a week after a similar arson
attack in Larkana carried out to protest alleged desecration of the Quran.
Political protests
The year saw one of the most sustained political protests in Pakistan’s
history. Between August and December, the airwaves were dominated by the
protests and sit-ins held by PTI and PAT. The PTIstarted its rallies on August
14 against what it called rigging in the national elections in May 2013. The PAT
rallies, known as ‘Inquilab March’ were held for removal of the prime minister
as well as revamping the political system of the country. Holding protests in
D-chowk of Islamabad, in immediate vicinity of the Red Zone where important
state institutions like the Parliament house are situated, was meant to send out
a clear message. They did have the right to exercise their freedom of assembly
but in storming the Red Zone in the hopes of entering the Prime Minister’s
House, they perhaps exceeded their rights and invited retaliation by the police.
Late at night on August 19, Imran Khan, leader of PTI ordered the marchers
to force their way into the Red Zone. On September 1, the protestors stormed
the head office of Pakistan Television (PTV) in Islamabad, disrupting its
transmission, destroying property and harassing staff inside. In the third phase
of the PTI protests, Imran Khan announced a schedule to shut down major
cities in the country. On December 8, when Faisalabad was shut down, the
workers of the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) also
took out a rally on the same locations announced by PTI. A clash erupted
between the party workers which left one PTI protestor dead and 14 others
injured, three of whom were policemen. Even though the PML-N workers
could have chosen a different location for their gathering, the PTI leadership
was also blamed for inciting the young party workers to engage in violent
behaviour. The chief minister ordered a probe and an FIR was registered
under PPC as well as ATA by the brother of the deceased PTI worker. In
response to his death, PTI workers held protests throughout Pakistan. Main
roads were blocked in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. Similarly, on December
16, Lahore was locked down and 28 key points were blocked. The PTI workers
burnt tyres, put up barbed wire and barricaded Lahore’s main roads.
On August 21, the Lahore High Court (LHC) refused to hear a petition
seeking a restraining order against the Azadi March of PTI. The petitioner
alleged that the march and sit-in were an international conspiracy to create
anarchy in Pakistan. He requested formation of a judicial commission to
investigate the objectives of the protest. The court dismissed the petition with
the remarks that nobody could be stopped from holding a peaceful sit-in or
protest.
There were reports that the arrangements made for the protesters in front
of the Parliament House in D-Chowk were insufficient. In the absence of
proper shelter, the protesters sat in the scorching heat the entire day, awaiting
their leaders, who made their appearance every day after sundown. Lack of
toilets in the area caused severe discomfort, especially to women. In the absence
of any markets nearby, the participants had to walk significant distances to
buy items of daily use. It is understood that the protesters who leave the
comfort of home to protest on the streets shall inevitably face difficulties but
the party leaders whom they so devotedly follow should make proper
arrangements for their security and well-being.
On August 21, the Supreme Court issued notices to PTI chairman and
PAT chief for creating impediments on the Constitutional Avenue. The Supreme
Court Bar Association (SCBA) submitted a petition to a five-member bench
headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk saying that cases were being adjourned
because the lawyers and judges could not appear in court on time. The SCBA
chief who had filed the petition under Article 184(3), contended that the political
standoff or impasse was affecting all spheres of national life.
In early January, protests were held in many parts of Sindh over Muttahida
Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Chief Altaf Hussain saying in a speech that a
separate province or even a country could be demanded for the Urdu-speaking
population if their rights were usurped. The protesters demanded an apology
from the MQM chief for hurting the sentiments of the Sindhi speaking population
of the province and for calling for a separation of Sindh from Pakistan.
Violence
Incidents of violence and use of excessive force against protestors set
many examples during the year. Despite claims that rubber bullets had been
imported for crowd control, high number of casualties with evidence of bullet
wounds suggested that live rounds were used with possible shoot-to-kill orders.
The police, regardless of gender, showed unusual cruelty in handling unarmed
civilians as well as persons with disabilities, all seeking justice with fair
demands. The police excessively used batons for crowd control making no
distinction between the young and old. News channels often showed footage
of several policemen hitting a single protestor, who happened to have fallen
and left behind, with batons. Such behaviour was more of a vengeful nature
than for peacemaking and diffusing the situation.
During an operation to remove barriers from the house of Pakistan Awami
Tehreek’s (PAT) Amir Tahir-ul-Qadri’s house by the Punjab police, 11 persons
died and hundreds were injured in the ensuing clashes. On June 16, the day
Tahir-ul-Qadri was set to arrive in Lahore, the operation to remove the barriers,
which had been in place for years, was announced. When the police proceeded
to remove the barriers, said to encroach on public property, a clash erupted
between PAT workers and the police. The police proceeded to baton charge
and shell the protestors with tear gas. According to police, 27 policemen were
injured while 53 protestors were arrested. During investigations, the police
said they were ordered by the Superintendent of Police (SP) to fire live rounds
Police stopping and baton charge on blind persons at Davis Road

as they tried to record their protest in front of CM House.

in the air after PAT workers initiated the firing. On August 25, Inspector General
(IG) of Police, Punjab issued orders for the transfer of 11 SP rank police
officers, including three who were present in Model Town at the time of the
clashes. Though suspension of superiors found responsible for such illegal
orders is a start, it is not where the process should end. Those responsible
should be tried in court and punished. The police should be trained in modern
methods of crowd control which ensure the security of both police and
protestors.
On April 28, Amna Janjua, Chairperson of a rights group, Defence of
Human Rights Pakistan, along with relatives of missing persons held a
demonstration at D-chowk in Islamabad against enforced and involuntary
disappearances. When the protestors attempted to approach Parliament House
in the Red Zone, the police resorted to aerial firing, tear gas, and baton-charge.
The police arrested eight men and four women including Amna Janjua. What
was particularly troubling, though, was the manner women police handled Ms
Janjua while arresting her. Journalists rushed to the scene to record the incident
and videos of women police roughing up Ms Janjua were telecast live on TV.
The police were seen pushing and shoving her, pulling her clothes and hair,
throwing her inside the police van and whisking her away. The journalists
trying to record the incident were also targeted. Their equipment was snatched
and destroyed and many were wounded. Later that day, the prime minister
issued a statement that he disapproved of police torture and ordered the release
of all protestors.
On December 3, on International Day of Persons with Disabilities, visually
impaired persons staged a demonstration in front of Lahore Press Club seeking
an increase in the government job quota for persons with disabilities. When
the protestors started moving towards the CM House from Davis Road, the
police tried to stop them since a presidential convoy was expected to pass
through the route shortly. When the protestors refused to back off, the police
baton charged and manhandled the protestors. The brutal response of the
police was seen as a violation of basic rights of a group already severely
marginalized due to their disability. Five police officials were suspended but
the original demands of the visually impaired protestors drowned in the chaos.
Curbs
The right to enjoy freedom of assembly, one guaranteed to all citizens
without discrimination, was perhaps extended to some groups more than
others. In a bid to register their complaints with the United Nations office in
Islamabad, the Voice of Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), a group comprising
relatives of missing persons and against enforced and involuntary
disappearances, marched on foot from Quetta to Islamabad. These dozen or
so unarmed men, women and children with only a cart full of pictures of
A long march from Balochistan to Islamabad against enforced disappearances.
missing relatives and friends were intimidated at several points during their
journey, threatened to turn back and cease their protest. In Wazirabad, Punjab,
unidentified persons surrounded the marcher’s camp at night, allegedly to
intimidate them. In February, Mama Abdul Qadeer, who was heading the long
march, received threatening phone calls and text messages, warning that the
marchers would not be allowed to enter Rawalpindi, a city adjacent to the
capital Islamabad and the official headquarters of the Pakistan armed forces.
The threats were widely condemned by civil society and eventually VBMP
entered the capital safely on March 4. On the other hand, on December 5
Jamat’ud’Dawa, the charity wing of the banned militant organization Lashkar-
e-Taiba, organised a two-day national conference in Punjab’s capital Lahore.
It called for the complete enforcement of Shariah and reviving jihad against
Pakistan’s enemies. Speeches were also made against Pakistan’s attempts to
make peace with India.
Over the course of roughly five months of the PTI and PAT protests, the
police set new records of arbitrarily detaining individuals over flimsy charges.
The arrests, made under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) 1960 and
for violations of Section 144 of the CrPC, were dubbed as blatant harassment.
Such a systematic campaign sets dangerous precedent by the government to
clamp down on fundamental freedoms. As of August, a total of 1,980 party
workers belonging to PTI and PAT were behind bars in various jails of Punjab.
Also, within a few weeks, almost 3000 to 5000 arrested workers were released
showing that the charges against them were weak. Most of the workers were
kept in Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi jails. Heavy
contingents of police at all entry points into Lahore thoroughly checked the
vehicles of the party workers. The move was seen as an unnecessary hindrance
to bar the workers from attending the rallies in Lahore. Article 10 of the
Constitution, on preventive detention, should have no place in modern
democratic societies, at least during peacetime.
Lawyers, laborers, journalists, teachers

As targeted attacks against polio workers, lawyers, human rights defenders
and teachers continued with impunity, protests around the country were
organised to call for bringing the attackers to justice. Farmers’ demands for
land rights, which have been consistently made for decades, continued this
year but there was no debate in the parliament on land reforms. Unfair land
allocations and land grabbing by the mafia continued from the Thar desert to
Muridke, Punjab.
On January 1, the Sindh Land Reforms Movement (SLRM), a network of
peasants and civil society organisations, staged public rallies for provision of
agricultural land to the landless peasants. Their demands included initiating
land reforms according to the Land Reforms Act 1977. The governments of
Sindh and Punjab were at the forefront of those who asked the Supreme
Court to maintain a status quo on land reforms in recent years despite glaring
disparities in land distribution.
Journalists all over the country held demonstrations, vigils and protests
against an attempt on the life of Hamid Mir, an anchorperson of Geo News,a
leading Urdu-language news channel in Pakistan. He was shot six times in a
Nurses protest in Lahore.

Journalists all over the country held demonstrations, vigils and protests
against an attempt on the life of Hamid Mir.
targeted attack on his car in Karachi on April 19. In the aftermath of the
attack, Mir’s brother accused Pakistan’s leading intelligence agency, the ISI,
of orchestrating the attack. Geo News aired images of the then ISI chief along
with the accusations. Consequently, the defence ministry urged the national
media regulator to cancel Geo TV’s broadcasting licence. On the request,
Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) suspended Geo’s
licence for 15 days and imposed a Rs 10 million fine in June. Till the year’s
end though, Geo was still unavailable in many localities. Journalists and activists
saw this closure as a blatant violation of freedom of information and press
freedom. In September, journalists, political party representatives, members
of civil society in Hyderabad demonstrated against the illegal closure of Geo.
Amnesty International termed the ban an ‘attack on press freedom’.
On February 9, dozens of farmers from Kotla Laghari, Muzaffargarh,
protested against the government’s plan to set up a coal power plant on their
lands. The protestors staged a sit-in and blocked traffic for up to seven hours.
The area is home to three other power projects which have allegedly added
pollutants to the area and degraded the quality of air. The farmers demanded
that the government use infertile land close to the area rather than destroying
their farmland and their livelihood. About 100 acres of privately owned land
was earmarked for the project but a large desert area nearby which belonged
to the state was spared.
On February 14, female teachers protested outside the Peshawar Press
Club against their forced induction into polio vaccination campaigns in the
province. The Sher Shah Suri road was blocked for a while by the All Female
Protest against the killing of HRCP coordinator Rashid Rehman.
Teachers Association. They said that the government had failed to provide
protection to the polio vaccinators. Even the security personnel accompanying
the teams were unsafe and had failed to protect the vaccinators. In 2014,
Pakistan recorded 305 polio cases. According to media reports, at least 30
polio vaccinators have been killed as well as 30 security personnel guarding
them since December 2012 in Pakistan.
In September, dozens of teachers protested for nine days at the Boat
Basin in Karachi for their wage arrears. Almost 3,600 teachers had been
appointed in June 2012 by the then education minister but their salaries had
not been paid for two years. On the ninth day of the protest, when the PPP
sent a minister with the government’s last offer, the protest turned violent.
The government proposed that all the appointed teachers take the National
Testing Service (NTS) exam after which 1,425 vacancies would be open. The
teachers could then apply again and receive their appointment on merit. The
minister, however, did not address the issue of dues which angered the
protesters. When they tried to force their way into Bilawal House, the police
baton charged them and dispersed them with water cannon.
On May 7, HRCP’s Multan Task Force Coordinator and eminent human
rights activist Rashid Rehman was shot and killed in Multan by two gunmen
for representing in court a blasphemy accused. Lawyers, activists, journalists
and civil society in general took out rallies in all major cities of Pakistan against
the murder as well as the government’s lack of response to letters demanding
greater security for Rehman prior to the fatal attack. A few days before the
murder, he had been threatened by a lawyer and some militants in open court.
Despite repeated letters to the authorities, steps were not taken to either prevent
the attack or catch the perpetrators.
Ad hoc nurses in Lahore protested against the government and the Health
Department officials on Copper Road for regularization of their services. On
the 5th day of protest on March 15, the nurses marched towards the Punjab
Assembly to register their protest when the police along with lady constables
attacked them with batons. The police tortured the nurses, injuring several of
them, including a pregnant nurse, whose condition deteriorated after the attack.
The police also arrested 10 nurses and locked them up at the Race Course
women police station without registering any first information reports (FIR).
Following the violent attack, nurses from hospitals all over Lahore joined the
protest to condemn police torture.
Protests on social issues

On November 4, in Kot Radha Kishan, a city in Kasur District, 40 miles
from provincial capital Lahore, a Christian couple was accused of desecrating
the Quran, beaten severely and then their bodies (one reported dead and the
other alive) burnt in the brick kiln where they worked, by a mob consisting of
local villagers. The incident was condemned by all sections of society for its
brutality and sparked a debate about the treatment of minorities in Pakistan.
Immediately after the incident, members of civil society visited the brick kiln
where the incident had occurred and placed flowers and candles in
remembrance of the two victims. On Sunday, November 9, hundreds of
Christians took to the streets in Islamabad to protest against the attack. A
member of the World Minorities Alliance stated during the event that the impunity
enjoyed by the perpetrators was the reason that such mob attacks kept
recurring. On November 27, during a National Assembly session, MNAs jointly
condemned the incident and demanded exemplary punishments for culprits.
Different political parties, including MQM and PAT held protest and vigils.
On October 28 in Quetta, a seven-year-old girl belonging to the Hazara
community was tortured and strangled before being dumped in a garbage can
near her house. According to Quetta’s police chief, it was a case of attempted
rape. The signs of violence on her small body and the red marks on her neck
from strangulation with a rope proved that the child had died an agonizing
death. In the face of police’s apparent inaction, the Hazara community protested
against the incident on November 8 outside the office of IG of
Police,Balochistan. They chanted slogans against the police for failing to arrest
the culprits responsible for the crime. The police said there had been no progress
in investigations, a position which continued till the end of the year. The
continuation of such attacks points towards the incapacity or unwillingness of
the government to end impunity enjoyed by those behind these attacks.
Baloch student activist Latif Johar Baloch went on a hunger strike for 46
days in May and June to protest against the abduction of Baloch Student
Organisation-Azad (BSO-A) chief, Zahid Baloch allegedly by intelligence
PAT sit-in panoramic view.
agencies. The strike started out as a hunger strike until the recovery of Zahid
Baloch or till death. However, he ended the strike on the 46th day after other
persons working for the recovery of missing persons convinced him to end it.
Johar was camped outside the Karachi Press Club as his health slowly
deteriorated and he lost considerable weight. He was visited by the Balochistan
chief minister who promised he would get an FIR registered against the
abduction.
On June 14, hundreds of residents of Chak 61 near Faisalabad staged a
demonstration and blocked the road to protest against the lack of police
response to the killing of two men in their village. The protesters blocked the
Lahore-Faisalabad road for traffic by placing the bodies on the road. The
protesters claimed that four to five persons had shot and killed the young men
and despite informing the police, no one from the security force had shown
up and the attackers managed to flee. Police baton charged the protesters.
Some of the protesters fired shots in the air but no one was injured. The
Station House Officer (SHO) then met with the protesters and assured them
that the perpetrators would be caught.
On January 30, the Awami Worker Party, a left-wing political party, held
protest demonstrations in Lahore and Islamabad against the on-going operation
in Balochistan by the security forces. The party workers chanted slogans
against the Frontier Corps, stating that there was a lack of transparency and
openness in such operations. They also called for the detainees to be tried in
court so that innocent civilians were not targeted. Protesters also demanded
an inquiry into the discovery of mass graves in Tootak,Balochistan.
On March 5, a protest was held in Mingora, Swat by women belonging to
the families of missing persons. They demanded the safe recovery of their
family members who had been missing for four years. The protesters marched
from Kanju area to Saidu Sharif road holding pictures and identity cards of
their missing relatives. They dispersed later after assurances from the police
that their concerns shall be conveyed to the relevant quarters.
In September, Pakistan Institute of Labor Education and Research (PILER)
and Pakistan Dalit Solidarity Network (PSDN) held a protest at Karachi Press
Club against the various forms of discrimination against the Hindu community.
Earlier the same month, two Hindu shopkeepers in Umerkot had been murdered.
Kidnappings for ransom and forced conversions were rampant and these crimes
were being committed with impunity. Such incidents have increased the level
of insecurity for the entire community, especially in Sindh. The religious
minorities in Pakistan often fall victim to violence and sexual assault owing to
their community’s lack of political representation and influence.
On August 15, dozens of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) from North
Waziristan, dislocated as a result of the military operation Zarb-e-Azab, staged
a protest in front of the Peshawar Press Club and demanded their repatriation
and an end to the conflict that had forced them from their homes. A majority
of the IDPs had taken refuge in school buildings in Bannu during the summer
vacations. In August, however, when the schools were due to be opened, the
IDPs were asked to vacate the buildings. They were not allowed to return
home either though the security forces claimed to have cleared their areas of
residence like Mirali, Miranshah and other tehsils.
In late September, business and trade activities in Panjgur, Kharan, Gwadar,
Kech, Wadh and other districts of Balochistan came to a standstill. The strike
was called by the Baloch Warna Movement and the Baloch National Front
(BNF), a political alliance of Baloch nationalist organisations, against the
recovery of dead bodies in Panjgur, Khuzdar, Kech and Awaran districts.
Different activists of nationalist parties claimed that three people were kidnapped
and subsequently killed in illegal detention. On September 26, human remains
IDPs from North Waziristan Agency protested against mismanagement

in food distribution at food point and blocked the Kohat-Bannu road.

almost a year old were found in two gunny sacks near a river in Panjgur. The
remains were sent to Lahore and Karachi for DNA testing though the nationalist
organisations claimed they belonged to missing persons. Further protests and
strikes were held on the 29th of September in Chagai, Nushki, Kharan, Awaran
Bolan, Hub etc against the new wave of dumping of mutilated bodies.
On June 20, thousands of people, predominantly women and children,
took to the streets in Panjgur, to protest against closure of private schools for
five consecutive days. The protesters were carrying placards in support of
their demand for better security to private schools. The protest and
demonstration came as a result of a threat issued by Tanzeem-ul-Islam-ul-
Furqan (TIF), ordering co-educational and ‘western-style’ learning schools to
immediately shut down.
Recommendations
1. The government should facilitate and protect persons joining a
peaceful assembly as an indicator of a genuine democracy
2. The police should be trained in modern methods of crowd control
which ensure the protection of the police as well as the protestors.
3. Section 144 of the CrPC and Maintenance of Public Order (MPO)
1960 have been increasingly used to curb the right of peaceful assembly of
persons. The laws on arrest and detention should be reconsidered as preventive
detention has no place in modern democratic societies.
4. The government’s complaint mechanism should be improved so that
citizens’ concerns could be addressed and expeditiously resolved.

Freedom of association
Every citizen shall have the right to form associations or unions subject
to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of sovereignty
or integrity of Pakistan, public order or morality.
Article 17
Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful ... association.
No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 20(1,2)
Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others,
including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his
interests -
ICCPR
Article 22
Workers and employers, without distinction whatsoever, shall have the
right to establish and, subject only to the rules of the organisation concerned,
to join organisations of their own choosing without previous authorization –
ILO Convention 87
Article 2
Workers shall enjoy adequate protection against acts of anti-union
Freedom of association 171

discrimination in respect of their employment –
ILO Convention 98
Article 1
The freedom to form or join peaceful associations remained limited for

the groups most vulnerable because of their belief, gender, profession and
political affiliation. Some groups like trade unions and NGOs suffered
unnecessary interference by the state or were hindered by legal barriers to
association. Others suffered blatant violence and targeting by non-state actors
as a direct result of their associations with political groups.The actions of
these non-state actors played a significant role in denying at-risk groups the
space to exercise their right to peaceful association. These limitations were
achieved either through direct violence or through prevailing patriarchal attitudes
and social constructions which kept these groups at the margins of society.
Thus, the state’s obligation extended beyond respecting rights to providing
effective protection to rights holders from violations and abuses by both state
and non-state actors.
The year 2014 saw growing violence against workers and leaders of political
parties. In Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, 134 political activists were
killed in 2014, even though according to the Sindh Rangers’ report published
in August 2014 on the on-going operation in Karachi, 178 terrorist and criminals
had been killed and 2,787 arrested since September 2013. Political associations,
especially with parties known for their liberal or progressive agenda, were
considered dangerous and their workers remained foremost on militants’ target
list.
Workers and labourers continued to face hindrance in forming and joining
trade unions and enjoying the right to collective bargaining. The Industrial
Relations Act, a provincial law to regulate formation of trade unions, effectively
excluded a major chunk of the workforce by limiting its scope to formal
workers. Despite Pakistan’s international obligations to extend right to
association to all, its domestic, home-based and agricultural workers, and the
self-employed were barred from the ambit.
The state’s rationale for restricting the right of civil society to freedom of
association remained consistent with previous years. Criticism of authorities,
especially security forces, and of state policies, including through
demonstrations was largely considered a threat to national security and public
order. Terms such as ‘state sovereignty’ and ‘national interest’ were used to
restrict association rights. The government, through the introduction of the
Regulation of Foreign Contribution Bill 2013 in the Senate, alleged that NGOs
lacked accountability and sought to restrict their access to resources, especially
foreign funding.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Assembly and
Association, one of the 28 independent human rights experts in the special
procedures of the Human Rights Council, made requests to visit Pakistan in
2011 and 2013, neither of which was granted. The Rapporteur also sent the
government communications regarding four joint allegation letters received in
2010, 2012 and 2013 and three joint urgent appeals received in 2012 and
2013. The government failed to respond to the rapporteur’s communication
regarding the killing of Mr. Zarteef Afridi, HRCP’s coordinator in Khyber Agency
of FATA. In the remaining six communications, the government acknowledged
receipt but failed to send detailed answers to all the concerns raised in the
communication.
Restrictions on trade unions

Trade unions have long demanded the grant of basic human and labour
rights to all working men and women in Pakistan.The demand has led to
attacks on and imprisonment of their leaders and members. Not only were
persons associated with labour unions physically attacked or imprisoned under
long sentences, serious limitations to formation and functioning of labor unions
were encoded in law, in glaring contrast to Pakistan’s international obligations
regarding the right of association for labour.
After the 18th Constitutional Amendmentpassed in 2010 and deletion of the
Concurrent Legislative List, the labour ministry was devolved to the provinces.
This meant that subjects such as welfare of labour, compensation, health
insurance, pension, and trade unions became provincial, even though the centre’s
obligation to ensure universal labour guarantees remained intact. Subsequently,
an Industrial Relations Act, a law to regulate formation of trade unions and
relations between employer and workmen, was introduced in each province;
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2010, Punjab in 2010, Sindh in 2013, Balochistan in
2011 and Federal Capital in 2012. These acts, which primarily dealt with
ensuring freedom of association for labour, fell well short of international
standards. These acts did not extend to FATA, failing to provide the right to
collective bargaining to labourers in these tribal regions. The lack of workplace
safety and blatant violations of labour laws experienced by mine workers in
FATA were well known. However, laws protecting labourers elsewhere in the
country failed to extend their net to labourers in FATA. The Acts collectively
excluded the police, armed forces, security staff of Pakistan International
Airlines (PIA), staff of government hospitals and public educational institutions,
the self-employed, home-based workers (HBW) and agricultural workers from
their ambit. Further conditions were imposed on unions which restricted their
activity and hindered the free choice of labourers to join a union. As per the
law, workers could not be a part of more than one union at an industry. It also
required the membership of 75% of the industry’s workforce in the union for
registration. All members of the union must be engaged or employed in the
industry. If two or more unions operated in one establishment, a union required
Members of All-Pakistan Wapda Hydroelectric Central Labour Union protest against privatisation.
at least one fourth membership.

A bill called Domestic Workers (Employment Rights) Bill 2013 was tabled
in the Senate in January, 2014. The Senate referred it to the Standing Committee
on Law and Justice for review. The bill only extended to the capital territory
but once it was passed, it would set a good precedent for the provinces to
follow. The bill would recognize domestic workers as labour and thus give
them the right to register their unions under the Industrial Relations Order. It
was estimated that there were 8.5 million informal domestic workers in
Pakistan.The country, however, was yet to ratify Convention No. 189 of the
ILO which provided specific protection to domestic workers.
Six power-loom workers and leaders of Labour Qaumi Movement (LQM)
union from Faisalabad, who were sentenced to 99 years in jail each, remained
incarcerated in the year under review. The six men were charged with attempting
to murder four brothers who owned the power-loom factory where they
worked. During a protest demanding the 17% wage increase announced by
the government in 2011, the four owners were allegedly beaten by the protesting
workers. A First Information Report (FIR) was filed against 14 leaders of the
LQM and 150 unknown persons three days after the incident. Gunfire was
not mentioned in the initial report but appeared in the police report three months
after the incident. The Anti-Terrorism Court invoked section 7 of the ATA,
punishment for acts of terrorism, and collectively sentenced the six men to
594 years in jail. The new LQM leadership filed an appeal in the Lahore High
Court for their bail. Till the end of 2014, the bail had not been granted. The
unusually harsh sentence was considered by labour leaders as retributive meant
to intimidate and discourage other labour unions from demanding their rights.
Targeted for their political affiliations

Incidents of persons targeted for their political affiliation and association
continued to be reported throughout the year. This violence was most
pronounced in Karachi, the capital city of Sindh, where 134 political activists
were killed during the year. According to Conflict/Violence Report 2014,
published by Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), an Islamabad-
based think-tank, 186 politicians and party workers and 52 persons affiliated
with religious organisations were killed in 2014. The Awami National Party
(ANP) faced the highest number of such attacks with 16 acts of violence
followed by Pakistan Muslim League-N with six, according to the Pakistan
Security Report, published by Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS).
In Orangi Town Karachi, the ANP President of District West Dr Ziauddin
was shot and killed by unidentified assailants. The 50-year-old was returning
from a mosque after offering Isha prayers when assailants on a motorbike
shot and killed him. In September 2013, a bomb had been planted outside his
house which was defused in time by the Bomb Disposal Squad. He had
repeatedly been threatened by the Taliban who demanded Rs 1 million in
extortion money from him. They had also warned him to quit ANP and that
failure to comply would lead to dire consequences. Despite serious threats
against his life and property, he was not provided additional security. The state
has the responsibility to protect all its citizens, especially the ones who selflessly
continue their political work to strengthen democracy despite serious threats.
On August 28, more than 150 leaders of four political parties were detained
ANP and NYO workers protesting against the target killing of their leader
and president of Karachi West, Dr Ziauddin.

during unannounced raids in Karachi. The detainees belonged to Awami National
Party (ANP), MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM), Pakistan Sunni Tehreek
(PST), Peoples Aman Committee (PAC) and Kutchi Rabita Committee, an
organization of Kutchi community, (KRC). There were also reports that on
occasions when the law enforcing agencies failed to arrest certain party
workers, they instead arrested their family members. Some political workers
arrested were senior citizens, like ANP’s Baba Zahir Shah who was 70 years
old. The police officials said the raids were only conducted against criminal
elements. The list provided to the police of persons to be arrested during such
raids included sitting MNAs and MPAs and prominent party leaders.
The Karachi Rangers conducted a raid on a reorganization meeting of the
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) at their office on Abul Hasan Ispahani
Road on September 24 and took several party workers to an undisclosed
location after arresting them. The rangers did not carry any arrest warrants,
nor was an explanation provided for the arbitrary raid and detention of workers.
One member of Sindh Assembly and MQM party worker was not allowed to
enter the office premises. The move was condemned by the MQM Raabita
Committee as unlawful and unreasonable.
Six members of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), including two former
councilors, were targeted and killed in the troubled Lyari area of Karachi within
one week in November.
A Pakistan Muslim League – Q worker was shot and killed by unidentified
men in Islamabad on December 16. The initial probe revealed that the culprits
intercepted his car and sprayed him with bullets, 12 to 13 of which were
found from his body during the post-mortem examination.
On December 18, MQM District Vice President Syed Asghar Abbas was
shot and killed in Chiniot city. Unidentified assailants on a motorbike shot and
killed him as he was going to a market.
In December, a PTI worker Nazir Ullah died in custody of the police at
Pirabad Police Station, allegedly as a result of brutal torture. The police denied
the claim saying that he was found unconscious on the roadside in Orangi
Town in Karachi and was shifted to the hospital by the police where the
doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. PTI workers and leaders staged
protests outside the Karachi Press Club and were baton-charged for trying to
move towards the Red Zone.
The Secretary General of the Sindh chapter of JUI-F and a senator between
2006 and 2012, Khalid Mehmood Soomro was shot and killed outside a mosque
in Sukkur by unidentified assailants. Soomro, originally hailing from Larkana,
was in Sukkur to participate in a conference. The senior leader had previously
been attacked six times before the fatal attack took place on November 29.
Maulana Malik Zar, a leader of religio-political party Jamiat-e-Ulema-i-
Protest against killing of Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro of JUI-F.
Islam, Fazl (JUI-F) was shot and injured in Orangi Colony, Karachi on December
22. He was shot at four times and was taken to hospital in a critical condition.
The JUI-F leadership had suffered similar attacks in the last few years, including
two failed attacks against the party’s chief.
Student unions
Since the ban imposed by General Zia-ul-Haq in 1984 under Martial Law
Orders, student unions had lost their effectiveness largely because universities
had failed to positively engage with and revive them. Even though the ban was
lifted by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1988, subsequent Supreme Court
judgments limited their scope significantly. Students were actively discouraged
from engaging in politics while only ‘legitimate’ student groups were allowed
to operate after 1993. The bans and limitations came largely as a result of
escalating violence on campuses and reports of political manipulation and
interference in the administrative affairs of universities.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani announced the restoration of student
unions on March 29, 2008 and the decision was supported by the Parliament.
Despite this move, questions remained as to whether the government would
actively engage with student unions to achieve an integrative democratic
environment and address the concerns of Pakistan’s youth. Also, various
incidents of violence and intimidation on campus by members of certain political
parties’ student wings demonstrated that the issues which led to the initial ban
had not been addressed. In the previous years there had also been reports that
a member of trans-national terrorist group Al-Qaeda was arrested from Punjab
University’s hostels and was allegedly sheltered by Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT),
the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).
Throughout the year reports were published of students manhandling
teachers and engaging in hooliganism on campus. On March 19, IJT members,
who had been expelled from the university earlier, disrupted a sports gala at
the Punjab University. The union members had earlier sent a threatening note
to the authorities to halt the sports gala. Around 15 members forced their entry
on campus, manhandled senior faculty members, snatched students’ handbags
and mobile phones and also vandalized a teacher’s car. When the education
minister of Punjab was informed, he sent a police contingent to the campus to
control the situation. As soon as the police arrived, the disruptive group dispersed
and no case was registered. Similarly on November 16, IJT members attacked
the car of an assistant professor at the Punjab University’s law college. The
members had threatened him a day earlier. The faculty members complained
that these union members had cases registered against them for firing shots at
the house of the university’s Hall Council chairman on September 1, attacking
the car of a lecturer on October 17 and raiding the house of another assistant
professor on November 11. However, no arrests had been made and thus
such disturbances continued.
Even though criminal elements as part of any association should be rooted
out and dealt with according to the law, the association itself should not be
made to suffer. Isolated incidents of campus violence should not lead to a
carpet ban on all student unions.
Attacks against NGOs, human rights defenders and journalists

For a third year in a row, Pakistan was named as the most dangerous
country for journalists in the year under review, according to the International
Federation of Journalists (IFJ), a global organization of journalists based in
Belgium.The threat was most pronounced in volatile regions such as FATA
and troubled districts such as Khuzdar in Balochistan. The targeting of journalists
in these regions was a direct consequence of their association with journalism,
whether through press clubs or as employees of print and electronic media
outlets. According to HRCP’s monitoring of 48 volatile districts in Pakistan,
journalists and human rights defenders suffered 19 attacks in 2014. NGOs
and their staff also suffered numerous attacks from extremist groups who
continued to accuse them of promoting a western agenda. Persons, regardless
of the nature of their work, were the target of attacks simply for their
association with NGOs. On September 15, two employees of an INGO working
on a project to rehabilitate communities affected by natural and man-made
disasters were targeted by unidentified assailants while they were conducting
a survey in Sosut/Pingal pasture in Ghizer district of Gilgit-Baltistan. The two
men were investigating a disaster at a glacier and were accompanied by two
policemen when four armed men in masks opened indiscriminate firing on
them. When the policemen retaliated, the attackers fled.
The opposition in the Parliament in 2013 decided to regulate NGO and
INGO funding with more scrutiny and cancel registration if they were found
to be engaged in ‘activities detrimental to national interest’. The regulation bill,
known formally as Regulation of Foreign Contribution Bill 2013, was largely
seen as an undue interference by the state into the working of NGOs. The Bill
shall require the NGOs and the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) of the federal
governmentto sign a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). All requests
for the MOU certification, a requirement for all operational NGOs and INGOs
in the country, shall be approved after scrutiny by the Ministry of Interior, the
provincial government and other relevant stake holders. The Bill also stated
that concealment of foreign contributions would be punishable with a one
year jail sentence. Also, the government can assign an officer to inspect books,
accounts and records of the NGO to ensure transparency. The Bill sets
conditions that INGOs and NGOs receiving foreign contribution shall utilize
such contribution only for the purposes and locations permitted by the federal
government. Some of the clauses were particularly troubling, especially for
their use of vague terms, mainly; “… shall not engage in propagation of sedition”,
and “…contributions must not be diverted for undesirable purposes, which is
against the public interest.” The Bill, if enacted, shall regulate all foreign aid or
donation from any foreign source, require all INGO and NGOs to obtain prior
permission from the government to use foreign funds, allow the government
power to arbitrarily deny or cancel permission for NGOs to receive foreign
funding, and impose a wide range of operational restrictions.
The local NGOs and representatives of civil society raised serious concerns
about the proposed bill, stating that it was a clear violation of UNHRC’s
Resolution, passed on March 22 2013, which bars the government from putting
restrictions on NGOs receiving foreign contributions. The Bill was tabled in
the Senate but was yet to be passed.
Banned organisations
The total number of banned outfits operating in Pakistan remained a
contentious issue as the figure varied from one report to the next. According
to the National Internal Security Policy, a security document published by the
government, about 60 banned organisations were operating in Pakistan. In
later reports, however, the minister of interior stated that more than 95 banned
groups were active in Punjab alone. Despite repeated announcements of bans,
at least some openly militant and extremist organisations continued to operate
with impunity.
A leader of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group Malik Muhammad Ishaq
was set to be released in December of the year under review but the release
orders were reversed and he was sent on a two-week judicial remand, allegedly
after an international uproar against his release orders.
A multi-faceted organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa operated openly in Pakistan
and enjoyed significant public support, despite being targeted by the UN Security
Council for financial sanctions.
A coalition known as Difa-e-Pakistan Council, comprising religious and
small political parties, held rallies, though fewer in number in 2014 than in
2013, across the country with a broad but unclear aim to ‘defend Pakistan’.
Recommendations
1. The growing cases of violence against workers and leaders of political
parties, especially in Karachi, should be checked and the issue of impunity
enjoyed by their attackers addressed. All persons associated with political
parties should be given added protection under the law
2. The government should prosecute persons accused of killing, assaulting
or intimidating human rights defenders, journalists and NGO workers. The
government should also respond adequately and in time to the communications
sent by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Assembly and Association
regarding harassment and killing of HRDs and NGO workers.
3. The government’s decision to ban extremist groups is a welcome move.
The government should make the ban effective and enforce it through lawful
use of force if necessary against any banned outfits which continue to operate
and hold public rallies.

Political participation
... the state shall exercise its powers and authority through the chosen
representatives of the people ...
Preamble
... the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social
justice, as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed ...
Preamble
... fundamental rights [shall be guaranteed] subject to law and public
morality ...
Preamble
The state shall encourage local government institutions composed of
elected representatives of the areas concerned and within such institutions
special representation will be given to peasants, workers and women.
Article 32
... it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a
last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights
should be protected by the rule of law ...
Preamble
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are
endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in
a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 1
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country,
directly or through freely chosen representatives. (2) Everyone has the right
Political participation 183
of equal access to public service in his country. (3) The will of the people
shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed
in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal
suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting
procedures.
Article 21
Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the
distinctions mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions: 1.
To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen
representatives; 2.to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections
which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret
ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors; 3. To
have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country.
Article 25
States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate
discrimination against women in the political and public life of the country
and, in particular, shall ensure to women, on equal terms with men, the right:
a. to vote in all elections and public referenda and to be eligible for
election to all publicly elected bodies;
b. to participate in the formulation of government policy and the
implementation thereof and to hold public office and perform all public
functions at all levels of government;
c. to participate in non-governmental organizations and associations
concerned with the public and political life of the country.
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women
Article 7
Political participation as a human right
The right to participate in one’s political system is fundamental; political
participation not only gives citizens a voice in the functioning of their
government but also provides support to minority and underrepresented people,
including women, and may prevent violent political transitions.
Political participation involves much more than just voting. It encompasses
the freedom to speak out, assemble and associate and the ability to take part in
the conduct of public affairs. Political participation includes other rights such
as the freedom of expression, assembly and association, all of which are
prerequisites for democracy to function.
In addition to ensuring that the right to political participation is not impeded
by State action, human rights law encourages States to also take measures to
overcome difficulties, such as illiteracy, poverty, and violence, that may hinder
political participation and prevent individuals and groups from exercising their
rights effectively.
Human rights standards also emphasize that men and women have an
equal right to participate fully in all aspects of political life.
Overview
In many ways, 2014 redefined political participation in Pakistan. Ostensibly
exercising their right to political participation, the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-
i-Insaf (PTI) party held rallies and sit-ins across Pakistan to protest what it
called widespread and systematic rigging of the 2013 elections, joined in part
by the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), who promised a revolution by
overthrowing the system. The manner the protests were carried out, as well
as the government’s action –and at times inaction —highlighted the need to
rethink the balance between the right to peaceful participation in political affairs
and the State’s obligation to maintain law and order.
Anti-government protests
The 2013 general election, which brought the Pakistan Muslim League-
Nawaz to power at the Centre, continued to be a source of controversy. While
most national and international observers judged the elections considerably
fairer than the previous ones, the PTI said widespread and systematic rigging
plagued them, and accused the PML-N, the then Chief Justice of Pakistan,
PTI Chairman Imran Khan and PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri during a protest rally in Islamabad.

Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the Election Commission, the caretaker setup
in Punjab and a powerful media house of ‘colluding to steal the people’s
mandate’.
The PTI gave the PML-N a deadline of August 14, 2014, Pakistan’s
Independence Day, to carry out an audit of votes in four constituencies and
insisted that a Supreme Court commission lead the inquiry. In response to the
government inaction, the PTI headed by Imran Khan, as well as Dr Tahir-ul-
Qadri’s Pakistan Awami Tehreek, having no seat in the parliament but its own
agenda to bring about a revolution, started a wave of protests, rallies and sit-
ins that captivated and paralyzed the country for more than four months.
Qadri’s supporters’ clashes with police on June 17 had left at least 11 people
dead, including one police officer, and hundreds injured during resistance to
the police plan for removing barriers outside Qadri’s house and the party’s
secretariat in Lahore’s Model Town area. With the incident providing the anti-
government protests a spur, on August 14 thousands of people marched from
Lahore to Islamabad and eventually camped there.
Call for civil disobedience

Soon after the commencement of the sit-in, PTI announced a countrywide
call for civil disobedience to pressurise Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif into
resigning. Imran Khan urged his supporters to stop paying taxes and utility
bills to paralyze what he called an illegitimate government.
Storming of the Constitution Avenue

On August 20, the PTI and PAT moved their protests into Islamabad’s
“Red Zone” and gathered outside the Parliament House. To avoid further clashes
after the Model Town incident, the government remained passive, and despite
heavy deployment of police as well as the armed forces in the Red Zone, the
protestors were allowed to stage their sit-ins. On their part, both parties agreed
not to enter any high-security building in the Red Zone.
On August 31, however, both parties went back on their word as the
protestors tried to storm the Parliament House and the Prime Minister’s
residence. At least three people were killed and hundreds others injured and as
the police clashed with protestors, many of whom were armed with batons
and other small weapons. The next morning, clashes once again erupted as
some protestors entered the Pakistan Television headquarters, resulting in PTV
transmission being temporarily cut off.
Shutdowns
Following its sit-in in the capital and the call for civil disobedience, PTI
threatened a countrywide shutdown on December 16 (later changed to
December 18)preceded by a periodic shutdown of major cities if its demand
for an independent audit of the May 2013 elections was not accepted.
Detention, arrests and use of force

The government responded to the protests in curious ways. Much of
Lahore was sealed with containers to prevent protestors from marching to
Islamabad on August 14, followed by much of Islamabad being blocked with
containers to prevent more protestors from joining the sit-ins. This was coupled
with a wave of preventive detention of dozens of PAT and PTI workers.
After the storming of Parliament, the government’s misdirected response
took new turns. On many occasions, First Information Reports (FIRs) or
police complaints were registered against PTI and PAT members, including
the leaders of both parties, under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997. Some
protestors were also arrested before being released on bail.
Finally, the government relied on the police force to manage the increasingly
agitated crowds, despite ample warning signs –including the loss of life in the
Model Town incident –that the Punjab police was not trained in the essential
skill of peaceful crowd-control. On 8 December, for example, during PTI’s
“shutdown” of Faisalabad, a PTI worker was killed during a clash with
supporters of PML-N. On many occasions, in addition to unarmed protestors,
police also attacked journalists and reporters.
PAT announced an end to its sit-in on October 21 in favour of countrywide
protests. Imran Khan called off the campaign on December 17 following the
massacre of nearly 150 people including 132 students by the Taliban at a
school in the northwestern city of Peshawar. His announcement came a day
ahead of his party’s planned country-wide shutdown intended to force the
prime minister into resigning.
The contours of the right to political participation

The second half of 2014 saw active political participation in the form of
protests, rallies, sit-ins, social media campaigns, civil disobedience, and finally,
countrywide shutdowns. Analysts, regardless of political affiliations,
commended the inclusion of women and young people in political activities. A
class that previously thought of politics as “dirty” business became a part of
politics –albeit on its own terms. Many of their demands embrace the core of
a healthy democracy: electoral reforms, an independent and prompt investigation
into allegations of rigging, and accountability for loss of life perpetrated by
agents of the State. In a vibrant and healthy democracy, such political
participation keeps the government of the day accountable to the electorate
during its term, as opposed to merely on an election day.
However, the year’s events also illustrated the need for responsible political
participation, without which the hard-won right to political association and
protest, at least in the Punjab, could lose legitimacy. Law enforcement agencies
must be brought to account for their excesses and trained to control peaceful
crowds without resorting to lethal force. However, to what extent can protestors
who carry batons and other weapons be called peaceful? When thousands of
protestors attempt to storm the country’s parliament with the intention of
overthrowing the government, where does one draw the line between peaceful
protests and acts of terrorism? While the State’s obligations to protect the
rights of peaceful assembly, association and political participation must be
stressed unconditionally, what about the ensuing duties of the protestors and
their leaders to stay peaceful, ensure they refrain from inciting hatred and
violence, and keep their demands within the parameters of the constitution?
How the Pakistani State strikes a balance between the right to political
participation and the duty to ensure peace, law and order would have far-
reaching consequences on mainstream politics in the country.
Marginalized groups and political participation

While the PTI and PAT expanded the right to political participation in
Punjab’s political arena in 2014, the year saw the space for marginalized groups
in politics shrink even further. With media and public attention focused on PAT
and PTI for much of the year, the shrinking of the space for these marginalized
groups was mostly ignored.
In October 2014, HRCP’s coordinator in Gilgit-Baltistan, Israruddin Israr,
and 10 others were charged with sedition for declaring the Anti-Terrorism Act
(ATA), 1997, a “black law” and holding a protest against tshe conviction and
sentencing of a political rights campaigner, Baba Jan. Following a 2010 landslide
in Gilgit-Baltistan, which destroyed scores of villages and left over a thousand
people displaced, Baba Jan mobilized local communities to demand
compensation for their displacement. The protests turned violent in August
2011 when clashes between the police and protestors resulted in two protestors
being killed and public property being damaged. Baba Jan and eleven other
activists from Gilgit-Baltistan were arrested and charged under the Anti-
Terrorism Act, 1997, and in September 2014, they were all convicted and
given life sentences by an anti-terrorism court.
On March 18, the chairperson of Baloch Student Organization-Azad (BSO-
Azad), Zahid Baloch, was abducted at gunpoint in Quetta, according to
eyewitnesses, by members of the Frontier Corps. His fate and whereabouts
still remain unknown. Baloch, like dozens of other activists who have been
allegedly subjected to enforced disappearance by agents of the State, was also
exercising his right to political participation by demanding justice and equal
treatment for the marginalized Baloch community.
Similarly, the year also saw the “kill and dump” policy, previously used
against Baloch activists, extended to Sindhi nationalists. HRCP documented a
number of cases where men associated with Sindhi nationalist groups were
abducted, allegedly by security personnel, with their bodies later found in
different parts of Sindh and Balochistan. Similarly, reports of illegal detentions
and torture of many activists, particularly those who identified themselves as
Baloch nationalists or were close to Baloch separatist groups, also became
rampant. Several bodies of Baloch young men were found dumped in Karachi.
Legitimate political participation by Baloch and Sindhi nationalists was severely
curtailed leading to increased disillusionment with the state.
The protests by these groups, active in the margins of Pakistan that are
less open to media scrutiny as opposed to the Punjab, were declared as
treasonous and anti-Pakistan, giving State agencies a free hand to deal with
them the way they pleased. This can be contrasted with PTI’s at times violent
and manifestly unlawful attempts at coercing an elected prime minister to
resign and PAT’s rather extravagant demand of toppling the system, lauded as
heroic efforts by the media, and evoking sympathy, if not backing, by the
establishment. The double standards must be considered when assessing the
changing contours of political participation in the country.
Women
2014 was a very interesting year for women’s political participation. On
the one hand, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek
(PAT) protests, rallies and sit-ins were celebrated as allowing unprecedented
participation of women in political movements, a development that was mocked
at as immoral by some reactionary and retrogressive forces in the country. On
the other hand, there were allegations that women were being used as protective
shields, and that women’s participation was reduced to attending protests and
sit-ins rather than being given any meaningful say in decision-making.
Hundreds, if not thousands of women came out on the streets to participate
in the rallies of both the PTI and PAT. Like their male counterparts, they too
were seen listening, cheering, and marching as well as dancing to the music
played during the rallies. Very disturbingly, the sight of women at public
gatherings brought out the deep-rooted misogyny in Pakistani society. The
media flashed pictures of young women for much too long; religious and
conservative parties condemned women’s presence at the rallies as immoral;
and detractors of PAT and PTI derogatively referred to the rallies as social
events where men go only to ogle at women, reducing women to mere
showpieces. All these reactions highlight the hurdles to women’s full political
participation.
The PTI and PAT leadership touted the numbers of women attending their
rallies as a revolutionary change, bringing men and women one step closer to
equal political participation. However, the stark difference in numbers of women
on the stage and in the crowds in both PAT and PTI gatherings dispels the
myth of equality. While it is certainly a positive development to see women
attend political rallies, their contributions have to be more than cosmetic to
establish that protests are radically changing women’s role in politics. To have
any long-term impact, women’s political participation has to be empowering,
allowing women’s voices to be heard rather than being lost in chants of hero-
worship. Unfortunately, there was little evidence of any such change in women’s
political empowerment in 2014.
In May 2014, Search for Common Ground Pakistan launched a report
titled “Strengthening Women’s Political Participation and Leadership for
Effective Democratic Governance in Pakistan: A Baseline Research Study”.
The study identifies strengths and challenges related to the role of women
parliamentarians in the democratic politics and governance of Pakistan.
The study found that women parliamentarians were competent and
possessed an adequate level of knowledge for making legislation, but they
were a less popular choice of political leaders as well as the voters as compared
to their male counterparts largely due to deep-rooted gender inequality and
bias. The report found that most women were allowed to run for elections
because they were from a political family. The study recommended assigning
leadership roles to women leaders within political parties, allocating increased
seats to women on general seats, and electoral and legislative reforms to provide
level playing field to women as essential steps to realising the rights of women
to full political participation.
At a conference on “Increasing Women’s Technical Capacity to Participate
in the Political Process” organized by the Forum of Federations, an international
governance organization, participants highlighted many barriers impeding
women participating in politics. These included ideological barriers, based on
a general mindset that the “rightful” place for women was not in politics;
social and cultural barriers, which included women’s disproportionate burden
in work and domestic sphere; economic barriers, which included poverty
contributing to exclusion of women; and political barriers, which included
economic and social criteria for political candidacy, the level of availability
which political activity demands as well as the stigma that politics is “dirty”.
An increased ability and capacity, and equal opportunities for women to run
for elections were recommended for better political participation of women.
According to a Free and Fair Election Network report issued on
International Women’s Day, women legislators performed impressively during
the nine sessions of Parliament in the first parliamentary year.
Female parliamentarians played an active role in the lawmaking process
by submitting 12 private member bills, six singly and six jointly with other
parliamentarians. These bills focused on governance, human rights, democracy
and political development. Women parliamentarians singly submitted 20
resolutions, 14 call attention notices, 1,383 questions, 22 motions under rule
259 and raised 64 points of order during the period.
The annual Global Gender Gap Report, published by the World Economic
Forum in October 2014, placed Pakistan in the 141st spot out of 142 countries
surveyed for gender equality worldwide.
The report seeks to measure the gap between women and men across
health, education, economy and politics. According to its findings, Pakistan’s
performance was assessed to be the best out of the four areas in political
empowerment. Pakistan ranked 141st in terms of economic participation and
opportunity for women, 132nd in terms of education attainment, 119th for
health and survival and 85th for political empowerment.
Youth
Pakistan is home to one of the largest youth populations in the world. Out
of a population of 180 million, 59% are below the age of 24 and 67% are under
30.
According to various surveys held in the last few years, young people
saw little point in being politically active because they perceived the political
system as being inherently corrupt and felt that Pakistan’s power structures
prevented participation by those who came from outside the nepotistic and
closed system.
Since most of the Pakistani young people of voting age were born in the
1980s or later, in an era when student politics was banned by military ruler
General Zia-ul-Haq and a state-sponsored campaign maligned public institutions
as corrupt and incompetent, they remained deprived of experiencing student
politics and understanding the link between students and national politics.
Political parties too failed to encourage the youth to fully participate in
politics and their policies, such as the Punjab government’s laptop scheme,
had been hollow, aimed at co-opting the youth rather than empowering it
politically.
The PTI emerged as the one party that went beyond cooption and
sloganeering in reaching out to the youth. The party targeted youth participation
by aiding them in procuring party’s membership. The Insaf Student Federation
was setup as the official student wing of the PTI with youth representatives
from all provinces. Forums were set up on social networking sites to encourage
youth to use social media to participate and express their views. This resulted
in widespread participation of young people, largely belonging to urban, middle-
Balochistan chief minister talking Lateef Johar into ending hunger strike.
class Pakistan, in PTI’s brand of politics.

While ensuring youth participation in the democratic process is a key
factor in cementing the future of the democratic process in Pakistan, the
involvement of the youth in politics cannot be taken as an absolute good.
While 2014 saw a large number of students and young people come out in the
street to support Imran Khan and PTI, the same people continued to show
immense disdain for the political class and of democratic norms.
Their legitimate desire for change was often expressed as a self-righteous
disdain for those who disagreed with their party’s course of action. News
channels, journalists and media houses that were perceived as less sympathetic
to their cause were frequently subjected to harassment, abuse and attack,
both on social media and in the streets. It appeared that the newly politicized
class of young people was too impatient to work for long-term political and
democratic gain.
Young people were also seen at the forefront of another very different
kind of political movement. The Voice of Baloch Missing Persons that started
a Long March from Quetta in October 2013 to raise awareness about human
rights violations in Balochistan and demand the recovery of their “missing”
relatives, reached their destination, Islamabad, in March 2014. Another young
person, Lateef Johar, a 22-year-old Baloch student, went on hunger strike in
front of Karachi Press Club for 46 days to protest the abduction of Zahid
Baloch, BSO-Azad’s chairperson.
The year ended with yet another kind of political movement. In the wake
of the December 16 attack on the Army Public School, there were widespread
calls urging the government to ensure that extremism and sectarianism in
madrasas and mosques was curtailed, and those who instigated violence and
hatred were brought to justice. Maulana Abdul Aziz, a cleric associated with
the Lal Mosque in Islamabad, refused to condemn the attack on the school on
a television show.
This was followed by a stream of protests outside the Lal Mosque, later
called the “Reclaim Your Mosque” campaign, demanding that Maulana Abdul
Aziz apologize. The police filed charges against the protestors for “disturbing
the peace, and the next day, five of the protestors were arrested. The protests,
however, continued, and a few days later, the main organizer of the campaign
got a threatening phone call allegedly, from Ihsanullah Ihsan, spokesman of
the Taliban splinter group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, to stop the protests or he and his
family would face consequences. Maulana Abdul Aziz also used his Friday
sermon to threaten suicide-bombings if any harm came to him. On 26
December, an FIR was registered against Maulana Abdul Aziz under section
506 (2) of the Pakistan Penal Code for criminal intimidation or threats. The
protests continue, struggling to reclaim mosques as places of worship and
prayer as opposed to sanctuaries for extremists, and also challenging
mainstream narrative by highlighting the role of various state actors, including
the armed forces and religious elite, in the rise of religious extremism and
terrorism in the country.
These different kinds of youth movements illustrated that Pakistan remained
a fragmented country –religiously, ethnically, across class and gender lines.
This fragmentation was also visible in the youth, which was not a homogenous
group as it is referred to in everyday parlance.
Religious minorities
Violent attacks against religious minorities continued to hinder every aspect
of their lives, including political participation. The insecurity experienced by
religious minorities not only exposes them to the threat of death and injury, but
also reinforces their exclusion from political activity, basic services, education
and employment. (See chapter on religious minorities).
Institutional discrimination against religious minorities’ participation in
politics also remained unchanged. Articles41(2) and 91(3) of the Constitution
of Pakistan, for example, bar non-Muslims from holding the positions of the
head of state, the president, and the head of government, the prime minister.
Such restrictions in the Constitution of Pakistan prove that the right to full
political participation is not guaranteed to non-Muslims.
This exclusion is most evident in case of Ahmadis, who continue to appear
on a separate electoral list even though all other religious minorities have been
added to a common list of voters. To register their votes, Ahmadis must provide
their address and dissociate themselves from Islam, which has meant that
Violent attacks against religious minorities continued to hinder every
aspect of their lives, including political participation.
Ahmadis have long been deprived of an opportunity to vote.

A report titled “Searching for Security: The Rising Marginalization of
Religious Communities in Pakistan”, released in December 2014 by the Minority
Rights Group International, expressed concern at the growing exclusion of
religious minorities from the political process. The report found that political
parties rarely offered minorities the opportunity to contest elections to general
seats, and even on the rare occasion when they do or when minorities run as
independent candidates, they often meet with other forms of resistance. For
instance, during the recent election of May 2013, in a district where the PPP
awarded party tickets to Hindu candidates, a local madrasa distributed leaflets
that cautioned Muslims against voting for non-Muslim candidates, labeling
Hindus as “infidels”.
The report further highlighted that even when efforts were made on the
part of majority candidates to reach out to voters belonging to religious
minorities, many were still ignored, even in areas with large non-Muslim
populations. For example, in Mirpurkhas district few attempts were made by
candidates to approach the 40% Hindu population for support. However, since
the community belonged to lower castes and worked for feudal landlords,
candidates called on these landlords to secure minority votes instead of
attempting to access the minority groups directly.
Devolution of power and local governments

Local government, being the nearest to the grass roots, is considered an
essential component of participatory democracy. In Pakistan various
manifestations of local governments have historically served only one purpose:
to legitimize and strengthen the control of despotic regimes, in particular military
rulers. Even subsequent civilian governments have either failed to revive elected
local governments or have been unable to fulfill their real purpose.
Local government elections were held in Balochistan in December 2013.
During 2014, the province held second and third phases of the election and
was due to have local governments installed in January 2015 and become the
only province in the country to have complied with a Supreme Court order on
local bodies elections. The first phase of the election was held on December 7,
2013. The process had been delayed in the province due to amendments to the
law on the LB polls. The local governments’ term in the province had expired
in 2009.
Other provincial governments dragged their feet on fulfilling the legal and
administrative requirements to hold elections.
In March 2014, the Supreme Court declared that provisions of provincial
local government laws that empowered provincial authorities to make
delimitations of local government constituencies was unconstitutional and void.
The court ordered the federal and provincial legislatures to amend the laws to
empower the Election Commission (ECP) to make the delimitations by October
30, 2014.
On 20 October, the Sindh Assembly approved the Sindh Local Government
(Amendment) Bill, 2014, empowering the ECP to carry out the delimitation
process. On October 27, 2014, the Punjab Assembly adopted Punjab Local
Except Balochistan, all provinces dragged their feet on

holding local government elections.

Government (second amendment) Ordinance, making a similar provision.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the PTI-led coalition government had long
demanded that local government elections be conducted through biometric
electronic thumb verification machines to ensure greater transparency. The
ECP responded with saying that it would only be able to hold the elections in
November 2015 by using biometric system. In November 2014, the PTI agreed
to hold local government elections without the biometric thumb verification
system in April 2015.
Gilgit-Baltistan
In 2009, President Asif Ali Zardari had passed the Gilgit-Baltistan
Empowerment and Self-governance Order, 2009, providing a limited chance
to the locals to govern some affairs of the region for the first time. Following
the first elections held after this presidential order, the PPP won a majority of
seats and became the single largest party in the legislative assembly.
Governance in Gilgit-Baltistan, however, failed to offer a sense of
empowerment to the local population, and according to activists and political
analysts, the limited self-rule and continued deprivation of fundamental rights
in the region was tantamount to treating Gilgit-Baltistan as a colony.
2014 saw ongoing popular protests that reflected the growing sense of
alienation experienced by the people of the region. Thousands took to the
streets, with major sit-ins taking place in Gilgit and Skardu. The trigger for the
protests appeared to be the government’s withdrawal of the subsidy on wheat,
but the political subjugation and denial of basic rights were also brought to the
fore.
An HRCP report, “Caught in a New Great Game”, based on observations
of a fact-finding mission sent to the region in October 2013,highlighted that
the people of Gilgit-Baltistan suffered greatly due to their anomalous
constitutional and legal status, as well as the incompetence of the Gilgit-Baltistan
Council, which had only met once during the last four years. The fact-finding
mission revealed that no stakeholder expressed satisfaction with the
Empowerment and Self-Governance Order, 2009. Additionally, the people of
the region believed that their right to political participation was severely impeded,
and the issues they raised locally did not get attention at the national level.
On December 10, the legislative assembly’s term came to an end. Elections
for the new assembly were expected to take place in March 2015.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved the appointment of a retired judge
Justice Tahir Ali Shah as the Chief Election Commissioner. The Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf challenged Justice Shah’s appointment in the Supreme Court,
The people of Gilgit-Baltistan believed that their right to political participation was severely impeded.
claiming Justice Shah was unsuitable for the position given his close ties with
the PML-N.
Recommendations
1. The government must ensure that the right of political participation is
guaranteed across the board, without discrimination based on class, ethnicity,
gender, ideology, religion or any other reason. Measures should promptly be
taken to curtail the unlawful use of force by law enforcement and security
agencies that impinge on the right to political participation and perpetrators
must be brought to account;
2. Political parties should establish targets or adopt internal quotas to
ensure a specified minimum number of women and members of religious minority
groups are put forward as candidates. They should also provide support and
resources to secure the election of women and religious minority candidates,
and also make sure that they are fully represented in party leadership and
policy committees;
3. The Election Commission must be strengthened as an independent,
effective body with adequate powers to conduct free and fair elections. Reforms
of the electoral system, including strengthening the Election Commission, must
be undertaken after a collaborative and consultative process involving all
political parties, within and outside of parliament, as well as civil society
groups;
4. All legislation and policies that prohibit the operation of student unions
and limit the participation of students and youth in politics must be amended
or repealed;
5. Religious minorities should be provided opportunities for full political
participation, which includes: ensuring that all citizens enjoy equal voting
rights and that Ahmadis are not obliged to vote on separate electorate rolls;
allowing non-Muslims to occupy all levels of government by amending
discriminatory restrictions such as Articles41(2) and 91(3) of the Constitution,
which bar non-Muslims from the positions of president and prime minister;
and taking steps to stop violence against all religious communities and providing
them effective protection, particularly in areas where they are vulnerable to
militant attacks.
6. The anomalous constitutional status of Gilgit-Baltistan must be corrected
urgently, after consultation with all stakeholders from the region. A provisional
or permanent provincial status should be considered, and fundamental rights
guaranteed to those living in other provinces in the country should also be
extended to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan.

Women
All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of
law.
There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex alone.
No citizen otherwise qualified for appointment in the service of Pakistan
shall be discriminated against in respect of any such appointment on the
ground only of ... sex ...
Steps shall be taken to ensure full participation of women in all spheres
of national life.
The state shall protect the marriage, the family, the mother ...
The state shall ... [ensure] that ... women are not employed in vocations
unsuited to their sex....
Articles 25, 27, 35, 37
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights ...
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this
Declaration, without distinction of any kind ...
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to
equal protection of the law ...
Men and women of full age ... are entitled to equal rights as to marriage,
during marriage and at its dissolution.
Marriage should be entered into with the free and full consent of the
intending spouses.
Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.
Mother and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance.
Article 1, 2, 7, 16, 21(2), 25(2)
Despite a few sporadic efforts by the State to strengthen the overall safety
Women 201
Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan.
net for women, 2014 was yet another year dominated by incidents of violence
and injustices against women, with floods and ongoing war against terror in
the tribal regions resulting in their displacement, making their plight worse.
The year witnessed cases of extreme public brutality against women such as
a family bludgeoning a pregnant woman to death outside the high court in
Lahore for marrying without their approval. That the right to public space for
women was fraught with insecurity was also underscored by two incidents in
Balochistan. In the first one, masked men entered a jewellery shop in Quetta
and sprayed acid from syringes on four women patrons. In the second incident,
two teenage sisters shopping in a bazaar in Mastung were attacked in an
identical manner. There have been three earlier attacks employing the same
method in the province in the last few years, in Dalbandin, Kalat and Quetta,
handing out a terrifying message that women venturing independently into the
public domain would be attacked.
Each year a gamut of promises is made for the protection and development
of women but to remain unfulfilled by the yearend. This year was no different.
Provincial governments announced special measures to support women but
most of these were mere rhetoric, with no practical measures taken for their
implementation.
Despite the odds, women in Pakistan won laurels on various fronts in
2014. Malala Yousafzai became the first Pakistani and youngest recipient of
the Nobel Peace Prize. She also received several other awards. In December,
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appointed journalist-turned-diplomat Dr Maleeha
Lodhi as Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations based in
New York. Previously, Lodhi had twice served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to
the United States (1993-1996 and 1999-2002) and as Pakistan’s High
Commissioner to the United Kingdom (2003-2008). She has also served as a
member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Affairs
(2001-2005). Asma Shirazi, first female war correspondent from Pakistan,
received the Peter Mackler Award 2014 for Courageous and Ethical Journalism.
The women cricket team brought home the first and only gold medal for
Pakistan in the Asian Games.
Economic and social rights (opportunities and challenges)

Continued low literacy and educational levels and poor access to life skills
or education put Pakistan among the bottom 10 countries with the lowest
proportion of poor girls who had ever been in school. UNESCO’s Education
for All Global Monitoring Report (EFAGMR), which takes stock of the progress
made - or not made-towards the global education goals, estimated that only
six countries, all in Africa, fared worse than Pakistan. It revealed that 62%
girls in Pakistan, aged between seven and 15, had never spent time in a
classroom, compared to 30% in India and 9% in Bangladesh among South
Asian countries. The report also disclosed that Pakistan was one of the 10
countries where young women spent least time in school in their lifetime,
stating that girls between the ages of 17 and 22, on an average spent one year
in school in Pakistan and spent 2.9 and 4.4 years in school in India and
Bangladesh.
Though Pakistan’s latest economic survey 2013-2014 noted a slight
improvement in gender parity in primary education, secondary education and
youth literacy, the country failed to achieve its MDG 3 targets on gender
equality. Also, in terms of equal employment opportunities, the share of women
employment in non-agricultural occupations was 10.1 percent. While this share
has consistently increased during the last couple of decades, the country entering
2015 failed to achieve the MDG 3 target of 14 percent share of women in non-
agricultural wage employment. On the gender inequality index, as per the
2014 Human Development Report “Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing
Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience”, Pakistan fell by four spots to 127
from last year’s ranking of 123. A Gender Gap Index (Global Gender Gap
Report (GGGR), 2014) by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum, ranked
Pakistan second to last in gender equality globally in access to health care,
education and work. Pakistan was placed at the 141st position, the second
lowest on a list of 142 countries in GGGR. According to International Labour
Organisation Global Wage Report 2014-15, released in December 2014,
Pakistani women are less likely to hold wage jobs and women earn 38.5% less
than men in similar jobs.
The Pakistan Demographic Health Survey (PDHS) 2012-2013, the latest
Women 203
62% girls in Pakistan, aged between seven and 15, have
never been in a classroom.
such study that contained data sets and estimates on significant demographic
and health related indicators, measured the level of women empowerment in
the country for the first time. In the most recent survey, 29 per cent of women
interviewed between the ages of 15-49, were employed compared to 98 per
cent men in the same age bracket. In terms of control over husband’s earnings,
71 percent men in Balochistan, 68 percent in KP, 35 percent in Sindh and 25
percent had complete control. Sixteen percent men in Sindh, however, said
their wives were the prime decision-makers in spending.
Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding with the US government
in May 2014 on Joint Efforts to Enable the Economic Empowerment of Women
and to Promote Women’s Entrepreneurship aimed at providing space for both
the governments to jointly venture into projects that would promote economic
empowerment of Pakistani women by boosting their entrepreneurship and
economic and business prospects.
Provinces
In commemoration of International Women’s Day, the Punjab government
announced a number of steps for the advancement of women’s economic
rights. These steps included the regularization of 47,000 Lady Health Workers,
establishment of 65 day care centres for working women from the Punjab
Day Care Fund and introducing training programmes for 4,000 women from
rural areas for the Punjab Skill Development Fund. The Punjab Assembly
passed Fair Representation Act 2014 on March 8 that aimed at ensuring
women’s participation in decision-making, and amendments to the Child
Marriage Restraint Act 1929, the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939,
the West Pakistan Family Courts Act 1964 and the Dowry and Bridal Gifts
(Restriction) Act 1976. While women rights campaigners welcomed the
legislation, they said a similar package announced in 2012, which provided
safeguards against domestic violence, was never completely implemented.
To support women financially, it was announced that the Microfinance
Rozgar Bank would issue 30% percent of its loans to women and 50% share
would be reserved for women under the Small Business Loan Scheme launched
by the prime minister. In September, the Punjab ombudsman allowed unmarried
daughters to be recipients of family pension, rejecting objections by the
Education and Finance Department.
The Sindh Women Development Department announced certain projects
for empowerment of women. The department had been allocated Rs 87 million
for new schemes in the fiscal 2014-2015 but, to a question, it told the Sindh
Assembly in a written answer on November 10 that not a single rupee had
been released in the first four months of the financial year. The session was
informed that Rs55 million had been allocated in the budget for building offices
for the directorate of women development. However, the fund was not released.
Rs12 million had been allocated for economic empowerment and development
of rural women of Sindh and Rs20 million for micro-financing and skill training
to rural/less privileged women through First Women Bank. No money was
released for these schemes. Of the Rs 348 million allocated for the ongoing
schemes of the women development department relating to the year 2013-14,
just seven per cent (Rs 24.8 million) had been released, reflecting government
priorities on women.
The Sindh Women Development Department, however, was able to employ
three transgender persons with bachelor degrees in January 2014 as a way to
promote transgender rights. In October, the Sindh government also endorsed
a Women Empowerment Package proposed by the Ministry of Labour and
Women Development Department. This package envisages 33% representation
of women in public sector bodies. Additionally, Sindh Health Department also
promised to establish a separate job quota for acid and kerosene attack survivors
as already existing for persons with disabilities.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recruited 36 women as the province’s first female
anti-terror squad commandos who trained alongside men. The province also
established women facilitation desks in the police stations to help the female
complainants. However, religious and cultural mores kept most women confined
to the home, and unable to stray beyond the traditional roles of wife, mother,
and housekeeper. Most women dreaming of a career encountered endless
hurdles to equal participation in the economy. For instance, the health sector
in the province, which has a population of 22 million people, employs just
40,000 women, while maintaining a male labour force of some 700,000,
according to public health specialists. Hundreds of female students are enrolled
Women 205
Relatives of a female polio vaccination worker, who was killed by unidentified gunmen,
mourn outside a morgue in the Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre in Karachi.
in the public sector’s medical colleges, but the province only has 600 female
doctors, compared to 6,000 male doctors. The province has a total of 119,274
teachers, but only 41,102 are female. The manufacturing sector does not fare
any better. Only three percent of the workforce in 200 industrial units around
KP is comprises women.
In Balochistan, female immunisation workers faced the brunt of attacks
aimed at polio teams. On November 26, gunmen killed four polio workers,
including three women, in Quetta. A female health worker was shot at by
gunmen on the Charsadda Road in Peshawar. The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban
Pakistan, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (TTP-JA) accepted the responsibility for the attack.
Threats and intimidation were a constant in their lives and the killings of polio
workers invoked a deep sense of insecurity among the female volunteers and
lady health workers. Most of the women partaking in the anti-polio campaign
come from poverty-stricken strata. They are paid a nominal amount for each
day’s work. But most of the female volunteers and LHWs complained that the
health department delayed payment.
In October, services of 366 LHWs in the Islamabad Capital Territory
were regularized on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Balochistan
government regularised the services of 7,000 LHWs in the province in April.
HRCP produced a report of its mission to Gilgit-Baltistan that sought to
“ascertain the status of implementation and impact of the system introduced
under Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order, 2009;
document major human rights issues; and record the views and concerns of
Female police commandos during an exercise at a police training
centre in Nowshera, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
various sections of the population”. Among other people, the mission met a
group of women students and working women and asked them if the situation
had improved for women and if their voices were being heard more under the
new system.
They said the ‘empowerment order’ was welcome as it brought some
change. In Skardu, women had growing realization that they had the right to
have control over their lives and things had changed for the better. At the
Karakorum University campus in Skardu there were more girl students than
boys. Girls’ education had been supported by clerics in Baltistan. There was
minimal sectarian tension in Baltistan because of the progressive role of clerics
and religious scholars. Girls were consulted regarding the decision about their
marriage. However, some participants in the discussion said that daughters
were reluctant to turn down the prospective spouses suggested by their parents.
Practices like karo kari were absent. There was some disagreement on whether
a fatwa (religious edict) had been issued in Baltistan against girls using cell
phones. However, there was some mention of references in Friday sermons
to the use of cell phones by girls for “improper conversation”.
In a meeting with women’s rights activists in Gilgit, the fact-finding team
members learned of the difficulties for women in the region. The activists
recounted the advantages of places like Hunza where NGOs working on
women’s rights and health and education for women were not taboos. In
narrating extremes, they highlighted that there was no gynaecologist in Diamer
district, because such a prospect apparently disturbed the clerics in the area.
Women 207
Women in Nagar were being kept backward because of male resistance to
their education, but women organisations were working to improve the situation
by persuading the parents to ensure education for their daughters too. While
the extent of women’s awakening in Gilgit-Baltistan could not be compared to
the same for women from ‘down areas’, things had improved a great deal
over the last few decades because of women’s participation in different fields.
Women were socially in a weaker position but were getting more aware of
their rights because of education.
Women activism had developed in Gilgit-Baltistan in recent years, with
the launch of the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) activities,
particularly due to the emphasis on education and establishment of women’s
development organisations. The tribal stranglehold over women had relaxed
somewhat. Violence against women, the so-called honour killing and child
abuse were the main concerns of women’s rights organisations. There were
incidents of honour killing, which were in reality sectarian issues. Marriage of
minor girls was also frequent because of sectarian reasons in areas with a
cross-sect presence, as there were fears that the girls might get involved with
someone from a different sect. It was a shortcoming of the civil society in
Gilgit-Baltistan that it had failed to appropriately investigate whether the deaths
of many women were ‘honour killings’, accidental drowning or suicide. Women
could not use a bus in Gilgit without being harassed. There had been reports
of honour killings in Diamer and denial of medical treatment to women because
of fears among men that that would compromise women’s purdah.
Health
The Pakistan Demographic Health Survey (PDHS) 2012-2013 was launched

in 2014. PDHS classified 14 percent women, between the age of 15 and 49, as
thin (BMI<18.5) while 40 per cent as overweight or obese (BMI< 25). The
fertility rate for women was 4.2 children in rural areas and 3.2 in urban areas.
Save the Children’s annual State of World’s Mothers Report 2014 referred
to Pakistan as the ‘most perilous place’ for mothers in the world. Pakistan
was ranked at 147 out of total 178 countries in terms of condition of mothers
– lowest ranking compared to all other South Asian countries. While Pakistan
has halved its maternal mortality rate, it has failed to achieve targets set under
MDG 5 for maternal mortality ratio by 2015 mostly owing to natural disasters
and conflicts that have engulfed the country. The report ranked Pakistan 20th
out of 45 fragile states affected by conflicts and natural disasters and also
stated that 59 percent of all maternal deaths worldwide occurred in fragile
states. According to PDHS 2012-13 Pakistan’s maternal mortality rate stands
at 276 deaths for every 100,000 live births. Only 41% women have access to
skilled birth attendants while giving birth. In another study, conducted by
Contech International, a healthcare research, consulting and management
organisation in collaboration with Research and Advocacy Fund (RAF), Pakistan
is ranked 4th in global maternal deaths where 16,000 women die annually due
to complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. The UNICEF
Demographic Health Survey for 2014 found that more than one in seven
adolescent girls also experienced physical violence during pregnancy in Pakistan.
The ongoing insurgency followed by a military operation and onslaught of
floods worsened the overall health status of women in the country. By July
2014, 261,734 had registered as IDPs with the FATA Disaster Management
Authority. Many of these women faced serious health hazards due to poor
hygienic conditions, resulting in increased ARI (Acute Respiratory Infection),
gastro infections, skin and other water borne diseases. World Health Organization
in its July 17, 2014 report recorded 950,000 persons displaced due to the
North Waziristan war, out of which 73% were women and children.
Some 40 tribal elders decreed that families fleeing the military offensive
should not allow women to collect food aid. “If any woman comes to the
ration distribution area, she will be punished,” they said. Women IDPs wore
the head-to-toe “burqa” robe with only a small mesh area to see through as
they queued up to secure food, water or medicine. But journalists and members
of the security forces saw one tribal elder slap several women queuing for
food at the main stadium in Bannu, where most aid was being distributed. No
one intervened and the women who were struck, along with a dozen others in
line, left quickly. The tribal elder then handed out leaflets telling women to stay
indoors. “We, the elders of Waziristan have decided that from now on, no
woman should come to the ration distribution area,” the leaflet read. “People
of Waziristan … should keep their women at home,” the leaflet continued.
“Otherwise, the elders of Waziristan will go to the house and give the husband
appropriate punishment.” After (apparently) a few violent incidents where
Women 209
men were seen beating women out of relief goods queues, the army issued a
public notice that no women would be allowed to come into the main distribution
point at the sports complex. There was no suggestion how widows or women
unaccompanied by their husbands might secure aid. Children, and many IDP
women, had no identity card, which is a tool through which they could
independently access relief goods and services. The Sim card scheme, through
which IDPs were provided aid money, was not accessible to women either.
The cultural barriers limiting women from having a ‘phone’ denied them the
cash transfer of Rs 7,000 from KPK, Rs 8,000 from Punjab and Rs 30,000
Ramadan package from the federal government. Since women could not enter
the sports complex, their only access to any services was at the other smaller
distribution points which excluded the charity relief packages. While several
pregnant women gave birth to children after exiting the conflict areas, women
camped in Bannu had little access to health facilities. Health remained the
primary concern among the IDPs with little medical coverage. Reproductive
health of women particularly suffered as essential reproductive health medicines
were missing and only four gynaecologists were available at the health facilities.
In July, WHO collaborated with the KP government to support the Women
and Children Hospital in Bannu to provide care to an estimated 40,000 pregnant
women amongst the IDPs along with strengthening 20 basic health units with
high IDP clientele.
The Thar desert, one of Pakistan’s poorest areas spread over 22,000
square kilometres with a population of about 1.5 million, saw an alarming
number of children suffering from pneumonia or diarrhoea due to a dangerous
mix of drought, poverty and poor health infrastructure. Deficit of rainfall
gripped a large part of rain-fed Thar in drought and resulted in proliferation of
morbidity and mortality among livestock, which in turn deprived women and
children of their only source of nutrition i.e. dairy products. A relatively harsh
winter aggravated the situation particularly for malnourished lactating mothers
and infants. Their immunity plummeted due to lack of nutrition and made
them unable to sustain hunger and cold wave. Drought in the desert remote
areas is natural but the death of people is not. The lack of medical facilities
coupled with drought conditions going on for years in the area resulted in ill
health of mothers, thereby making them prone to bearing undernourished
children. Half of the posts of doctors are lying vacant for years and barring
the hospital in Mithi no hospital has a woman doctor. The deaths prompted
criticism of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which governs in Sindh where
part of the desert is located.
In Gilgit-Baltistan, the authorities received a letter from a representative of
a local chapter of the Tehrik-i-Taliban-Pakistan warning them of bombing of
the ultrasound facility for women at Chilas’s district headquarter hospital,
which the militant organisation dubbed as anti-Islamic, if it was not closed.
Fifteen Asia-Pacific countries, including Pakistan, launched a Sexual and
Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) Campaign in May designed to ensure that
the government recognize SRHR as a fundamental right of women.
A major step taken in 2014 was the creation of space for women in public
decision-making through the enactment of Punjab Fair Representation of
Women Act 2014. This law ensures at least 33 percent representation of women
on the boards of all statutory bodies, public sector companies, special purpose
task forces and provincial committees.
Gilgit-Baltistan enacted Local Government Act 2014 reserving a special
quota for women in the local councils, categorically stating that no local council
would be considered effective and operational unless the designated number
of women seats had been filled.
A collaborative study of incidents of violence against women in politics
that took place from 2003-2013 by Centre for Social Research and UN Women
titled ‘Violence against Women in Politics’ showed that while women candidates
and female voters had increased significantly, the ratio of female representation
in national bodies had not risen correspondingly. The study revealed that more
than one in every three respondents in Pakistan was of the view that the
common belief that politics was purely a male domain was a major reason for
violence against women in politics. All respondents in KP quoted purdah as a
main hurdle to women participating in politics. Forty five percent respondents
believed that it was mandatory for women to obtain consent from families to
participate in politics and 78 percent respondents felt that women should not
ignore their domestic responsibilities after being elected. The study found that
every two in three respondents in Pakistan believed that police did not respect
a woman’s right to participate in violence-free politics and 70 percent
respondents believed that this form of violence was perpetuated because most
cases went unreported.
Another local report on women in politics titled ‘Strengthening Women’s
Political Participation and Leadership for Effective Democratic Government
in Pakistan’, conducted by Search for Common Ground (SFCG), was released
in May. The report had similar findings as the UN Women report. It found that
strong political family background enhanced a women’s political participation;
deep rooted patriarchy and gender disparity prevented men from accepting
women in leadership roles; women politicians were reluctant to appear in
media because of social pressures; and women politicians did not connect
strongly across party lines which diminished their overall power as politicians.
The report recommended focusing women’s ability and equality of opportunity
to run for elections, support from political leadership and male counterparts,
working relation with government officials and portrayal of women politicians
in media to ensure effective participation of women in politics.
In March, women lawmakers in KP developed programmes for political
Women 211
and economic empowerment of women for inclusion in the 2014-15 Annual
Development Programme.
Punjab Women Parliamentary Caucus was formed in March aimed at
making better legislations and promoting women’s rights in the province. In
October, Women Parliamentary Caucus was formed in Sindh Assembly and
targeted at attaining a broad-based consensus among all women members of
the assembly on an agenda for women development, empowerment and
emancipation, enabling them to work for the uplift of the women in Sindh. A
resolution to form such a caucus was passed in the Balochistan Assembly in
March but the caucus had not been constituted by the end of the year.
In October, women lawmakers of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly
criticised the government for not allocating development funds for them,
drawing attention to the release of money to their male counterparts. The 22
woman MPA members of Women’s Parliamentary Caucus walked out from
the assembly session in protest. Every year, Rs 20 million in development
funds are allocated to each member of the assembly.
After several consultations during the year, HRCP came up with a set of
demands for reforming the election commission that included a demand that
at least one of the members of the commission should be a woman.
Access to justice and legislative changes

On the International Girl Child Day, the Ministry of Law, Justice and
Human Rights made public its plans to set up a 24-hour helpline for women in
distress. Towards the end of the year the helpline service (1414) had been
introduced in some cities where women could call and lodge their complaints
with women police operators.
In September 2014, Sindh government announced that it intended to
establish women police stations in Thatta, Umerkot, Sanghar, Nawabshah and
Khairpur districts. Directives were also issued to set up counters of the Women
Development Department in newly established women police stations in Karachi.
To further strengthen gender responsive policing, it was also announced that
2000 new women police officers would be recruited in Sindh. For the first
time in Sindh three female SHOs were granted charge of entire police stations
– two were given charge in April and one in August 2014. Earlier in February,
US State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement
Affairs gifted buses for female police officers in Karachi.
In April 2014, KP government announced the establishment of women
desks in all 500 police stations of the province. It said the KP Police Department
was developing a plan to increase women’s strength in the police force.
Women in prisons continued to languish in jails in appalling conditions. A
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) survey, conducted in
2014, revealed that around 800 female prisoners in different jails of the country
were facing insanitary conditions, harassment, and lack of healthcare,
counselling and vocational training. Mental health of the prisoners suffered the
most as no clinical psychologists were available at the prisons. In a survey of
select prisons in Pakistan in 2013-14, HRCP found that none had a full-time
female doctor. All serious health issues faced by female prisoners were referred
to the local hospital. According to the UNODC, a majority of Pakistan’s female
prisoners were suffering from different mental illnesses including suicidal
depressions and sleep disorders along with critical drug dependency.
Several legislative changes took place in the provinces to strengthen the
rights of women. Punjab Commission on the Status of Women Act 2014 was
passed in Punjab on February 12, 2014 with the objective of establishing a
commission that works for the empowerment and socio-economic development
of women and elimination of all forms of discrimination against them. The
commission started functioning in March 2014. Punjab Chief Minister also
announced that necessary changes would be made in Child Marriage Act 1929,
Dowry and Gift to Bride Act, Marriage Function Act, Guardian and Ward Act,
Marriage Certificate, Punjab Land Revenue Act and Law Regarding Distribution
of Assets for upholding women rights but no practical step in this regard had
been taken by the yearend.
In Sindh, the legally valid age for marriage for girls was increased to 18
years through an amendment to the Restraint of Child Marriage Act 1929.
Balochistan criminalised domestic violence by passing the Balochistan domestic
violence law in June 2014 and its women development department had started
work on developing the implementation mechanisms required under the law
by the yearend. Sindh Women Development Department also forwarded a Bill
on ‘Provincial Commission on Status of Women’ to the provincial Law
Department for comments before tabling it in the Sindh Assembly.
Several private member bills were moved in the National Assembly in
2014 to legislate on new issues or to amend existing laws. Hindu Marriage Bill
2014 was tabled in March 2014 to introduce special form of marriage and
divorce among Hindu community. Acid Burn Crime Bill 2014 (private member
bill) for ICT was tabled in April 2014 to regulate the trial for acid and burn
crime and sale of acid. The Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2014
was also laid in the assembly to raise the age of marriage for girls to 18 years
in the capital territory. Minority MNA Asiya Nasir from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-
Fazl (JUI-F) moved the Harassment of Women at Workplace (Amendment)
Bill, 2014 in May 2014. The Bill was aimed at enhancing the scope of definitions
of harassment, employees and employers in order to protect a wide array of
employees and workers in both formal and informal sectors as well as students
and trainees, from all forms of harassment at work in pursuit of studies and
Women 213
vocational training. No progress was made on these bills or proposed
amendments by the end of the year.
Violence against women

Violence in Pakistan takes many forms varying from physical to emotional
violence, many of which are not even recognized as violence by the victims.
According to non-governmental organisation Aurat Foundation, six women
were kidnapped, four raped and six murdered while three committed suicide
in Pakistan every day during the year 2014.
According to Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, which monitored
newspapers for cases of violence against women, 597 women and girls were
gang-raped, 828 raped and 36 stripped in public in the country during the year.
The Ministry of Interior statistics for 2014 show 18,700 people, mostly
women, were kidnapped. Some 326 gang-rape cases were reported in the
country, including 263 in Punjab, 35 in Sindh, 11 in KP, and 17 in Islamabad.
As many as 3,243 rape cases were reported — 2,734 in Punjab, 191 in Sindh,
133 in KP, 19 in Balochistan, 162 in Islamabad, and four in GB.
In the rape cases, most of the media sets up shop. The survivors are
hounded by journalists from home to hospital bed, narrating the victim’s
experiences of abduction and rape to reporters and millions of viewers across
the globe – again and again. What the family first sees as a means of getting
justice, comes back to bite them. The excessive media coverage makes the
victim an object of judgement. It is both unethical and illegal to identify rape
victims in the media. One of the fundamental rights provided by the Constitution
is the right to privacy. As the Fourth Estate, the media must respect the
Constitution.
The media even creates events. It was said about the girl in Muzaffargarh
(alleged victim of gang-rape who died in an act of self-immolation on 14th
March 2014), that a reporter told her to throw a bit of petrol on herself to
garner more attention, saying ‘we will save you, do not worry’. The girl was
wearing silk clothes, the fire got out of control and that was that.”
Violence against girl children

According to UNICEF, around 120 million girls around the world
(approximately one girl in ten) have been raped or assaulted by the time they
turn 20. A large proportion of these victims come from the developing world
where child protection institutes are either non-existent or ineffective: Pakistan
is one of these countries.
In 2014, the Madadgar National Helpline released its three year database
on violence against children in Pakistan and reported 4,572 cases of rape with
minor girls from January 2000 to December 2013. According to HRCP
database, 139 minor girls
were gang-raped and 290
raped during 2014.
Some of the cases
highlighted by the national
newspapers in 2014:
In August 2014,
Masooma Bibi, 14, resident
of Andrasi village in
Mansehra-Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa was raped by
a fellow villager. She lodged
a complaint at the Shinkiari 597 women and girls were gang-raped,
police station where a local 828 raped and 36 stripped in public in
police officer registered her the country during the year.
complaint and consoled
her, promising to bring her tormentor to justice. On pretext of taking the girl
for a medical examination to a local hospital, the police officer took the girl to
his house and raped her. The girl informed the District Police Officer (DPO)
of her ordeal, who ordered the perpetrator arrested and initiated proceedings
for Masooma’s medical examination. The officer was arrested. The victim
has been receiving threats since then to settle the case.
In October 2014, a five-year-old girl was abducted from Islampura locality
in Ahmedpur East. She was taken to an abandoned home where she was raped
by the accused. The police have registered a rape case against the accused. In
the same month, a five-year-old girl was raped in Tahliwali Village in rural
Bahawalpur. Again in October, a 13-year-old girl was raped by her cousin in
Chak 12-BC. The police have arrested the accused.
In November, Seher Batool, a six-year-old Hazara girl was found strangled
in a garbage heap after apparently being subjected to rape attempts. The police
were yet to arrest the culprits.
According to HRCP 894 women committed suicide while 357 attempted
suicide, mostly over some domestic issue.
For the first time the Pakistan Health and Demographic Survey 2012-
2013 measured the level of domestic violence in the country. The survey
found that one in five women experienced physical violence in the survey year
and one-third of ‘ever-married women’ had been experiencing physical violence
since 15 years of age. About 40 per cent of women said they were subjected
to spousal abuse at some point in their life and the most commonly occurring
form of violence was emotional violence, reported by almost 32 per cent of
women. The most alarming finding was that more than half the women who
Women 215
suffered violence never sought help. A similar finding was also given in UNICEF
report titled ‘Hidden in Plain Sight: Statistical Analysis of Violence against
Children’, released in September, which stated that 52% of women between
20-49 years of age who had experienced sexual or physical abuse never told
anyone about it. In terms of attitude towards wife beating, PDHS found that
about 43 per cent of women and one-third of men agreed that a husband was
justified in inflicting violence on his wife if she argued with him (35 per cent),
neglected the children (31 per cent), refused to have sex with him (31 per
cent), went out without telling him (30 percent), neglected the in-laws or
burnt the food.
Despite the enactment of Protection of Women against Harassment at
Workplace Act 2010, women continued to suffer harassment at the hands of
their employers. July 2014 witnessed the suicide of a 19-year-old female
cricketer. Haleema Rafiq, a resident of Multan and a fast-bowler on the national
women’s cricket team, died after she drank toilet-cleaning acid. She, along
with five other female cricketers had been pursuing a sexual harassment case
against the officials of the Multan Cricket Club since last year. In response to
their charges, a club official filed defamation suit against the cricketers, which
purportedly pushed Halima to take her own life.
Earlier in March, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had sought a report from
the law secretary on the implementation of the harassment law and on why no
progress had been made in the Captain Rifat Hai case. Since 2010, Rifat Hai
had been complaining before various forums of facing harassment from the
early years of her career by senior officials of PIA without receiving any form
of redress. The law secretary had not produced any report by the end of the
year as directed by the SC.
In June, the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice also sought
to amend the harassment law to protect students in educational institutes. This
was proposed in response to a series of harassment cases occurring at
universities in the past few years where accused had escaped liability due to
the legislative lacunae.
Some progress was seen this year in the 2012 Kohistan video case, in
which two boys and three sisters were killed on the orders of a jirga after
being captured dancing and singing at a wedding ceremony in a video leaked
on the internet. In January 2014, the district court handed down death penalty
to one man and life imprisonment to five others implicated in the murder.
However, the head of the jirga that ordered the murder of the four girls and
two boys appearing in the video was acquitted along with several others despite
being accused of abetting the triple murder.
A collaborative study by the Centre for Social Research and UN Women,
quoted above, showed that violence against women in politics was increasing
in Pakistan along with two other South Asian countries namely India and
Nepal. The study found that 90 percent women in these countries broke their
resolve to enter politics due to fear of violence and in Pakistan character
assassination was the bigger threat than physical or verbal abuse.
Trafficking of women is a serious issue of concern in Pakistan. United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Pakistan released a research
report titled “Recent trends of human trafficking and migrant smuggling to
and from Pakistan” in January 2014 in which it stated that trafficking of
women and children from here to the Persian Gulf for sexual exploitation was
on the rise. While it did not give any statistical evidence, it stated that anecdotal
data showed that women from Pakistan were regularly trafficked to UAE to
work as dancers and were then subjected to sexual exploitation. United States
Department of State, 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report - Pakistan, that
came out on 20 June 2014 also documented that Pakistani women were
subjected to sex trafficking in the Gulf states. The report termed Pakistan as a
source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected
to forced labour and sex trafficking. The report also observed that social
media and Internet cafes were used for recruiting and blackmailing girls for
sex trafficking.
Despite the rising violence against women, the state has taken to serious
measures to uplift the practical protection services for the victims. The Sindh
Darul Aman Reforms Project, initiated by NGOs Rozan, Shirkat Gah and Indus
Resource Centre in collaboration with the provincial government’s Social
Welfare Department is one step in the right direction to upgrade the 4 state-run
Dar-ul-Amans in the province. Similar collaborations must also take place in
Punjab where there is one DUA in each district. There is currently only one
DUA in Balochistan with no private shelters and there is dire need for more
shelters in Balochistan as suggested by local CSOs and women parliamentarians
from Balochistan.
Honour crimes and acid attacks

The Aurat Foundation estimates that more than 3,000 have been killed for
“honour” since 2008 in Pakistan. HRCP database recorded that 923 women
and 82 minor girls fell victim to “honour” killings in 2014. The count included
21 deaths in Gilgit-Baltistan. The total number of victims of these crimes is
usually higher as both men and women are targeted in such incidents. The
predominant cause of these killings in 2014 was alleged illicit relations where
both the boy and girl believed to be involved in the relationship were murdered
as a result. Firearms were the most commonly used method of carrying out
these killings.
Lahore witnessed one of the most brutal cases of honour killing in 2014.
A pregnant 25-year-old woman was stoned to death by her family outside the
Lahore High Court. Her father, two brothers and former fiancé were among
the attackers. Farzana had been engaged to her cousin but married another
man. Her family registered a kidnapping case against him but Farzana had
come to court to argue that she had married of her own free will. In response
to this incident, the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) issued a statement declaring
Women 217
Like Farzana, 923 women and 82 minor girls fell victim to “honour” killings in 2014.
that murder in the name of honour is ‘haraam’ and that there is no permission
in Islam ‘for such a callous offence’. In November 2014, the Lahore High
Court handed death sentence to the four men involved in Farzana’s murder.
Acid attacks have been rising in Pakistan despite the criminalization of this
offence in 2010. According to HRCP’s database seven women died in acid
attacks on 92 women and 13 minors in 2014. Sixty women expired in other
incidents like cylinder blast, stove burning and setting on fire. Between 2007
and 2014 the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF), an NGO supporting acid
attack victims, has recorded 1,090 incidents of acid attacks. 43 cases were
recorded in 2009, 55 cases in 2010, 150 in 2011, 93 in 2012, 143 in 2013 and
161 cases were recorded from January-October 2014. The number of cases
has increased since last year, which makes it all the more necessary to have a
comprehensive law in place in each province to protect the victims. This is
particularly essential for Punjab where 56 per cent of the cases took place in
2013 according to ASF.
In July 2014, two alarming incidents of acid crimes occurred in Balochistan
within 24 hours where the victims were sprayed with acid-filled syringes. In
the first incident, two motorcyclists threw acid on four women outside a
jewellery shop in Killi Kamalo area of Quetta’s Sariab Road. This was soon
followed by another incident where two sisters, aged 12 and 14, were sprayed
with acid in Mastung district, 45 kilometres from Quetta. In both incidents,
the perpetrators fled the crime scene and police were unable to find any evidence
that led to them. A news report, quoting data from ASF, stated that 65 per cent
of the acid and burn victims were women and girls, 15 per cent were children
and the prosecution rate in such cases was a mere 35 per cent. It also said that
most of the acid attacks in Punjab were concentrated in South Punjab including
Acid attacks on women cast a pall of fear.
Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur. In September 2014,

Shabnam Bibi, 16, was attacked with acid by two men in Jhang district of
Punjab when the girl’s family rejected the marriage proposal of one of the
attackers. The girl was severely injured in the attack with 90% of the burns
affecting her face, causing damage to her eyes. The girl’s mother was also
injured in the attack. Police have arrested one attacker while the other has
gone into hiding.
Forced conversion marriages

The Movement for Solidarity and Peace in Pakistan released a report in
April 2014 in which they found that about 1,000 minority women are forced
to covert and marry Muslims in Pakistan each year. With the support of ten
case studies, the report demonstrates an identical pattern in all such cases
where it starts with victim’s family pursuing the case but always ends with
the women professing that she consented to the conversion and marriage with
no relief being provided to the family. Most of the women are then subjected
to sexual violence, rape, forced prostitution, human trafficking and sale, or
other domestic abuse. The Sindh Assembly approved a resolution against
forced-conversion marriages on November 18, 2014. The resolution sought
protection for the non-Muslim minorities, especially Hindu girls who were
being kidnapped, raped, and forced to convert and for a law prohibiting forced
conversion / marriages. The resolution made reference to a recent case of a
12-year-old girl from Daharki who was kidnapped and forced to convert and
marry. The girl was recovered and shifted to Dar-ul-Aman in Karachi but was
Women 219
Sindh Assembly approved a resolution against forced-conversion marriages.
not being allowed to see her parents. The resolution demanded her protection
and that she be handed over to her parents.
Recommendations
1. Fair Representation of Women Act should also be emulated by
provincial governments of Balochistan, KP and Sindh to give women space in
public decision-making processes.
2. Special measures need to be taken to improve maternal health of
women in Pakistan especially women affected by flood and war.
3. Legislative framework for women protection needs to be strengthened
in each province. Laws on child marriage, forced conversion, domestic violence
and acid and burn crimes need to be adopted and implemented to reduce the
incidence of VAW.
4. Shelters / homes must be recognized as a strategy to combat violence
against women - Government run Dar-ul-Amans should be uplifted with
improved systems and well-trained staff to ensure holistic protection of women.
Service providers in women protection must work in close coordination to
offer seamless service to victims of violence.
5. The State must increase its focus on women’s economic empowerment
by introducing skill training and job creating schemes for them. Increased
women participation in the Pakistan’s labour force will also help resolve its
current economic crisis.

Children
No child below the age of 14 years shall be engaged in any factory or
mine or any other hazardous employment.
Article 11 (3)
The state shall protect the marriage, the family, the mother and the
child.
The state shall make provisions for ... ensuring that children ... are not
employed in vocations unsuited to their age ...
Article 37(e)
... Childhood is entitled to special care and assistance.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Preamble
In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or
private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or
legislative bodies, the best interest of the child shall be a primary
consideration.
Article 3(1)
Every child shall have, without any discrimination as to race, colour,

sex, language, religion, national or social origin, property or birth, the right to
such measures of protection as are required by his status as a minor, on
the part of his family, society and the State.
Article 24(1)
Special measures of protection and assistance should be taken on
behalf of all children and young persons without any discrimination...Children
Children 221
and young persons should be protected from economic and social
exploitation...States should also set age limits below which the paid
employment of child labour should be prohibited and punishable by law.
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Article 10(3)
The State failed for another year in a row in giving child rights a priority.
Serious weaknesses in social and legal protection framework made children
victims of violence, abuse and exploitation. Military operation in North-
Waziristan displaced 400,000 children among about one million people from
their homes. The Pakistani Taliban stormed the Army Public school in Peshawar
in December. It was the worst terror attack Pakistan had experienced in recent
history, and one in which children were specifically targeted. Over 141 people,
including 132 students, were killed in a brutal massacre.
Floods affected a large number of children among 4.5 million people in
Kashmir, Punjab and Sindh. And drought in Sindh affected 2.9 million people
with the child death toll hitting 650 at the close of 2014. Children suffered the
most by the denial of access to education and health facilities, limited availability
of food and micronutrients, and being exposed to harsh climate conditions
due to poor shelter. With 306 cases, Pakistan also broke its own 15-year
record of the highest number of children affected by polio.
Pakistan progressed poorly in achieving its targets set under the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) and complying with its commitments under the
Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), an international instrument it
ratified more than two decades ago. Pakistan submitted its 5th period report on
the implementation of the CRC to the UN Committee on the Rights of the
Child in May 2014, after a delay of more than a year. The report is reflective of
the major gaps Pakistan faces in its child protection system and of a persistently
dismal record of delayed reporting and poor implementation.
Even though 2014 marked the 25th anniversary of the CRC, it was termed
as the most ‘devastating’ year for child rights by UNICEF. The UN organisation
said that more than 15 million children were caught in armed conflict globally
and Pakistan was one of the countries where “protracted conflict’’ continued
to destroy thousands of young lives and futures. Reflecting on the improvement
in the past 25 years on child rights, UNICEF analysis showed that the world
was certainly a better place for children today due to this Convention, but still
millions of children were deprived of any benefit under the Convention -
particularly the poor, those who belonged to ethnic/religious minorities, who
lived in rural areas, or those with disabilities. Pakistan’s children have not
benefitted much from this landmark instrument due to weak political will and
poor socio-economic conditions.
The president and prime minister of Pakistan both in their address on
Drought in Sindh affected 2.9 million people with the child death toll hitting 650 at the close of 2014.
Universal Children’s Day said Pakistan was committed to safeguarding child

rights and that the country was proud to join the international community in
the CRC’s 25-year celebrations. However, as evidenced by record, Pakistan
has very little to celebrate a quarter-century after ratifying the Convention.
Pakistani schoolgirl and a passionate education campaigner Malala
Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban militants in 2012, became
the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. A fund set up in her
name helps children in education around the world.
Health
The Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) Report 2012-13 was launched
in February by the National Institute of Population Studies (NIPS). Though
noticing a few improvements since the last survey was conducted in 1990,
more than two decades ago, the survey painted an extremely dismal picture of
children’s health in Pakistan. The report found that one in every 14 children
died before the age of one and one in every 11 children died before the age of
five in the country. It also recorded that the neonatal mortality rates had
increased from 51 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 55 in 2012, but the
infant mortality had decreased from 91 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to
74 in 2012. The report said the vaccination coverage stood at 66 per cent in
urban areas and at 48 per cent in rural areas with around 54 percent of children
between 12 to 23 months having received all recommended vaccinations.
UNICEF’s The State of the World’s Children 2014 report ranked Pakistan
th
26 in its list of countries with highest infant mortality rates in the world. The
report stated that in Pakistan the average life expectancy for every newborn
child was 66%, while one third of all children under five years of age (73.8
million) were underweight. Mercy Corps, a global aid agency engaged in
Children 223
transitional environments that have experienced some sort of shock — natural
disaster, economic collapse, or conflict — conducted a countrywide survey
in Pakistan in 2014 to judge the level of information of senior health officials
of the country about fatal diseases affecting children. According to its findings,
the awareness level of the senior health managers in all four provinces, including
the health directors general, about the neonatal mortality ratio, guidelines and
measures to prevent deaths of babies, was nearly the same as that of low-
profile workers like lady health workers, community midwives, traditional
birth attendants and community women. It stated that most of them were
unable to recall any of the guidelines, including those of the World Health
Organization (WHO) for newborn care.
With only a slight decline, Pakistan miserably failed to achieve MDG 4
target of reducing under-five mortality to 52 per 1,000 live births by 2015.
Polio accelerated in Pakistan at an alarming rate in 2014. From 58 cases in
2012 to 93 cases in 2013, it shot up by more than 300 per cent, recording 306
cases in 2014, breaking Pakistan’s own 15-year record. Pakistan now accounts
for four-fifths of world’s polio cases and has been termed as the “epicentre of
poliovirus in the world” by World Health Organization (WHO) and the single
major roadblock to achieving a polio-free world. WHO said that 80% of polio
cases in the world occurred in Pakistan this year. A total of 359 polio cases
were reported globally, out of which 306 were reported from Pakistan alone.
WHO recommended imposition of strict travel restrictions on Pakistan and
two other countries due to the rising number of polio cases. Conflict in North
Waziristan, worsening law and order problem, refusal of parents coupled with
authorities’ lack of commitment hampered proper vaccination of children in
Pakistan. Polio vaccinators and police escorting them continued to be targeted
by the Taliban.
The North Waziristan military operation and floods this year displaced a
large number of children, depriving them of basic amenities of life. According
to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the
total number of internally displaced persons of North Waziristan crossed one
million, out of which 45% were children who faced serious health issues.
WHO reported that they suffered from acute respiratory infections, acute
diarrhea, pyrexia of unknown origin, skin diseases and suspected malaria.
Poor hygienic conditions and severely hot weather caused water borne diseases
and gastro infections among the IDPs. WHO expressed concern at lack of
health facilities for the IDPs and recommended strengthening of hospitals in
the IDP-hosting districts. Government resources and facilities to combat
growing health concerns among the IDPs remained inadequate by the end of
the year.
The situation of drought and famine and the inability to procure nutritious
food in Tharparkar in Sindh worsened in 2014, taking the lives of about 650
children. Most children suffered from malnutrition, pneumonia or diarrhea
due to the drought, poverty and poor health infrastructure. Scarce ambulance
services forced parents to travel long distances to take their children to hospitals.
In November, the Sindh chief minister announced that a nutrition programme
was being initiated for children in Tharparkar and a project for marketing of
milk from Thar had also been firmed up in collaboration with the World Bank.
However, children and babies continued to die till the end of the year.
On August 29, the World Bank approved US$ 47.95 million to help Pakistan
improve nutrition status of children under the age of two and of expecting and
lactating women in targeted areas. The World Bank said that all the provinces
of Pakistan were facing challenges of malnutrition - 51% children in Balochistan,
50% in Sindh, 48% in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 39% children in Punjab were
stunted. The average nutrition status in Sindh and Balochistan is worse than
the national average, therefore, this project will initially focus on Sindh and
Balochistan only.
Education
Lack of spending on education has mainly contributed to a high illiteracy
level in Pakistan. In 2014-15 fiscal year, notable increase was seen in the
federal and provincial education budgets, though keeping the record in view, it
seemed unlikely these funds would be spent as envisaged. Punjab enhanced its
budget by 10% in the 2014-2015 fiscal year, allocating Rs. 47.61 billion for
education, out of which Rs 20 billion was apportioned to school education,
Rs. 24 billion to higher education, Rs 151 million to special education and
Rs. 35 million to non-formal basic education. KP increased its education budget
by 14 percent. Sindh set aside 45.02 billion (21.13 per cent), about Rs. 10
billion up from last year’s Rs. 135.55 billion, and Balochistan increased spending
on education by 23.09 percent. The federal government budgeted Rs64 billion
for education in the fiscal year 2014-15, an eight per cent increase from last
year. Although, education is now a provincial subject, the federal government
also announced five schemes worth Rs. 406 million, as part of its budget, for
capacity building of teacher training institutes and training of elementary school
teachers in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-
Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
The addition of Article 25-A in the Constitution of Pakistan was a major
step, but no significant difference was noted in the school enrolment rates,
even though all provinces, except KP, had passed legislations for the provision
of free and compulsory education in compliance with the Article 25-A. Punjab
was the most recent province to pass this law on May 13.
Pakistan Education Atlas 2013, a survey report on education in Pakistan
Children 225
was formally launched in March 2014. According to the report, improvement
in the education sector had been extremely slow and the percentage of children
completing primary education varied from province to province. The highest
survival rate was found in Islamabad Capital Territory at 96% followed by
Gilgit Baltistan at 95%, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at 64%, Punjab at 56% and
FATA at 48%. Lowest percentage of children completing primary education
was calculated in Sindh and Balochistan at 43% each. The number of children
completing middle school education in different provinces of Pakistan increased
marginally according to the report -100% children reached middle school in
Islamabad Capital Territory, 89% in Gilgit Baltistan, and 87% in Punjab, 72%
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 69% in Azad Jammu Kashmir and 67% in Balochistan.
Sixty-one percent children made it to middle education in FATA compared to
44% in 2010. Sindh had the lowest number of children reaching middle education
at 59%.
The report also highlighted the availability of basic facilities for children in
schools. It showed that students in only 64% of primary schools in the country
had access to drinking water and a much lower rate was found in Azad Jammu
Kashmir at only 27%. In Islamabad, children in 185 of 191 schools had access
to clean drinking water. Only 49% of government primary schools had
electricity and only 58% of schools had toilets. In Balochistan, out of 10,000
schools, only 1,662 schools had electricity and 2,000 schools were equipped
with toilet facility. In response to the findings of this report, State Minister for
Education, Trainings and Standards in Higher Education Balighur Rehman
said that under the National Plan of Action Rs. 188 billion had been earmarked
in 2013 to be spent over three years to target out-of-school children and
missing facilities in schools across the country.
NPA, also referred to as the MDG Acceleration Programme, was announced
in 2013 and designed in collaboration with the provinces. However, no details
of the plan were shared in the 2014-15 budget, which made it hard to assess
its progress in the first year.
The second annual Alif Ailaan Pakistan District Education Rankings 2014
report, prepared in association with Sustainable Development Policy Institute
(SDPI), was launched in May 2014 in an attempt to provide reliable and up-to-
date data on education. This report mapped the varying standards of primary
and middle education across Pakistan through specially developed education
and school indexes and identification of areas where the system needed
immediate attention and improvement. Each district was awarded points from
0 to 100 on the basis of enrolments in schools, survival rate of students,
literacy, learning outcomes, infrastructure, gender parity, and availability of
facilities. Islamabad was ranked the best performing region for overall education
standards. Punjab was ranked second followed by Azad Jammu Kashmir and
25 million children, 47% of all Pakistani children, are still out of school.
Gilgit Baltistan while FATA was ranked at the bottom. The report also revealed
that 25 million children, 47% of all Pakistani children, were out of school. Out
of these out-of-school children, 68% never attended school while 32% went
to school at some point. Global Competitiveness Report 2014-15 published by
World Economic Forum in September 2014 ranked Pakistan at 132 out of 144
with one of the lowest school enrollment rates. The report estimated that a
quarter of children did not go to primary school in Pakistan.
No attempt to reform the madrasa education system was witnessed in
2014, though unregistered madrasas mushroomed across the country. In
November, police recovered 36 girls from a house in Karachi, who had been
placed there by a madrasa administration as a guarantee for loan they had
issued to the owners of the house. The madrasa wanted to impose the upkeep
of these girls on the house owners and also use them as a surety if they
defaulted in paying back the loan. The girls hailed from Bajaur tribal region and
could not speak or write Urdu. They were shifted to Darul Banaat child
protection unit in Shantinagar in Karachi where parents and guardians came to
claim them.
Shortage of teachers was another major gap in the education system in
the country. According to a UNSECO policy paper, released in October 2014,
Pakistan would require more than 150,000 new trained primary school teachers
by 2015 to achieve the universal primary education target by 2015 and over
290,000 by 2020. It also said that 84 percent of primary school teachers in
Children 227
No attempt to reform the madrasa education system was witnessed in 2014.
Pakistan were trained and the target was the availability of 40 students for
every trained teacher. According to KP District Education Management
Information System (EMIS) 2013-14, of the over 78,000 sanctioned posts
for teachers at the primary level more than 6,800 positions, of the 21,494
sanctioned posts at the intermediate level 7,409, and of the 30,844 posts for
secondary education 6,315 lie vacant, and there are no teachers to fill 2,193 of
the 11,000 posts in the higher education. EMIS recorded that the total population
of boys between the ages of 5 and 16 was close to 3.7 million and around
736,000 of them were out of school in the 25 districts of the province. The
situation was far worse for girls as around half of the over 3.4 million girls of
the province were not receiving education.
To support children affected by armed conflict, a Conflict Support Program
was initiated in 2014 by USAID in partnership with the telecom sector. Under
this programme, educational scholarships were to be provided for 4,000 children
affected by armed conflict and who had lost their parents. By the end of the
year, 2,685 children from KP had already been awarded scholarships.
Rights violations and child protection

Persistent gender discrimination, and low government spending on health,
education and social protection were identified as major reasons for the slow
improvement in child rights situation in South Asia by UNICEF’s report titled
‘Improving Children’s Lives, Transforming the Future - 25 years of child
rights in South Asia’. In Pakistan this year, no significant improvements or
additions were made in the protection framework for children, which showed
government’s serious lack of interest. The only notable step taken in this
regard was the announcement of setting up of a National Commission for
Children by the Office of National Commissioner for Children Wafaqi Mohtasib
(Ombudsman’s) Secretariat. An apex body for child rights monitoring, the
commission would comprise prominent people with a commitment to child
and human rights, with all provincial ombudspersons and child commissioners
as its ex-officio members.
The Child Rights Movement (CRM), a consortium of civil society
organizations working for promoting the cause of children, urged the state to
introduce child protection policy and drew a petition to garner support for the
enactment of pending child protection bills. The Punjab Social Welfare
Department, in collaboration with UNICEF, has been in the process of drafting
a child protection policy since 2011. On July 8, 2014, more than 10 MPAs of
Punjab and other government officials, in a workshop organized by CRM,
agreed to adopt a child protection policy without further delay, but the policy
remained pending till the end of the year.
The bills awaiting enactment included National Commission on the Rights
of Children Bill, the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill 2013, the Child
Protection (Criminal Law) Amendment Bill 2013, the Charter of Child Rights
Bill 2013 and the Child Marriages Restraint (Amendment) Bill at the federal
level. At the provincial level, Balochistan Child Protection and Welfare Bill, the
Punjab Commission on the Rights of the Child Bill, the Right to Free and
Compulsory Educations Bills in Balochistan and KP and bills against child
employment remained pending in provinces. The much trumpeted legislation
for child protection in Sindh, Sindh Child Protection Authority Act 2011, awaited
implementation in the province despite the lapse of three years since its
enactment. The government had made no progress in notifying the authority
and its rules by the end of 2014, though according to the law the authority
should have come into being within 60 days of its enactment.
CRM also launched a report titled ’Taxation in Pakistan and its Impacts on
Children’s Lives’ in November 2014. The report stated that low levels of
investment in children manifested in poor child health and education. The
report recommended ensuring investment in children through targeted
allocations to remove group disparities, identifying the supply gaps in the social
service delivery and improving the key social indicators for children.
Violence against children

A UNICEF report, ‘Hidden in Plain Sight: Statistical Analysis of Violence
against Children’, released in September, surveyed 190 countries and ranked
Pakistan amongst the top 10 with the highest child homicide rates. The report
showed that 30 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 years surveyed claimed that
they experienced physical violence since the age of 15, with 24 per cent saying
they had experienced physical violence within the last 12 months. The report
also recorded that 53% of the girls and 34% of the boys aged 15 - 19 years
interviewed for this survey believed that the husband/partner was justified in
beating the wife in certain circumstances.
Sahil, a nonprofit and nongovernmental organization working on child
Children 229
Despite the soaring number of sexual abuse cases reported last year, no
serious measures were taken by the authorities to address the issue in 2014.
sexual abuse, released its annual publication titled ‘Cruel Numbers 2013’ in
March. In this report, it observed that child abuse had significantly increased
over the past few years. A total of 3,002 cases took place in 2013, about eight
percent increase from the previous year. Out of the total number of cases,
57.46 per cent occurred in rural areas and 42.54 per cent in urban areas. The
report showed a six per cent increase in abduction cases. A total of 1,706
children were abducted in 2013 that meant that, on an average, five children
were abducted every day during 2013. The report recorded 1,220 cases of
rape/sodomy including gang rape and gang sodomy and 202 cases of attempted
rape/sodomy including attempted gang rape and gang sodomy. It also observed
that children most vulnerable to abuse were aged between 11 and 15 years.
2003 cases of abuse were reported from Punjab, 583 from Sindh, 139 from
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 134 from Islamabad Capital Territory, 106 from
Balochistan, 35 from Azad Jammu Kashmir and only two were reported from
Gilgit Baltistan. The organisation revealed that around 311 cases had been
reported from January to September 30 in 2014, with 214 girls and 97 boys
falling prey in Rawalpindi and Islamabad alone.
A report titled The State of Pakistan’s Children 2013, prepared by the
Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), launched in
May 2014, also recorded statistics on violence against children. It showed
that 2,033 cases of child abuse took place in 2013, out of which 1,365 were
boys and 668 were girls. 1,115 cases of kidnapping, 294 murder cases, 102
cases of boys’ sexual assault while 97 cases of sale of children occurred in
2013. Despite the soaring number of sexual abuse cases reported last year, no
serious measures were taken by the authorities to address the issue in 2014.
Pedophilia was highlighted as a serious issue occurring in the northern
parts of Pakistan. A documentary named Pakistan’s Hidden Shame, was released
in 2014, depicting the high incidence of pedophilia especially at bus stations in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The documentary revealed that 9 out of 10
homeless children of Peshawar had been victims of pedophilia and that pedophilia
was a common practice among bus/truck drivers in KP. The documentary
showed interviews of drivers who had sexually abused children. Poverty is
the biggest reason for children to indulge in this activity. A 12-year-old boy in
an interview in the documentary said the first time he consented to the act was
because he was hungry and had not eaten for two days.
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment continued to take place in schools. According to
HRCP monitoring, 120 children, including 27 girl children, faced corporal
punishment during the year.
In an attempt to control this, a three-month campaign to end corporal
punishment was launched on the occasion of Children’s Day in November
2014. The campaign titled ‘Bare Pyar se Samjahien’ is a joint effort of the
Ministry of Law and UNICEF, targeting millions of people across the country
through various mediums, incorporating messages on adverse effects of
corporal punishment. During the launch, findings of a baseline survey,
conducted in five districts prior to starting this campaign, were also shared.
The study revealed that nine out of ten guardians such as parents and caregivers
had beaten their children, with more than half knowing that this kind of violence
could have deep-rooted effects on the child. A similar campaign titled Campaign
against Corporal Punishment (COP) of children was also launched in March
2014 by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights in collaboration with
the South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC) and the
South Asia Coordinating Group on Action against Violence against Children
(SACG).Pakistan became the second country in the SAARC region to start
this campaign designed to take steps for enacting legislation prohibiting corporal
punishment, train authorities, civil society, children and other stakeholders on
positive parenting, teaching, caring and appropriate implementation of the legal
reforms needed and raise awareness about harmful consequences of corporal
punishment on children’s development at community, sub-regional and national
levels.
None of the provinces passed a law prohibiting corporal punishment. In
April 2014, the Directorate of Elementary and Secondary Education, KP
government issued a notification that if there was any complaint of inflicting
Children 231
corporal punishment received against any teacher in any district, the teacher
would be tried under the Special Powers Removal from Service Ordinance
2000-2001. The notification recognized that the rampant use of corporal
punishment in schools was causing a serious decline in the literacy rate of the
province and preventing the province from achieving its education MDG.
Several cases of corporal punishment were highlighted in the media from
different parts of the country, some resulting in very serious injury to the
child; for example, in August 2014, a seven-year-old child from Abbottabad
broke his leg after being dragged by his hair and tossed in the air by his
proctor. In another case in September, a grade 9 student in Islamabad suffered
two broken fingers as a result of beating by her teacher.
A study titled ‘The Voice of Teachers: Learning from Teachers Across
Pakistan’, undertaken by Alif Ailaan and the Society for the Advancement of
Education (SAHE), launched on November 20, 2014, established a strong link
between corporal punishment and the level of non-teaching duties of teachers.
The report stated that Pakistan’s teachers burdened by non-teaching duties,
which took them away from the classroom, were highly in favour of corporal
punishment and if given the option, would prefer better-paying, administrative
positions in the education department as opposed to teaching.
Child labour
Pakistan ranked sixth on Global Slavery Index 2014 where child labour
was most prevalent. It estimated that about two million Pakistanis,
approximately 1.130% of the country’s population, comprised mostly of
children and bonded labourers. The GSI also revealed that approximately 10
million child workers existed in Pakistan, out of which 3.8 million were aged
five to 14 years.
No nationwide survey was conducted or any serious measure taken to
abolish child slavery. The last official survey conducted in 1996 stated that 3.3
million children aged 5-14 years were involved in child labour. In 2012, the
ILO estimated that this figure exceeded 12 million while the UNICEF stated
there were about 10 million underage workers in the country. Pakistan’s Child
Rights Movement estimated in the same year that approximately 9.86 million
children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 years in Pakistan
were active in the labour force, 2.58 million of these children were between
10 and 14, while thousands more were even younger than the age of 10. No
bills at national or provincial level were introduced in 2014 to eradicate child
labour, while children across the country continued to work under hazardous
conditions.
ILO continued to support Pakistan in helping eradicate child labour this
year. In August 2014, the Government of Punjab and International Labour
Organization initiated a project titled Integrated Project for Elimination of Child
Child labour remained rampant in Pakistan.
Labour and Bonded Labour, expected to end in 2020, targeting 36 districts of

Punjab to combat child labour and bonded labour. In another ILO supported
project, implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis
and Human Resource Development, 8,000 children were rehabilitated in Sahiwal
and Sukkur, as stated in an ILO press release. The Punjab government intends
to start similar projects in other districts with its own resources.
In December 2014, Save the Children, in collaboration with Ikea
Foundation, DevCon and Government of Sindh extended and expanded their
collaborative efforts to tackle the causes of child labour in Pakistan’s cotton
growing district, Shaheed Benazirabad. The project aims to improve the living
conditions of 1.5 million children involved in cotton growing in the next four
years by improving education prospects for children and empowering women
and girls.
Juvenile justice
The year 2014 went by without the establishment of a single juvenile
court for children involved in criminal litigation or the creation of Borstal
institutions at district level despite express provisions to the effect in the Juvenile
Justice System Ordinance (JJSO) 2000. AGHS Child Rights Unit, a project
for the promotion and protection of child rights, regularly monitors juvenile
section of prisons in Punjab. According to the monitoring reports of 2014,
AGHS CRU team witnessed irregularities in almost all the prisons in Punjab.
Segregation of adults from children was not strictly followed. Children faced
torture in police stations and on occasions in the prison too.
According to SPARC’s Annual Report on the State of Children in Pakistan
2013, released in 2014, 1,383 juveniles were in prisons across Pakistan in
2013, of which 137 were convicts and 1,246 under trial. Punjab had most of
Children 233
them, 783, followed by Sindh 276, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 217 and Balochistan
107.The report showed that 288 children were released on probation in the
country in 2013 - 156 in Punjab, 71 in KP and FATA, 51 in Sindh, and 10 in
Balochistan.
According to an official report 746 juvenile prisoners, only 61 out of them
convicted, were incarcerated in different facilities across the Punjab province.
No female juvenile was confined anywhere in the province.
Foundation for Research and Human Development (FRHD) that conducted
visits to Sindh jails reported that 198 juveniles — 196 under trial, and 2 convicted
— were imprisoned in Karachi; 63 juveniles — 58 under trial (half of them for
murder), and 5 convicted in Hyderabad, 18 juveniles -- 16 under trial (10 in
murder case), two convicted — in Sukkur, and 12 were juveniles -- 11 under
trial (8 in murder case), none convicted and one condemned in Larkana.
Shafqat Hussain, now 24, was incarcerated at the Central Jail in Karachi,
Sindh. He has been on death row for more than 10 years, after being convicted
for murder and sentenced by an anti-terrorism court to be executed by hanging.
Shafqat was 14 when, in 2004, he was arrested and convicted for attempted
kidnapping and murder, the case resting on a single piece of evidence: a
confession, which he and his lawyers say was obtained under torture. According
to court records, Shafqat told the judge he had confessed under pressure and
torture. Neither the trial judge nor the teen’s state-appointed attorney pursued
those claims. Shafqat was tried as an adult — police reports indicate he was
23 years old at the time. [Interior Minister Chaudry Nisar Ali Khan in January
2015 announced a stay of execution while Shafqat’s case was reviewed, though
he remained on the death row.]
Region Juveniles
Punjab 764
Sindh (till 02/09/14) 313
Balochistan 46
Khyber Pakhtunkwa Data not available
Gilgit-Baltistan 3
Total 1,126
Birth registration
UNICEF rated Pakistan as a country that had one of the lowest birth
registration rates, with the last recorded rate at 27 per cent. UNICEF started a
pilot project in collaboration with Telenor, a cellular company, on March 27, to
improve the birth registration rate in the country. The project seeks to register
births through mobile application. This innovative new method is said to be
cheap and quick and could increase the registration rate. This pilot project
started in selected union councils of Punjab and Sindh.To increase the rate
birth registration in Punjab, registration fees at the Union Council level were
waived throughout the province under the Punjab Women Empowerment
Initiative of 2014.
Street children and children with disabilities

No official data on the number of street children was collected in 2014.
Estimates by civil society organizations exceeded 1.5 million street children.
Initiator Human Development Foundation, a non-governmental organization,
in its recent survey estimated that about 66 per cent of street children were
runaways who had left home after experiencing violence from home or school
or where they worked. According to IHDF, organized mafias exploit street
children by pushing them into begging and stealing.
CRM expressed disappointment that the government had paid no heed to
the recommendations of Committee on the Rights of the Child on street children
in Pakistan and no systematic approach had been adopted to improve the
situation of street children.
There were no facilities for the shelter and protection of street children.
Sindh, in particular, lacked systems to support street children on the same
lines as the Punjab Child Protection Bureau or the Child Protection and Welfare
Commission in KP did.
On the upside, for the first time, Pakistan participated in the Street Child
World Cup (SCWC) 2014 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Nine young street children
Pakistan has 18 million people with disabilities, a major portion of them children.
Children 235
from Pakistan demonstrated their talent and came home proud with a bronze
medal to their name. Participation in this competition provided the country’s
street children a chance to demonstrate their skills and get recognition on an
international platform.
According to estimates Pakistan has 18 million people with disabilities, a
major portion of them children. No significant development was witnessed in
2014 for the welfare and facilitation of children with disabilities. Punjab,
however, allocated Rs800 million in the budget for the welfare of special children.
Civil society repeatedly stressed the need for inclusive education. Media’s role
in highlighting issues of special children was not encouraging. No serious
initiative by the provincial governments or the federal was seen in 2014 to
provide education to disabled children. Efforts were made by CSOs to improve
the learning opportunities for children with physical disabilities. For the first
time in Pakistan ‘Pakistan Sign Language (PSL) Resources’, sign language
learning digital tools, were launched in November.
Child marriage/early motherhood

According to estimates Pakistan’s 179.1 million population is 18 years old
or younger. Sahil in its annual report ‘The Cruel Number 2013’ recorded 96
cases of early child marriages in the country, an increase of 21% from 2012.Out
of these, 71 cases were reported from rural areas and 20 cases from urban
areas. 41.76% victims of early child marriages belonged to the age group of
11-15 years and 34.07% were from the age group of 6-10 years. Province-
wise division showed that 42.86% cases of child marriage took place in Sindh,
30.76% in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 25.27% cases of child marriages were
reported from Punjab. No case of early child marriage was reported from
Balochistan. The report revealed that 57.14% of cases were registered with
the police. A UNICEF report titled ‘Improving Children’s Lives, Transforming
the Future - 25 years of child rights in South Asia’ found that nearly half of
South Asian girls married before 18.
Madadgar National Helpline recorded 42 cases of early and forced marriages
in just the first four months of the year from across Pakistan, which included
17 cases in January, 10 cases in February, eight cases in March and seven
cases in April.
Early motherhood is a direct consequence of child marriage, which has
serious ramifications for the health of the under-age mother. According to
PDHS 2012-13, eight per cent of adolescent women (between the age of 15
and 19 years) are already mothers or pregnant with their first child in Pakistan.
The survey also found that about 12 per cent teenagers from low-income
households were more likely to have begun child bearing compared to three
per cent from high-income families and young motherhood was the highest in
The Sindh government, in April 2014, passed Child Marriage Restraint
Bill 2013 prohibiting marriage of children below 18 years of age.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at 10 per cent.

The Sindh government, in April 2014, passed Child Marriage Restraint Bill
2013 prohibiting marriage of children below 18 years of age. Sindh is the first
province of Pakistan to approve a bill on prohibition of child marriage. The bill
was presented in the assembly by Sharmila Farooqi and Rubina Qaimkhani in
2013, which was unanimously passed by all members. The bill did, however,
face opposition from the Council of Islamic Ideology which declared this law
in contradiction with Islamic injunctions as there was no age limit in Shariah
for marriage. According to the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013, those
found violating the law can be sentenced to prison for three years and could
also be fined. No other province had passed such a law by the end of the year.
Recommendations
1. All possible efforts need to be made by the provincial and federal
governments for a polio-free Pakistan and a polio-free world. The exponential
rise in polio cases in 2014 calls for extreme and urgent measures to control the
situation and eradicate the endemic disease from the country.
2. Federal and provincial governments should ensure that the larger
share of the budget allocated to education is spent as envisaged and accounted
for. CSOs working on education must act as a watchdog and pressurise the
governments to meet their budgetary goals for education. Measures must also
be taken to criminalize corporal punishment, a major factor in children dropping
out from school.
3. An all-encompassing child welfare policy must be adopted by all
provinces instead of merely focusing on a certain category of children. All
Children 237
pending laws on children must be immediately passed and corresponding rules
for laws that have already been passed notified to ensure implementation of
the existing laws. Special schemes need to be introduced to ensure that street
children and children with disabilities are protected and have access to basic
amenities and services.
4. Eradication of child labour must feature as a priority for the
government. A fresh survey on the number of children involved in child labour
should be conducted for formulation of an appropriate policy.
5. All forms of violence against children must be eradicated by creating
awareness of applicable laws, improved access to justice and fair investigation
procedures. Awareness sessions must be given to parents and children for safety
and protection from child sexual abuse.
6. Birth registration needs to be viewed as a fundamental right of children
and the government must remove all hurdles in the registration process especially
in the rural areas.
7. Child marriage laws need to be changed across provinces to increase
the legally valid age of girls to 18 years. Adverse health (mental and physical)
consequences of under-age marriages must be highlighted in the media and
through door-to-door awareness campaigns.

Labour
The state shall ensure the elimination of all forms of exploitation and the
gradual fulfilment of the fundamental principle, from each according to his
ability, to each according to his work.
Article 3
Slavery is non-existent and forbidden and no law shall permit or facilitate
its introduction into Pakistan in any form. All forms of forced labour and
traffic in human beings are prohibited. No child below the age of 14 years
shall be engaged in any factory or mine or any other hazardous employment.
Article 11 (1-3)
Every citizen shall have the right to form associations or unions, subject
to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of sovereignty
or integrity of Pakistan, public order or morality.
Article 17(1)
The state shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions
of work ...
Article 37(c)
The state shall secure the well-being of the people, irrespective of sex,
caste, creed and race, by raising their standard of living, by preventing the
concentration of wealth and means of production and distribution in the hands
of a few to the detriment of general interest and by ensuring equitable
adjustment of rights between employers and employees, and landlords and
tenants; provide for all citizens, within the available resources of the country,
facilities for work and adequate livelihood with reasonable rest and leisure;
provide for all persons, employed in the service of Pakistan or otherwise,
social security by compulsory social insurance or other means; provide basic
Labour 239
necessities of life, such as food, clothing, housing, education and medical
relief, for all such citizens, irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race, as are
permanently or temporarily unable to earn their livelihood on account of infirmity,
sickness or unemployment; reduce disparity in the income and earnings of
individuals ...
Article 38(a) to (e)
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.
Article 4
Everyone, as a member of society, has a right to social security ....
Article 22
Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and
favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal
work. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration
ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity and
supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. Everyone
has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 23 (1-4)
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation
of working hours and periodic holiday with pay.
Article 24
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and
well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and
medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the
event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other
lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Article 25(1)
State parties recognise the right of the child to be protected from
economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be
hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the
child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
Article 32(1)
Improved quality of life and better terms and conditions at workplace —

as measured through increase in real wages, safe work environs, reasonable
work hours, protection from income loss during sickness, disability and old-
age, and freedom to form unions — remained a dream for a majority of
workforce in 2014. Labour laws violations continued unabated throughout
the year.
The granting of the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) Plus status
Hyderabad Workers of Wapda from 16 districts of Sindh converged at
Hyder Chowk to join a protest against the proposed privatization of national
institutions including 16 power supply companies of Wapda.
to Pakistan, providing preferential access to the EU market through reduced

tariffs under the EU trade programme, from January 1, 2014 offered the only
silver lining for workers. The GSP Plus is conditional to compliance with eight
ILO core labour conventions out of 27 international standards and covenants
on labour, human and women’s rights, environment, narcotics and corruption.
There was hope that the government would now take serious note of labour
rights violations. However, during the year, neither the federal government nor
the provincial governments came out with any firm plan for the implementation
of labour laws.
Various groups of workers in the public sector as well as informal sector
rallied for payment of dues and salaries, increase in wages and implementation
of minimum wages during the year. The trade unions in the public sector
resisted privatization and lobbied for legislative reforms.
In January, the Privatization Commission announced privatization of nine
entities — Pakistan Steel Mills, Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd, PIA,
Heavy Electrical Complex, NPCC, LESCO, FESCO, Northern Power
Generation Company, Habib Bank and Allied Bank. The Joint Action Committee
of PIA Employees, All Pakistan Wapda Hydro-Electric Workers Union and the
Northern Power Generation Company workers held numerous meetings and
rallied against impending privatization.
The International Trade Union Confederation (IUTC) Global Rights Index
2014 ranked Pakistan as among the world’s worst countries for workers with
a ranking of 4 on a scale of 1- 5+. Countries with the rating of 4 reported
Labour 241
systematic violations and the government and/or companies were found
engaged in serious efforts to crush the collective voice of workers and putting
fundamental rights under continuous threat.
The labour market

The Federal Bureau of Statistics did not release the quarterly Labour Force
Survey Reports in the year 2014. The annual Labour Force Survey 2013-2014
was not published till the yearend. The last Labour Force Survey 2012-2013
had noted a labour force of 59.74 million workers. Of them, 56.01 million
were employed, indicating a shortfall of 3.73 million jobs and an unemployment
rate of 6.2 per cent. Unemployment among 15-29 years was higher at 9.2 per
cent. Labour force participation rate was 32.9 per cent with a wide disparity
between men (49.3%) and women (15.6%) participation rates. A significant
proportion, 69.48 %, of the employed labour force in Pakistan, worked for 40
to 56 or more hours a week, indicating lower productivity per hour as well as
low level of wages. The bulk, 59.9%, of the labour force fell under the category
of ‘vulnerable employment’ that include own account workers and contributing
family workers.
Laws, policies and litigation

In May 2014, after persistent lobbying by the trade unions and pressure
from the ILO for four consecutive years, the restrictive condition of 50 workers
as mandatory for the formation of union was finally removed from the Punjab
Industrial Relations Act 2010 through an amendment.
In August, the Sindh High Court gave a judgment with complex implications
on the formation of trade unions and settlement of industrial disputes. Disposing
of 52 different constitutional petitions filed by several public and corporate
sector institutions, and trade unions, relating to the IRA 2012 legislated by the
federal government, a full bench of the high court held that the federal
government was competent to legislate on matters relating to companies that
operate trans-provincially. This judgment led to transfer of all cases pertaining
to trans-provincial establishments from the Labour Court to the NIRC of
appropriate jurisdiction causing hardships to the workers as there was just
one NIRC bench in each province. This judgment indicated the pitfalls of dual
federalism that some experts had been pointing out in the post-18th Amendment
years.
A draft labour policy, shared with trade union representatives by the
Government of Punjab in April 2014, was criticized on several points. Lack of
tripartite mechanism for drafting the policy was also pointed out. Till December,
the policy was not finalized. In January, a draft Domestic Workers (Employment
Rights) Act 2013, applicable only to the Federal Capital Territory, was tabled
in the Senate and referred to the Standing Committee on Law and Justice.
Wages and pension

In June 2014, both Punjab and Sindh governments increased the minimum
wages for unskilled workers from Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 a month for the
fiscal year 2014-2015. The Punjab government revised and notified minimum
wages in 51 industries, increased the death grant from Rs 2 lacs to 4 lacs
through an amendment to the Workmen’s Compensation Act 1923 and enhanced
the workers’ group insurance from Rs 2 lacs to Rs 4 lacs through an amendment
to the Industrial and Commercial Establishment Ordinance 1968.
The Balochistan government raised the minimum wages from Rs 9,000 to
Rs 10,000. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government increased the wages up to
Rs 12,000 in June. Later, on the opposition’s demand the government raised
the minimum wages to Rs 15,000. However the KP government did not notify
the change till the end of the year.
With no effective mechanism for the implementation of labour laws, a
majority of the workers remained deprived of minimum wage of Rs 12,000 in
the year 2014. The official data (Pakistan Labour Force Survey) of 2013 had
noted 20 per cent of employed workers getting up to Rs 5,000 per month and
41.73 per cent earning a monthly salary between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.
The gap between wages of low-income and high-income groups widened
further in 2014. The official data (PLFS) indicated a six-fold gap between
The disagreement between the EOBI and finance ministry means that
pensioners continue to wait with a committee now formed to resolve the issue.
Labour 243
elementary occupation (Rs6,952) and the managers’ salary (Rs36,946). The
rural-urban and male-female wage differentials were also very high.
The country has a statutory minimum wage fixing system which does not
function. Minimum wage setting is not carried out institutionally but arbitrarily,
based on political expediency. Wage-setting through collective bargaining agency
is rare as trade unions stand shrunk in number, size and power.
The existing meagre pension of Rs 3,600 a month was not raised in the
year 2014. There are 329,336 retired persons in the miniscule formal sector
drawing monthly old-age pension from the EOBI, which ranges from Rs3,600
to Rs6,240 a month. Government employees are drawing a minimum pension
of Rs3,600. In June the federal government announced an increase in pension
up to Rs 6,000 for government employees. However, in July, the EOBI Board
rejected the increase and stated that Rs3,600 would remain the minimum
pension for government employees till 2027 unless contributory amount was
increased!
Occupational safety and health

There were no visible signs of change in the deplorable occupational safety
and health conditions for most workers in 2014. The causes of the worst
industrial disaster — Baldia factory fire of September 2012 — established by
the initial proceedings of the case in the year 2013-2014 included serious
violations of labour laws and building safety laws and criminal negligence of
the factory owners and the state departments’ officials.
The criminal proceedings during 2014 against the owners of the Baldia
garment factory, Ali Enterprise, established that the factory was not registered
under the Factories Act and was never inspected by the labour inspector from
the Labour Department, Electricity Department and SITE Authority as mandated
under different laws. The factory owner had violated several building bye-
laws and obtained a fake international certification SA8000. The owners, not
acquitted of the charges, remained at large on bail through the year. Thus, it is
not only the employers, but a strong nexus between industrialists, state officials
and political elite that resists implementation of safety and health laws at work
places.
Officially 73.6 per cent workers are employed in the informal sector,
comprising small to medium-sized industrial units, that shun registration and
violate labour laws. In medium-sized units, conditions are not better as the
employers evade implementation of related laws and bust unions. Even large
production units in the country often do not have adequate occupational health
and safety management systems in place. Pakistan Readymade Garments
Manufacturers and Employers Association has 551 registered members in the
country, according to its website in 2014, and the Baldia factory, Ali Enterprises,
where the disaster took place, is one of its members. This gives a fair idea of
the extent of violations and the existing conditions of safety and health in
Baldia factory fire: Criminal case and compensation
After more than two years of the worst industrial disaster in
Pakistan that killed 255 workers in a garment factory in Baldia,
SITE, Karachi, all the accused, including the factory owners, are
on bail in the criminal case filed on September 12, 2012. The
charges have still not been framed against the accused and the
criminal trial has yet to begin. No cases have been registered
for the violations of fire and safety laws, social security laws and
building laws.
On the last hearing of the criminal case held on September
26, the Sindh High Court issued contempt notices to the head of
the National Forensic Science Authority (NFSA) and the in-charge
of its DNA laboratory over their failure to submit a detailed report
on the identification of burnt bodies from the Baldia factory fire.
The division bench headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar also
issued a contempt notice to the Employees Old-Age Benefit
Institution (EOBI) chairperson for failing to submit a report on
the payment of statutory pension to the families of the 255 workers
who had died in the fire.
Financial compensation to the families of the victims was
facilitated by the judicial activism of the Sindh High Court, on a
petition filed by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and
Research (PILER), the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF)
and other organisations. By August 2014, each family of the 255
deceased received Rs13 lakhs, and each of the 55 injured people
received from Rs1,25,000 to Rs 6,10,000 depending on the
nature of their injuries. Pensions to the victim families are finally
also being paid. This financial compensation included relief
provided by the state, dues under various laws and $US 1 million
provided by KiK Textilien i.e. the German company, the main
buyer of the Baldia factory garments.
different industrial sectors.

The provincial labour departments are responsible for documenting
industrial accidents under various laws. However, due to poor governance
and inefficient functioning, documentation is not done regularly and it is rarely
shared with the public. Hence the only source of information on industrial
accidents is the media.
According to a recent ILO-Pakistan report, the country lacks an efficient
labour inspection system. The departments are grossly under-funded and under-
staffed. Labour inspectors lack modern training and capacity to undertake
effective monitoring. In 2012, there were 337 labour inspectors in the country,
Labour 245
that is, one labour inspector for every 25,000 workers.
The Sindh Labour Department shared a draft policy on occupational safety
and health in September at a tripartite consultation meeting. This was one of
the outcomes of an ILO-solicited Joint Action Plan shared earlier in January.
The department finalized the draft policy in November and sent it to the provincial
cabinet for approval in December.
The Punjab Labour Department reported setting up of a Labour Inspection
Computerized System. By September data of 4,917 factories was entered and
inspection reports of 1,111 factories received on line. However, this data was
not available on the department’s website. The department also shared at a
consultation that in the previous nine months, it inspected 7510 factories in
the province.
Industrial Accidents in 2014

S.# Nature of accident Date Place Deaths Injured
Samozai
1. Well repairing 7 Jan 3
Pirbandah, Mardan
Lowari Tunnel,
2. Construction 16 Jan 1
Chitral
3. Well repairing 20 Jan Pakpatan 3
4. Coal mine 30 Jan Orakzai 2 5
5. Marble quarry 31 Jan Mohmand Agency 3 4
Construction-site Ring Road,
6. 3 Feb 1 24
roof collapse Peshawar
Bhagbanpura
7. Boiler explosion 4 Feb 1
Lahore
Qila Saifullah,
8. Mine roof collapse 7 Feb Chaman, 5 Several
Balochistan
9. Boiler explosion Mar Kot Lathpat Lahore 4
Vita Textile Mills,
10. Electric shock 20 Mar Sohrab Goth, 1
Karachi
Sadhoki
11. Boiler explosion 2 Apr 8
Gujranwala
12. Well cleaning 20 Apr Mailsi, Vihari 7 3
Samundri Road
13. Boiler explosion 22 Apr 1 2
Faisalabad
Kot Salamatpura,
14. Sewer cleaning 7 May 1 1
Kasur
Narang Mandi,
15. Electric shock 15 May 1
Muridke
16. Electric shock 16 May Shalimar, Lahore 1

S.# Nature of accident Date Place Deaths Injured
Fire cracker Memon Goth,
17. 22 May 6
explosion Karachi
18. Coal mine cave-in 30 Jun Jhimpir 2 4
Electric shock
19. from machinery at 07 Jul Sadhar, Faisalabad 1
loom
Poisonous Gas Bhagbanpura
20. 07 Jul 2
leakage Lahore
21. Boiler explosion 26 Sep SITE Karachi 1
22. Well digging 17 Jul Mithi, Tharparkar 3
23. Gas cylinder blast 13 Jul Gajumata, Lahore 3
Construction site
24. 10 Jul Kandhkot Sindh 2 5
roof collapse
Gia Mosa,
25. Electric shock Aug 2
Shahdara
26. Electric shock Aug Muridke 2
Pakistan Ordnance
27. Explosion 19 Aug 2
Factory, Attock
28. Well digging 24 Aug Landhi, Karachi 2
29. Boiler blast 25 Aug Sukkur 1 24
Poisonous gas
30. 25 Aug Korangi Karachi 2
leak
Poisonous gas
31. 8 Sep Hyderabad 2
leak (oil factory)
Electric shock
32. 9 Sep Faisalabad 2
(construction)
33. Coal mine blast 10 Sep Orakzai, FATA 3 Several
Electric shock
34. 11 Sep Topi, Swabi 2 3
(construction)
Electric shock
35. 13 Sep Kahna, Punjab 2
(road digging)
Construction-
36. 14 Sep Khara, Kasur 1
demolition
37. Well digging 20 Sep Renala Khurd 3
38. Well digging 29 Sep Mangan, Okara 1 1
During 2014, a significant number of occupational accidents were reported
in the media as shown in the Table (not exhaustive of all media reports). The
causes included boiler explosions, roof collapse at construction site, well-
digging, electrocution and coal mine accidents. Boiler explosions are frequent
and the reasons include lack of hiring of qualified and certified boiler engineers
by the employers, lack of maintenance and inspection. Accidents in the
Labour 247
construction sector result from lack of safety measures for workers and
violations of building standards by the establishments. Electrical workers and
line installers die of electric shock because international electrical standards,
codes and regulations are violated by the companies’ management.
Hazardous occupations
Mining and stone-crushing
In January, two coal miners were killed and five injured in a cave-in accident
in Orakzai Agency. In February, five workers died in Chaman when a chromite
mine’s roof caved in. On 30 June, two coal miners died and two were seriously
injured in another similar accident at the mining zone of Yaqoob Brohi village
near Jhimpir, Sindh. The mining zone had no medical facility and the only rural
health centre in the area was non-functional.
One of the most hazardous occupations in the world, coal mining is fraught
with great dangers to workers in Pakistan. Coal and minerals are extracted
through simple tools with no safety provisions. Coal dust inhalation, methane
gas explosions, fires, cave-ins, poisonous gas leakages and haulage accidents
are frequent in coal mines. The data from the Inspectorate of Mines and
Minerals, Punjab, quoted by the media in September 2014, revealed that on an
average 62 workers die and 14 are injured annually in the province during
mining operations. According to a trade union activist, accidents in mines take
Miners take a break from work in a coalmine in Choa Saidan Shah, in Punjab.

Deaths from Silicosis
In July, the outgoing chief justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani took suo
motu notice of the death of 18 labourers in Gujranwala. The notice was
taken on an application filed by the Public Lawyers Front, a civil society
organization, under Article 184 (3) of the constitution, pointing to the
death of a young labourer in May 2014 and of 17 more workers who died
of silicosis during the last couple of years. All the 18 workers were
employed by four different stone crushing factories in the same vicinity.
The deceased labourers had made repeated requests to the factory
owners, but they were neither provided with any masks to protect them
from silica powder inhalation, nor did the factory owners install any dust
control equipment. The court was also informed that more than 100
labourers of stone crushing factories had died from silicosis in Dera
Ghazi Khan and other regions of Punjab in the last few years.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by chief justice
Nasirul Mulk, at its subsequent hearings in September and October
directed the Punjab government to award compensation to the heirs of
18 labourers. The court was informed that a nine member committee,
comprising minister of labour, secretaries’ of Labour Department,
Environment Protection Department, Industries Department, was formed
to ensure compliance with labour safety standards and to submit an
implementation plan. The provincial government approved Rs 5.4 million
for compensation to the heirs of the deceased. The court was further
informed that the provincial government had so far paid Rs0.5 million as
compensation to families of each of the 34 labourers who had died in
Dera Ghazi Khan.
In Pakistan there is no law on silicosis whereas in India there are 15
legislative pieces on this fatal occupational disease. The risks can be
reduced by providing protective gear including full face safety helmets to
workers and installing dust settlers, scrubbers, mechanisation, wetting
methods and controlled environment in the industry.
Village Nut Kallar, some 30km east of Gujranwala, has lost nine of its sons to silicosis. All
had worked in the stone-crushing industry, from six months to several years.
Labour 249
place almost daily but are seldom reported. The accidents causing deaths,
injuries and occupational diseases, particularly silicosis — an incurable and
progressive disease — are frequent among miners.
An important intervention against the lack of occupational safety and health
conditions in the mining sector was the suo motu notice of deaths of 18 workers
due to silicosis taken by Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, the former Chief Justice of
Pakistan in July. (see Box)
Pakistan has not ratified the ILO Safety and Health in Mines Convention
1995 (No. 176) and neither does it follow the 2006 ILO Code on Safety and
Health in Underground Coalmines that sets out general principles and specific
guidance in all aspects of mining operations, including record keeping and
documentation. There was no demand for ratification of the international
occupational safety and health standards either from the trade unions or from
civil society organizations.
Electrical works
On August 20, a Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) workers’
rally highlighted the rising number of casualties as a result of electrocution
during the performance of their duties. More than 25 linesmen were electrocuted
in a couple of months due to the unsafe working conditions. Again in November,
three members of the line staff of LESCO died of electrocution within three
days. According to the trade union, there are about 22,000 linesmen in Pakistan,
and of them 100 linesmen lose their lives annually, while many are disabled for
life. Line installers and repairmen, involved in various processes of generation,
transmission and distribution of energy across the country, encounter serious
hazards on the job that is considered one of the ten most dangerous occupations
in the world. The workers in Pakistan are neither provided with any protective
gear nor do they receive adequate training.
Ship-breaking
On November 1, two accidents on yard number 107, Gadani Beach, were
reported. According to Bashir Mehmodani, President Gadani Ship-breaking
Mazdoor Union, 15 workers were injured when a faulty lift fell on the ground.
In a joint statement along with the National Trade Union Federation, the union
leader highlighted the plight of the workers in the most hazardous sector in
Pakistan and demanded compensation to injured workers, abolition of contact
system and registration with EOBI and SESSI.
Ship-breaking is one of the most hazardous works relegated by the rich
north to the countries in the south. The workers at the Gadani yard, often
exposed to deadly toxins, exploding gases, falling steel plates and other dangers,
get a pittance for their risky labour. According to a recent study, an estimated
12,000 to 15,000 workers are engaged at the shipyard. Mostly aged 18 to
mid-50s, the workers are not provided with any safety gear and have no, or
limited, access to medical aid or emergency services. They live in the vicinity
without the facility of safe drinking water, electricity and decent shelter. As
the Gadani Beach is located away from the city, the workers’ exploitation does
not get the attention of the media.
Labour struggles against bondage and exploitative terms and conditions
Pakistan ranked sixth highest among 167 countries on the Global Slavery
Index 2014 for the prevalence of modern forms of slavery that include debt
bondage. According to the Index estimates, there are 2,058,200 people in
Pakistan living a life of slavery. Brick kiln and agriculture are the sectors most
afflicted with debt bondage.
Brick-kiln workers
Brick-kilns workers, one of the most vulnerable groups, continued their
fight against exploitative terms and conditions of work, including bondage
prevalent in the sector. In several districts in Punjab, the workers submitted
applications to the district coordination officers and filed petitions at the court
against the owners.
The year 2014 witnessed increasing incidents of conflict between workers
and owners of brick kilns in the province of Punjab, leading to a rising wave
of collective protests. The fight between the owners and the workers intensified
due to the government intervention which gave recourse to the workers to
seek justice and caused the owner to retaliate: the Punjab government reactivated
the District Vigilance Committees in late 2013. According to the Punjab Labour
Department, the reactivated committees held 199 meetings during Oct 2013
to March 2014. 399 FIRs were lodged against brick kiln owners who were
guilty of keeping labour in bondage.
During January and February, the brick kiln workers of Toba Tek Singh
staged rallies at the office of the District Labour Officer and demanded
implementation of wage rates notified by the government in 2013. In late
March, workers sat in front of District Coordination Officer’s office in
Faisalabad for implementation of the minimum rate of Rs 740 per one thousand
bricks. After 34 hours of sit-in when the government and owners did not
agree, the workers started a long march towards Chief Minister’s House in
Lahore. More than one thousand men, women and children marched for 80
km despite threats by police and owners. The workers from Nankana Saheb
and Sheikhupura districts joined the march. Finally an agreement was signed
between the Labour Qaumi Movement, Brick Kiln Owners Association and
District Managements of Faisalabad and Nankana Sahib pledging to pay
Rs 740 per 1,000 bricks and not to detain workers against their will.
In April, three separate incidents of physical violence, torture and illegal
Labour 251
The year 2014 witnessed increasing incidents of conflict between workers
and owners of brick kilns in the province of Punjab.
detention perpetrated by the brick kiln owners of Kasur, Punjab, on the workers
were reported when they demanded wages at the rate notified by the Punjab
government in 2013 and asked for social security registration cards. In one
case in April, four brick kiln owners were arrested when they fired at a court
bailiff and the police that had raided the kilns for release of workers from
illegal detention. On April 22, the Kiln Owners Association of Sahiwal demanded
withdrawal of the Factories Act from the brick kiln sector revealing the height
of irrationality, feudal mentality and disrespect for laws. In May, 19 brick kiln
workers were freed from a Kasur brick kiln on court orders.
In June, brick kiln workers from Vehari filed a petition in the Lahore High
Court, Multan, against the owners. In an incident in Sialkot district, a brick
kiln owner and his henchmen kidnapped a family of workers, murdered the
head of the family and detained the family members. In July, Lahore High
Court ensured the release of 20 brick kiln workers from illegal detention by a
kiln owner in Kasur. In September, there was a report of a kidnapping by the
brick kiln owner of a worker in Sargodha.
In December, brick kiln workers of Muzaffargarh district held sit-ins
against lower than notified wages paid by the owners. The district has 160
brick kilns and about 26,000 labourers. The rate of bricks was Rs 888 per
1,000 but the owners were paying only Rs 530. The District Coordination
Officer formed a committee to ensure implementation.
Agricultural workers
During the year, many cases of non-payment of dues, harassment and
eviction of share croppers and daily wage workers were reported from different
districts of Sindh province. According to a labour organization which facilitated
the peasants to file cases in the Tenancy Tribunals under the Sindh Tenancy
Act 1950, 12 cases were filed against different landlords in district Sanghar
from January till August and five cases were registered in Umarkot for settlement
of dues and against eviction. Another civil society organization filed 93 cases
in Umarkot district during the first 6 months and more than 200 cases were
filed in other districts for the release of bonded labourers in farming and brick
kiln sectors.
In February, 13 peasants were recovered from the private jail of a landlord
in Hafizabad, Punjab, on the directive of the Lahore High Court. The peasants
had been in bondage for the last 10 years. In July, 100 workers, women and
children included, were freed from a brick kiln in the suburban area of Hafizabad
and three landlords were arrested who had kept the workers in subhuman
conditions and extracted their labour on the brick kilns and the farms of the
Women cotton pickers unload cotton blooms plucked from plants to

make a bundle in a field¦ö Many cases of non-payment of dues, harassment
and eviction of share croppers and daily wage workers were reorted in 2014.
Labour 253
accused. The workers
Bonded Labourers released from
informed the officials that the
various illegal private confinements
of Sindh in 2014 owners had killed six people
for trying to escape.
District Released
In June, 72 bonded
Hyderabad 19
labourers of 8 families
Mirpurkhas 786
released on the directive of the
Badin 445
Sindh High Court, Hyderabad
Umerkot 1871 Bench, by a landlord in
Sanghar 494 Umarkot, staged a sit-in in
Tando Muhammad Khan 57 front of the Hyderabad Press
Khairpur 9 Club demanding recovery of
Tando Allahyar 212 their cattle and belongings
snatched by the landlord. The
Tharparkar/Mithi 21
labourers were employed as
Jamshoro 0
daily wage workers by the
Mityari 30 landlord for the previous six
Thatta 28 years but were harassed,
Total 3,972 tortured and denied fair
wages. The civil society
activists helped the workers
to access their livestock through legal procedure.
Child labour
Though according to the ILO Global Report on Child Labour 2013, child
labour is on the decline globally, the number of children engaged in labour is
increasing in Pakistan despite the slight decrease in the labour force participation
of the age cohort 10-14 years. The absolute number of children aged 10-14
years engaged in productive activities, according to the PLFS in 2012-2013
was 6.81 million, with a participation rate of 11.4 per cent whereas in 2011-
2012 the labour force participation rate in the age group 10-14 was 11.8 per
cent and their absolute number was 6.75 million. The increase in child labour
is due to overall population increase and lack of access to schooling for a
larger number of children. About 5.5 million children were reported to be out
of school in Pakistan in a recent UNESCO study.
In the Child Labour Index 2014, guided by relevant ILO conventions on
child labour, Pakistan ranked 9 at the bottom among 196 countries. The index
is developed by a Uk-based company, Maplecroft Global Risk Analytics, which
undertakes financial risk analyses for multinational companies. Pakistan was
evaluated as an ‘extreme risk’ country where abuse of child workers is most
widespread.
According to a 2014 statistics published by the UNESCO, 13 per cent
Child labour is on the decline globally but it is increasing in Pakistan.
children of age 10-14 were engaged in labour in Pakistan. Of them, 76 per

cent were toiling in agriculture (farming and fishing), 14.6 per cent were
involved in services sector (food catering, automobile repair and transport,
domestic services, construction,) and 9.3 per cent were working in the industrial
sector (brick kilns, surgical instruments, football stitching, carpet weaving,
coal mining).
The last national survey on child labour was done in 1996. Since then,
there has been no effort to determine the magnitude and the extent of child
labour in the country. In 2013, rapid assessment surveys on the worst forms
of child labour were conducted in the selected districts of the four provinces
under the ILO and the Provincial Child Labour Units. In Sindh, the survey in
six districts—Thatta, Badin, Tando Allahyar, Sanghar, Kamber-Shahdadkot,
Dadu—revealed that child labour is most prevalent in the households where
adult members earn below minimum wages and where government schools
do not exist or education is unaffordable. Child labour was the highest in
agriculture. A new sector that has emerged afflicted with child labour in recent
years in rural Sindh is transport (QingQi rickshaw driving). Wood work and
rag picking were two other hazardous sectors in these districts where a high
prevalence of child labour was found.
After the devolution of labour, only Punjab province replaced the federal
law with the Employment of Children (Amendment) Act 2011 and drafted the
Prohibition of Employment of Children Bill 2012. Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber
Pakhtunwa provinces had not finalized the draft laws by the yearend.
As children have no agency or representation, no voices, demands or
protests are ever heard from the children themselves of their exploitation as
labour. Human rights groups and civil society organizations working on children
Labour 255
keep the issue alive. During the year there were sporadic news of extreme
forms of child labour abuse — torturing to death, sexual exploitation — in
agriculture and domestic services.
Recommendations
1. Formulation and implementation of a legal framework for labour
laws at the federal level for harmony of laws in the provinces; speedy
adaptation/reframing of labour laws by the provinces; coverage of agricultural
workers in all labour laws;
2. Establishment of a unified body/authority for occupational safety
and health; strengthening the labour inspection system at provincial level;
3. Effective implementation of national minimum wages, maximum
working hours, minimum rest and paid leave; old-age benefits in relation to
minimum wage; ; single labour welfare authority for national oversight and
decentralised implementation;
4. Social Security to cover injury, sickness, loss of job, in relation to
minimum wage;
5. Registration of workers with local government, independently of
enterprises and current employment.

Education
The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of
the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law.
Article 25(A)
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least
in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be
compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally
available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis
of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human
personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship
among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of
the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
Article 26
States Parties agree that Education of the Child shall be directed to:
(a) The development of the child’s personality, talents and mental and physical
abilities to their fullest potential;
(b) The development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms,
and for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations;
(c) The development of respect for the child’s parents, his or her own cultural
identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which
the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for
civilizations different from his or her own;
(d) The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the
Education 259
spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship
among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of
indigenous origin;
(e) The development of respect for the natural environment.
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Article 29
♦ The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of
everyone to education. They agree that education shall be directed to the full
development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity, and shall
strengthen the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. They
further agree that education shall enable all persons to participate effectively
in a free society, promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all
nations and all racial, ethnic or religious groups, and further the activities of
the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
♦ The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize that, with a
view to achieving the full realization of this right:
o Primary education shall be compulsory and available free
to all;
o Secondary education in its different forms, including technical
and vocational secondary education, shall be made generally available
and accessible to all by every appropriate means, and in particular by the
progressive introduction of free education;
o Higher education shall be made equally accessible to all,
on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the
progressive introduction of free education;
Article 13
Education: a fundamental human right
Education is a prerequisite for the exercise of all other human rights. The
UN committee that oversees the implementation of the International Covenant
on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which Pakistan ratified in
2008, calls education both a human right in itself and an indispensable means
of realizing other human rights. Education plays a vital role in empowering
those groups and individuals who are vulnerable and susceptible to exploitation,
and is strongly linked with the quality and dignity of life.
After the 18th constitutional amendment, the constitution now recognizes
free primary education as a fundamental right. Both federal and provincial
laws have been promulgated to implement the right. Yet more than nine million
children do not receive primary or secondary education, and literacy rates
have remained stagnant. Entering 2015, Pakistan seemed failing to meet its
Millennium Development Goal of providing universal primary education by
the yearend. The net primary school enrolment rate in 2012-2013 showed a
mere 1% increase from 2010-2011. There were significant gender disparities
and differences between rural and urban areas. The combined federal/provincial
budgetary allocation to education was the lowest in South Asia, at 2% of the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Equally distressing was the quality of education provided in both public
and private primary schools in the country. According to the ICESCR, education
must be directed to the “full development of the human personality and the
sense of its dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms.” Education must enable all persons to “participate
effectively in a free society, promote understanding, tolerance and friendship
among all nations and all racial, ethnic or religious groups.”
The question is whether what is being taught is enabling them to become
more tolerant and progressive, or whether it is perpetuating the same prejudices,
bigotry, and biases that have been slowly causing decay of the social fabric of
the country.
2014 was a unique year for education in Pakistan. Violent attacks on
educational institutions were widespread, especially in Balochistan and the
north-west areas. The year ended with one of the most indiscriminate and
brutal attacks on an educational institution in recent history, when the Tehreek-
i-Taliban Pakistan killed 150 people, a vast majority of them children, in an
army public school in Peshawar. On the other hand, Malala Yousafzai was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (along with Kailash Satyarthi of India) for her
“struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the
right of all children to education”. The award symbolized the hope that no
child in Pakistan, regardless of gender, would be deprived of education. While
the year started with Malala being ostracized and rejected by various segments
in the country for furthering a “western agenda” and maligning the image of
Pakistan internationally, it ended with a more universal consensus that violence
was a major impediment to education in Pakistan.
International rankings and literacy rates

Similar to previous years, Pakistan scored poorly in all major global human
development rankings, performing even worse than neighboring countries with
smaller GDPs. One key reason for Pakistan’s abysmal performance remained
poor indicators in education.
A UNESCO report released in February 2014 revealed that Pakistan had
the second highest number of out-of-school children in the world, a staggering
5.5 million, only after Nigeria. Pakistan also has the highest number of illiterate
adults in the world, after India and China. The report also states that Pakistan
is among the 21 countries facing an “extensive” learning crisis, which
encapsulates a number of indices, such as enrolment, dropout rates, academic
Education 261
performance and literacy.
According to the 2014 Human Development Report “Sustaining Human
Progress: reducing vulnerabilities and building resilience”, published by the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Pakistan remained in the
group of countries with low human development, showing little sign of
improvement.
Pakistan ranked at 146 out of a total 187 countries on the index, scored
0.537 points on HDI, an improvement of a mere 0.002 points from last year’s
score of 0.535. One striking reason for this low score was Pakistan’s
performance in education. Pakistan’s mean duration for schooling was a dismal
4.4 years, and expected years of schooling only 7.7 years. This is in stark
comparison to Pakistan’s neighboring countries, where the number is much
higher. For example, expected years of schooling in India according to the
report are 11.7 years; Nepal, 12.4 years; and Bhutan, 12.4 years.
Reiterating the same pattern, Pakistan was ranked at 129 out of the 144
economies around the world in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global
Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2014-2015, released in September 2014. Low
enrollment in primary, secondary and tertiary education was said to be one of
the main reasons for a decline in Pakistan’s competitiveness ranking. According
to the report, at 129, Pakistan ranks the lowest among the SAARC member
countries: India ranks at 71, Sri Lanka at 73, Nepal at 102, Bhutan at 103 and
Bangladesh at 109.
Government policies, priorities, and practice

After the 18th amendment to the constitution, education is a provincial
subject, and free education for all children between five and 16 now is a
constitutional duty. Like the federal government, provincial governments too
have declared education a priority and have frequently vouched to improve the
abysmal indicators for education across all provinces. But these promises
have not translated into policy yet.
Federal government
The educational budget for the fiscal year 2014-15 has been put at Rs 63
billion, a little over 2% of the federal budget. 73% of the budget has been
allocated for Higher Education Commission (HEC), 9.38% for the Capital
Administration and Development Division (CADD), 5.1% for the Ministry of
Education and Training, while 4.62 % has been apportioned for educational
institutions working in cantonment areas.
Disappointingly, in real terms, the federal education budget shows a decrease
of over Rs. 1 billion; after accounting for inflation, the education budget has
been reduced by 11%, compared to the 2013-2014 federal budget. In 2013-
2014, the federal government devised a “National Plan of Action for MDGS
(Millennium Development Goals) Acceleration Framework” (MAF), which
commits the federal government to gradually increasing budgetary allocations
for education from 2% of GDP to 4% by 2018 (which is still far below the 7%
of GDP by 2015 target recommended in the National Education Policy, 2009).
Going by the current trends, it seems unlikely that the government’s own
modest goals regarding increase in spending on education will be met in the
coming years.
Punjab
In 2014-2015, the Punjab government allocated Rs 273 billion for education,
which amounts to 26.1% of Punjab’s total budget of Rs 1.044 trillion. This is
the second highest provincial allocation to education after Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Out of the Rs 273 billion, Punjab earmarked around Rs 48 billion for
development, which includes Rs 28.1 billion for school education, Rs 14 billion
for higher education, Rs 2.4 billion for literacy and Rs 2.9 billion for sports
and youth affairs. But the lion’s share of the budget, Rs 224.69 billion, was
earmarked for current expenditure, which includes recurring costs such as
salaries.
Sindh
Sindh earmarked Rs 145 billion for education in 2014-2105, which is
21% of the total budget of Rs 686 billion. In 2013-14, the allocation was
marginally lower at Rs 134 billion.
However, the development budget for education in Sindh was reduced to
Education 263
Rs 10 billion, a dismal 7% of the education budget, compared to the previous
year’s Rs 16 billion.
The remaining budget includes Rs 15 billion for different elementary,
primary and secondary education schemes and Rs 5 billion for universities
and higher education.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtukhwa earmarked Rs 111 billion for education, which is
27.4% of its total Rs 404.8 billion budget, the highest of all provinces.
According to the KP government, Rs 14 billion of the budget was allocated
for development, the same as in 2013-2014, while the other Rs 97 billion were
earmarked for current expenditure.
The programmes highlighted in the new budget in KP include Rs 240
million for promoting girls education in Kohistan and Torghar; Rs 2 billion for
additional rooms, toilets, building renovations, water and power connections
with community collaboration; Rs 500 million for the CM Endowment Fund
for deserving university students; Rs 2.5 billion for free academic books till
intermediate level; and Rs 1.75 billion to raise the status of 100 madrasas to
primary schools.
Balochistan
The Balochistan government raised its education budget by Rs 3 billion
from 2013-2014, allocating Rs 28 billion for 2014-2015, which is 13% of
Balochistan’s total outlay of Rs 215 billion.
Rs 11 billion, 39% of the education budget, were earmarked for
development, which includes establishment of two universities and 14 new
colleges, and upgrading of 200 primary schools to middle schools.
Primary and secondary education

Despite efforts to enforce the prohibition of corporal punishment in schools
across the country, the practice continues unabated. In March 2014, the
Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights announced the launch of a national
campaign against corporal punishment, in collaboration with the South Asia
Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC) and the South Asia
Coordinating Group on Action against Violence against Children (SACG), and
reaffirmed its commitment to the complete prohibition of the practice. A
Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Bill 2014, which would prohibit the practice
in all settings except the family home, was laid before the National Assembly
in March 2014.
Enrollment rates and the conditions in schools in the country continued to
be dismal. The Pakistan Education Atlas, 2013, produced jointly by the Academy
of Educational Planning and Management (Ministry of Education) and the
Survival rates.
World Food Programme, released in March 2014, revealed that 32% children
aged 5 to 9 were deprived of schools. The atlas also documented that 17% of
the country’s primary schools were based in single rooms, and even three
teachers per school on an average were not available. The report stated that
8% of schools did not even have buildings; 35% students went to school
located in buildings without four-wall boundaries; 37% schools did not have
toilet and sanitary facilities; 45% schools did not have electricity; and students
in only 64% of primary schools in the country had access to drinking water.
A report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), entitled “Education Reform
in Pakistan”, released in June 2014, expressed concern at teacher absenteeism
in public schools and corrupt practices, including bribing education department
employees to obtain jobs and then sharing salaries with them. The report
highlighted that political links were also often a factor in appointments, postings
and transfers, which resulted in poor quality control of teaching.
The state of primary and secodary schooling varied significantly across
provinces. Punjab fared much better than the other provinces, with more than
80% children enrolled in schools, and according to a UNESCO report, children
in Punjab exhibited better mathematical skills in comparsion to children in
Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Of most concern remained the
situation of schooling in Balochistan and KP.
Balochistan
Child education in Balochistan, like other human development indicators,
lags far behind other provinces.
According to Alif Ailaan, the dropout rate at primary schools is very
alarming in Balochistan. Around 865,337 children enroll at primary schools
Education 265
A teacher and his students study under date palms in Jan Mohammad Brohi Goth
where the only school building cannot be used as its structure is considered dangerous.
and the rate falls to 191,300 when they reach middle school. However, 57%
of children leave school without completing their primary education.
Public schools in Balochistan are in an appalling condition. Out of a total
12,347 state-run schools in Balochistan, only 6% are high schools. At least
76% of school-going children are enrolled at state-run schools, while 19% are
studying at private schools and 5% are enrolled at religious seminaries.
Out of these, 216 schools are not functional and the quality of education
generally is much poorer than in other provinces. Not a single district of
Balochistan has topped any ranking in Pakistan when it comes to education.
More than 14% of teachers do not teach at all but still draw salaries, while
37% schools are housed in single rooms. Of more than 10,000 schools in
Balochistan, only 1,662 schools–less than 17%- are provided with electricity,
while only 2,000 schools in the province have toilets.
Balochistan Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik said the government did not
have enough resources to overcome the challenges in the education sector. He
said his government needed Rs63 billion to increase enrolment in schools.
According PkMAP Senator Abdul Rauf the federal government should accept
responsibility for the 65 years of neglect because of which education was in a
dismal state in the province, instead of placing sole responsibility on the
provincial government after the 18th amendment.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
More than 2.5 million children are still out of school across the province
of KP.
The KP District Education Management Information System (EMIS) 2013-
14 report states that the total population of boys between the ages of 5 and 16
is close to 3.7 million. However, around 736,000 of them are out of schools in
the 25 districts of the province. The situation is far worse for the over 3.4
million girls of the province as around half of them, more than 1.7 million, are
not receiving an education.
Low student enrollment is not the only problem facing education in the
province. Of the over 78,000 sanctioned posts for teachers at the primary
level, more than 6,800 positions, almost 10%, are vacant. On the intermediate
level, 7,409 of the 21,494 sanctioned posts for teachers, almost 33%, are
unoccupied. For secondary education, 6,315 of the 30,844 posts sanctioned
by the government are vacant.
According to the Alif Ailaan’s Pakistan District Education Ranking 2014
report, 14% of the total teachers are absent from school on any given day in
the province.
Higher education
Higher education in 2014 saw two significant highlights: the Higher
Education Commission’s (HEC) attempts at stifling debate and discourse in
the country’s universities by prohibiting any activities that challenged the
“ideology and principles of Pakistan, and/or perspective of the government of
Pakistan”; and Pakistan Medical and Dental Council’s (PMDC) attempt to
abolish its merit-based admission policy for medical colleges in favour of 50%
reserved seats for boys and girls.
At a model United Nations event at the International Islamic University
Islamabad, the presentation of a mock Israeli cultural stall resulted in a violent
protest from the Islami Jamiat-i-Talaba, Jamaat-i-Islami’s student wing,
disrupting the event and causing participants to flee the campus.
The stall was set up as part of cultural activities designed to represent the
States participating in the conference, modeled around sessions of the United
Nations. It was a display of the students’ exercising their right to “promote
understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious
groups”, as provided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
However, it resulted in a Higher Education Commission issuing a
notification, warning all universities and colleges against “...any activity that in
any manner challenge[s] the ideology and principles of Pakistan, and/or
perspective of the government of Pakistan.”
Implementation of the notification, which would include prohibiting
students from questioning the government’s policies, would have a disastrous
impact on the exercise of the right to education in Pakistan.
Educationists, activists and prominent academics raised their voice against
the HEC’s notification, arguing that it amounted to an unlawful interference
Education 267
with freedom of expression on the campus.
On October 30, two days after the HEC’s notification, the Prime Minister’s
Office called on the HEC to amend school, college and university curriculum
to “promote the appreciation of the vital necessity of constitutional democracy...
deepen the understanding of the constitutional democratic process and
pluralism”, aims that cannot be met if students blindly follow the “perspective
of the government of Pakistan”, as desired by HEC.
In September, Pakistan Medical Dental Council (PMDC) announced the
abolition of merit-based admissions in favor of implementing a 50-50 quota
for girls and boys seeking admission to the country’s medical and dental colleges.
The PMDC’s President, Dr Masood Hameed argued that out of the 14,000
medical students graduating in Pakistan every year, 70% were women, but
only 50%went on to practise medicine. Given that the government spent Rs2.4
million on each medical student admitted on a general merit seat, half the girls
admitted on merit seats not practising was a huge loss to the country’s
investment.
The PMDC’s claim that women are less likely to practise medicine than
men after graduating is supported by record. However, instead of attempting
to change the larger issues of patriarchy and sexism that plague the personal
and professional lives of women and are a cause of a significant proportion of
women with medical degrees not practising medicine, depriving young girls
of getting a medical education appears to be a dangerous option.
The Lahore High Court held the quota unconstitutional and quashed the
quota policy for its discriminatory treatment of men and women. However,
the PMDC’s express intention to challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court
shows that equal educational opportunities for women in Pakistan remain a
distant dream.
The unequal opportunities for girls and women in the country were
illustrated in the World Economic Forum 2014 gender parity report, in which
Pakistan ranked 103 out of 142 countries in tertiary education for women.
Pakistan’s performance in higher and tertiary education enrollment also
saw a decline in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report,
in which Pakistan went down to 129th place out of 144, as opposed to 121st
place out of 148 countries in 2013.
The Higher Education Commission remained engulfed in various other
controversies. Following the Islamabad High Court’s order to the government
to appoint a regular HEC chairperson, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appointed
Dr Mukhtar Ahmed to the post. The appointment, however, was been challenged
in the Islamabad High Court. The petitioner claimed that since the appointment
was made without conducting interviews, it negated the competitive process
of selection, suitability and fitness.
Another issue plaguing higher education was that of sexual harassment.
Multiple cases of sexual harassment of female students were reported, even in
illustrious private universities. However, reporting harassment and ensuring
accountability for perpetrators was not an easy task.
In June 2014, a female student complained that a teacher of Quaid-i-
Azam University had sexually harassed her. The accused teacher was the head
of the department and the student expressed concern that no staff member or
student would dare to testify against him as long as he remained in the position
of power. The university, however, held an internal inquiry whilst the accused
maintained his position, and found that the allegations were unsubstantiated.
The university proceeded on the complaint under its own Efficiency and
Discipline (E&D) Rules, 1973, as opposed to the recently passed Protection
against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010. The university
holds the position that the Act does not apply to student-teacher relationships,
a clear misreading of the law. The promotors of the enactment maintain that it
does apply to students and teachers both.
Some parliamentarians, in particular Senator Farhatullah Babar, have
attempted to amend the law to explicitly bring colleges and universities under
its purview. However, the amendment has still not been adopted.
Private schools
According to a World Bank policy paper entitled “Private School
Participation in Pakistan”, released in May, about one-fifth of children go to
private school in Pakistan, which translates into roughly one-third of all students
given the sizeable share of the country’s children that are out of school. The
policy paper also found, as expected, that private school students tended to
come from urban,
wealthier, and more
educated households
than government
school students.
Further, private
schooling is highly
concentrated in
Pakistan, with over 50
percent of private
school students
situated in ten out of
the country’s 113
Private schools continued to charge high fees.
districts. These 10
Education 269
districts, most of them situated in the northern Punjab, tend to be more urban
and wealthier.
Aware of their monopoly over education for the affording classes, and
largely free from government regulation, private schools continued to increase
fees at whim all over the country. That private schools were more about
profit-making as opposed to realizing the right of education for Pakistan’s
children was illustrated by the concerted efforts of private schools to resist a
provision of the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Ordinance 2014,
which made it binding on private schools to admit 10% students from Grade
1 to Grade 10 from disadvantaged or poor families and offer them free education.
Representatives of private schools in a meeting of Punjab Assembly’s
Standing Committee on Education opposed this provision arguing it might lead
to “psychological problems” among students admitted through this policy.
Similarly, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government lost a legal battle over fee
concession to students studying in private institutions after the Supreme Court
overturned a February 1, 2011 judgment of the Peshawar High Court over the
lawfulness of Article 106(ii) of the Education Code of NWFP, 1935, which
says when two or more siblings attend the same school or different schools in
the province, only the brother or sister in the highest class of a school will pay
full fee whereas the other brother or sister will pay one half.
The Peshawar High Court in its 2011 judgment had expressed concern
that education had become an industry and an enterprise. The court said that
if humanistic and philanthropic considerations were divorced from the operation
of private schools, the whole purpose of education would be defeated.
Private schools, however, challenged the judgment in the Supreme Court,
which upheld their appeal on the ground the code had no legal force, and its
operation would be manifestly unfair to private schools forced to cut school
fees by half for some students.
The widely held perception that private schools were more progressive
and tolerant than government schools also witnessed a reality check when All
Pakistan Private Schools Federation, which claims to represent 150,000 schools
in the country, organized “I am not Malala Day”, condemning the Nobel Peace
Prize winner for allegedly promoting an ideology that was against her country
and religion.
They argued that Malala’s description of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses
in her memoir “I am Malala” supported Rushdie, making it offensive and
against the ideology of Pakistan.
In the passage in question, Malala quotes her father as saying the book
was “offensive to Islam”, but that Muslims should be able to read the book
and come up with their own response.
Private schools, similar to their public counterparts, were guilty of corrupt
Students light earthen lamps for the victims of the attack by Taliban gunmen
on an army-run school in Peshawar.
practices, albeit of a different kind. According to officials in the Rawalpindi

excise and taxation office, for example, over 700 private schools across the
district had not paid their taxes for the last 10 years despite receiving several
notices from the authorities. A Land Revenue official reported that out of
1,000 private educational institutions in the district, only 300 schools paid
their taxes.
The prevalence of corporal punishment was also reported in private schools.
In Faisalabad, a teacher beat a six-year old for “disrupting the class”, breaking
his arm. Various other incidents of violence were reported from across Punjab.
In other parts of Pakistan, particularly in Balochistan, private schools
became a major victim of extremism when in May 2014, an Islamist extremist
group sent pamphlets to private schools in Turbat and Panjgur asking them to
stop co-education and teaching in English language. The threats and pursuant
violence caused private schools in the two districts to shut down for many
months. The school closure, coupled with a fear of violence, was a great
blow to an already dismal state of education in the province.
Madrasa education
The attack on an army public school in Peshawar, killing over a 150
people, once again brought madrasa reform and scrutiny into the limelight.
Prime Minister Sharif’s 20-point counter-terrorism agenda after the attack
included prompt regularization of madrasas. Commentators and legislators all
demanded that the government ban foreign funding to the madrasas involved
in any type of militant training.
According to Jinnah Institute, more than 25,000 seminaries are registered
Education 271
across Pakistan, accounting for about 200,000 full-time students. The number
is as high as 1.5 million students if those enrolled part-time are included.
The federal government’s National Internal Security Policy (NISP),
published in February 2014,identified madrasas as being potential security
threats because of their ability to “spread extremism”. The policy document
refers to “troublesome aspects of these madrasas, which impinge on national
internal security, include financing from unidentified sources; publication and
distribution of hate material”. The policy specifies that “not all madrasas are a
problem”, but suggests that some have “taken a dangerous turn in cultivating
non-tolerant and violent religious attitudes”, spreading “radicalization literature”
and preaching “complete rejection of other beliefs”, while engaging in “sectarian
indoctrination”. The report also says that “a large number of terrorists either
are, or have been students of madrasas where they were brainwashed to take
up arms against the state”. Finally, it calls for an overhaul of the madrasa
education system, integrating it with the national educational system by
“supporting their administration, financial audit and curriculum accreditation”.
The National Assembly too supported the government’s plans to reform
madrasas by adopting a resolution aimed at improving and regulating studies
at religious seminaries. The resolution, moved by PPP lawmaker Nafisa Shah,
called on the government to “take steps to improve and regulate madrassa
education”.
The government’s move to reform the country’s madrasa system was
vehemently opposed by religious parties in the country. Jamaat-e-Islami called
the National Internal Security Policy a ploy of the “secular lobby”; Jamiat-e-
Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, the PML-N’s coalition partner, warned the government
against interfering in administrative, financial and curriculum-related matters
of seminaries; and Secretary General of Wafaq-ul-Madaris Al-Arabia, Maulana
Hanif Jalandhari, announced organizing rallies across the country to protect
what he called the independence of the madrasas.
The Jamia Hafsa Madrasa in Islamabad renamed its library after Osama
Bin Laden as a tribute to the man they considered a “hero of Islam” and a
“martyr”. The chief cleric of the madrasa is Maulana Abdul Aziz, who was
acquitted of all charges related to the 2007 siege of Lal Masjid in September
2013.
Conditions at many madrasas remained bleak and corporal punishment
was a common practice. There were reports from Daska, Kahna, Vehari,
Gujranwala, Faisalabad, and Lahore, amongst others, in Punjab about teachers
assaulting and at times causing severe injuries to their students. In March, the
police took a 15-year-old boy in protective custody after he escaped from a
madrasa in Lahore’s Amar Sadhu village. The boy reported that he was kept in
chains for six days at the madrasa. In July, 115 people, including children,
were recovered from a madrasa in Haripur, tied in chains.
There were also reports, mostly from FATA, that militants forced families
to send their children to madrasas. Some demanded large sums of money
from parents who refused, while others declared western system of education
a sin.
The police claimed to have arrested 48 foreign students from registered
and unregistered seminaries during a search operation in various cities and
towns of Punjab. The operation was planned after “suspicious activities” were
noted at a few seminaries, after which the police raided more than 10 madrasas
iin Lahore, Faisalabad, Chakwal and Dera Ghazi Khan.
Curriculum reform
The right to education includes promoting understanding, tolerance and
friendship among all nations and all racial, ethnic or religious groups. In Pakistan,
however, 2014 once again saw not just millions of children out of school, but
also that the so-called “educated class” became more intolerant and bigoted.
Educationists argue that anideologically-driven education is a main reason
behind the attitude.
In General Zia-ul-Haq’s regime, orthodoxy was actively infused in the
national curriculum. Historical facts were distorted and the teaching of social
sciences was aimed at fostering religious intolerance and xenophobia. Violent
jihad and religious martyrdom were idolized, resistance to Indian rule in Kashmir
was portrayed as a religious duty, and children were taught that all Hindus
were enemies of Pakistan and Muslims.
Since the 1990s, successive governments have backtracked on their
promises to carry out a comprehensive review of the curriculum for reform.
This changed somewhat towards the end of General Musharraf’s rule, when
two national committees made some efforts towards reform, first through the
National Curriculum, 2006, and then the National Education Policy, 2009.
History was expanded to include the pre-Islamic past and the struggles of
both major Indian parties, the All India Muslim League and Indian National
Congress, against colonial rule and towards independence. Yet, despite these
improvements, the revised national curriculum still prescribes teaching of
Islamic ideology and rituals in subjects that are mandatory regardless of a
student’s religion; the Pakistani nation is still defined almost exclusively in
terms of Muslim identity; and textbooks of history are replete with inaccuracies
and bias.
Some efforts at reform have been undermined by political developments,
such as the JI’s alliance with PTI in the KP government following the 2013
elections. The JI has objected to revising the provincial primary and secondary
school syllabus for Islamic studies, a process initiated by the ANP government
Education 273
after the 18th amendment was passed. In particular, the syllabus for Islamic
studies for Grades 9 and 10 highlighted the importance of jihad. Educationists
suggested that verses on jihad be taught to intermediate students because the
students in Grade 9 and 10 were too young to understand their real meaning.
Because of JI’s resistance to this change, it remains to be seen whether the
curriculum reform will be implemented in the province.
In addition, to appease its coalition partner, the PTI government in KP also
agreed to remove allegedly “objectionable material” from the textbooks of
primary schools. The “objectionable materials” included printing of pictures
of minor girls without a dupatta, Christmas cakes, Cross emblem on an
ambulance instead of Crescent, and the use of good morning instead of Assalamu
Alaikum in some instances. According to educationists, implementation of
these changes would be a big blow to the movement in KP to promote peace,
coexistence and tolerance.
In Punjab, the provincial government passed The Punjab Curriculum and
Textbook Ordinance, 2014, in September to settle the issue of the overlap
between the mandates of the Punjab Textbook Board and the Punjab Curriculum
Authority. The Ordinance merged their functions, and constituted a new Punjab
Curriculum and Textbook Board.
Recognizing the importance of curriculum reform to promote tolerance
and respect for religious minorities, hundreds of students from Azad Jammu
and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and
other parts of the country passed a unanimous resolution in Lahore on September
10, urging the federal and provincial governments to recognize the contribution
made by minorities and celebrate them as national heroes. The Bargad, a non-
government organisation for youth development, in collaboration with the Punjab
government, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Umeed Jawan and
other NGOs arranged the event.
In another development, the Lahore High Court on August 29 issued notices
to the federal and Punjab governments to include the 1973 constitution in
Urdu in the syllabus for students. The petitioner argued, and the court agreed,
that all citizens of Pakistan must be introduced to fundamental rights, principles
of policy and democracy at a young age.
In January 2014, the Pakistan People’s Party co-chairperson Bilawal
Bhutto-Zardari criticized the teaching of distorted history, Pakistan Studies
and Islamic Studies in the country, and committed the government in Sindh
province his party ruled, to introducing more secular and balanced textbooks
in the curriculum. Following on from there, in July the spokesperson of the
Senior Minister for Education and Literacy stated that the Advisory Committee
on Curriculum and Textbooks Reforms would review the curriculum to identify
gaps and scope for improvement. He said the committee would exclude any
Parents, students and residents of Panjgur protest against threats to schools.
material from the curriculum that promoted discrimination on the basis of

gender, ethnicity or religion.
At the federal level, a major controversy erupted when on October 30,
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif directed the Higher Education Commission to
revise the curriculum of Pakistan Studies, English and Urdu of all primary,
middle and secondary schools as well as all colleges and universities, after
consultation with and approval of the provincial governments.
The revisions must include chapters aimed at promoting appreciation of
the vital necessity of constitutional democracy for Pakistan’s progress and
identity; deepening the understanding of the merits of the constitutional
democratic process and pluralism in national and international context;
strengthening the knowledge base of students to counter the common
misunderstandings surrounding constitutional democracy; and enhancing
critical appreciation of modes of accountability within the constitutional process
like judicial oversight, media assessment, freedom of speech, right to
information and elections.
To achieve the objectives, the PM directed the Higher Education
Commission to coordinate with academics, universities and textbook publishers
to develop within two months grade-appropriate material, including fables,
stories, essays, speeches, teaching guides, teacher training material, extra-
curricular activities, examinations and other relevant interventions, for all classes
from the primary school to the university level, for public and private institutions,
from the next academic year.
While analysts, educationists and political parties commended the emphasis
on curriculum reform to promote diversity, tolerance and the rule of law, they
expressed reservations as to how the PM could direct the HEC, a federal
Education 275
institution, with designing the curriculum for primary and secondary schools,
which after the 18th amendment was a provincial subject.
The notification came at a time when provincial governments were holding
negotiations with the Centre over the constitution of a National Curriculum
Council to bring uniformity in the education system after the 18th amendment.
While the federal government preferred a council with more powers, the KP
and Sindh governments pushed for an advisory council, which could only
make non-binding recommendations to the provinces.
At a meeting of the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference
(IPEMC) in October, all provinces, except for Sindh, approved the formation
of the National Curriculum Council, with at least one and a maximum of three
members from the federal territory, each province, Gilgit-Baltistan, AJK and
Federally Administered Tribal Areas. However, the terms of references and
working procedure of the Council were to be decided in an IPEMC meeting
scheduled for January 2015.
Violence, unsafe conditions and the pursuit of education

A major challenge to education in Pakistan remains the prevalent insecurity,
violence and attacks by various armed groups in different parts of the country.
A survey of conflicts in 70 countries between 2009 and 2013, published by
the US-based Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack revealed that
violent assaults on educational establishments were far more widespread than
previously reported, and a total of 9,600 schools were damaged or destroyed
by attacks in a period of four years. According to the survey, Pakistan was the
worst-affected country, where more than 800 schools were deliberately attacked
between 2009 and 2012 alone, and many were destroyed through explosions.
The year started off on a violent note for education in the country. On
January 6, 2014, when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a government
school in the Shia-dominated Ibrahimzai area of Hangu district after a 14-
year-old boy, Aitzaz Hasan, spotted him attempting to enter the school and
tried to stop him. Killed on the spot, Aitzaz is remember as the “hero of Hangu”,
and has been awarded many awards, including the Sitara-e-Shujaat,
posthumously. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant organization, claimed responsibility
for this attack.
On January 15, at least 23 students on their way home from a quiz
competition were killed in a school van crash. The incident highlighted the
unsafe conditions of travel for students. Three teachers and the van driver
also were killed when the van and a truck collided near Nawabshah, about 170
miles northeast of Karachi. The youths attended the Bright Future Public School
in the town of Daulatpur.
The year ended with one of the most indiscriminate and brutal attacks on
an educational institution in recent history, not just in Pakistan but world-over.
On December 16, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan attacked an army public
school in Peshawar, killing 150 people, including at least 136 children. The
TTP said the attack was in response to the military operation, Zarb-e-Azb, in
North Waziristan.
Many other attacks on schools and teachers were reported in north-western
Pakistan throughout the year. In February, unidentified motorcyclists shot
dead three schoolteachers who were on their way home following school
duty, again in the Hangu district. In August, a blast in Bajaur Agency killed six
people, including three female teachers and two school children. And in October,
unidentified attackers killed a public school teacher and injured two children in
a grenade attack at Askari Public School in the Shabqadar area of Peshawar.
The school had previously received letters threatening attacks if students were
not directed to wear shalwar kameez instead of “western” attire.
Violent attacks on educational institutions were also one of the biggest
obstacles in the pursuit of education in Balochistan.
In May 2014, masked men entered an English learning centre in Panjgur
and threatened the teachers and students to stop teaching English as it was
forbidden under Sharia law. A militant organization Tanzeem-ul-Islami-ul-Furqan
claimed responsibility for the threats. Due to similar acts of threats and
intimidation, all private educational institutions and English learning centres
were closed in Panjgur for more than three months. When the institutions
finally reopened in August, teachers reported that attendance was less than
40%.
To make matters worse, in September 2014, armed men set fire to a
private school in the Dasht area of Turbat, a western district of Balochistan. A
group calling itself “al-Jihad” claimed responsibility for the attack. The group
also distributed pamphlets with warnings that private schools should “stop
imparting western education, particularly in English” to children in the school,
and claimed the attack was part of a ‘holy war’ against western-style education.
Many students were forced to migrate from Panjgur and Turbat to Quetta
or Karachi after the escalation in attacks on schools and colleges in the two
districts.
Sporadic incidents of violence were also reported in Karachi. In April
2014, unidentified militants killed three students of a madrasa in Gulshan-e-
Iqbal Town in Karachi. A few days later, at least three madrasa students were
shot dead in the North Nazimabad town of Karachi.
Another facet of violence was the presence and operation of militant student
groups in universities. There were many reports of students, mostly affiliated
with the IJT, harassing and threatening teachers and other students. In February
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Pakistan ranks eleventh-worst in terms of equal access to education.
2014, for example, members of Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) and Pakhtun Students
Federation (PSF) exchanged firing at Peshawar University over Valentine’s
Day.
According to reports, IJT activists stopped students from celebrating
Valentine’s Day and insisted that they observed “Haya Day” instead, after
which IJT and PSF activists opened fire on each other, injuring at least five
students.
Again in September 2014, many students were injured when IJT clashed
with the administration of Punjab University in Lahore. The administration
tried to remove IJT’s stands in front of one of the university’s auditoriums,
leading to a fight. A few days later, PU Hall Council Chairman Professor Dr
Muhammad Akhtar’s house was attacked, allegedly by the IJT in reaction to
the administration’s refusal to allow IJT to set up admission stalls.
Gender discrimination
“I’m thankful to my father for not clipping my wings — for letting me to
fly and achieve my goals, for showing to the world that a girl is not supposed
to be a slave. A girl has the power to go forward in her life. And she’s not only
a mother, she’s not only a sister, she’s not only a wife. But a girl should have
an identity. She should be recognized and she has equal rights with a boy.”
These were the words of Malala Yousafzai as she accepted the Nobel
Peace Prize at the age of only 17. Her speech highlights the impediments that
exist between girls and education in the country, and shows that the fight for
equal educational opportunities for girls in the country will be slow and long.
Global reports and indexes confirm that while education for boys and
girls remains in disarray in Pakistan, girls suffer more from this dismal state of
affairs than their male counterparts. The Global Gender Gap Report 2014,
published by the World Economic Forum, assessed 142 countries on how
well resources and opportunities were divided among male and female
populations. Pakistan was placed at the 142nd position, followed only by Yemen.
According to the index, Pakistan ranks second-worst in economic
participation and opportunity, and eleventh-worst in terms of equal access to
education.
According to the Pakistan Population Council, a research and capacity-
building group, poverty is an obvious adverse factor for girls’ schooling. When
large families can only afford school for some of their children, daughters
often lose out to sons. Other factors that hindered girls’ education included
difficulty in access and long distances to school (with dangers of sexual
violence); cultural constraints; early marriage and/or pregnancy; and lack of
water and sanitation in schools.
Education for females has also been a target for militants operating in the
country. More than half of the schools destroyed by the Taliban in Swat, for
example, were meant for girls.
Recommendations
1. The right to education enshrined in the constitution should be
expanded to reflect Pakistan’s international human rights obligations, including
the ideal that education should aim at promoting understanding, tolerance
and friendship among all nations and all racial, ethnic or religious groups. A
healthy debate on curriculum reform should be generated and all historical
and other errors and biases in the textbooks removed. Human rights should be
included in the curriculum starting from primary school, as promised by Pakistan
in its Universal Periodic Review, 2012.
2. The budgetary allocation for education must be increased to at least
4% of the country’s GDP to reflect the government’s claim that education is a
cornerstone for development, peace and harmony. The abysmal conditions of
schools must immediately be corrected and minimum standards of comfort and
safety enforced in all schools.
3. A stringent, across-the-board law to prohibit corporal punishment in
schools and madrasas must be enacted and care must be taken to ensure that
the law is also implemented.
4. The Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act,
2010, should be elaborated to expressly cover harassment of students in
educational institutions. Efforts must be made to ensure that girls are provided
with a safe and comfortable environment to study. Training on how to be
gender sensitive should be provided to all teachers and a review of the
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curriculum carried out to ensure it is gender sensitive. The government should
also ensure that public schools, especially schools for girls, are situated close
to communities, especially in less developed rural areas, to encourage girls to
attend school without fear for their safety.
5. The government should take measures to prevent the occurrence of
attacks and threats against educational institutions, including those which
undermine women and girls’ fundamental right to an education, and to ensure
that perpetrators of such acts of violence are promptly collared, prosecuted
and punished. Educational institutions subjected to violence should be promptly
repaired and rebuilt. Students affected by violence should be reintegrated into
other schools and universities as soon as possible. Violence on campuses must
not be tolerated and strict action must be taken against all perpetrators. Besides,
elected students’ unions must be encouraged and all barriers on legitimate
student politics should be removed.

Health
The state shall secure the well-being of the people, irrespective of
sex, caste, creed and race ... provide basic necessities of life, such as ...
medical relief, for all such citizens, irrespective of sex, caste, creed or race,
as are permanently or temporarily unable to earn their livelihood on account
of infirmity, sickness or unemployment. ...
Article 38(a) and (d)
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health
and well being of himself and of his family, including ... medical care and
necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of
unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of
livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Article 25(1)
Access to quality healthcare is a constitutional right of the citizens of

Pakistan. Unfortunately, successive governments have failed to ensure its
provision. Though government hospitals, basic and primary health units and
government-run dispensaries exist all over the country, they often lack the
required staff, equipment and facilities. Also, the government hardly focuses
on the preventive side which in turn increases the burden on the curative
services it offers. Many people approach the doctors once they are diagnosed
with a disease in its advanced stage. They remain unaware of the diseases as
they have limited or no access to public sector diagnostic services. Even
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Pakistan tough place for children to stay alive.
otherwise, diagnostic facilities are often missing at government-run health

facilities.
Due to the inability of the state to fulfil the obligation, people are left
helpless and dependent on health services offered by the heavily-charging
private sector most of them cannot afford.
Healthcare in Pakistan is administered mainly in the private sector which
accounts for 70% to 80% of all outpatient visits. The overall health status of
its citizens is far from satisfactory. Around 19% of the population and 30% of
children under the age of five are malnourished.
According to The Economic Survey of Pakistan 2013-2014, some specific
gaps have continued to persist largely on account of demographic,
epidemiological and socio-economic factors, leaving large segments of
population with inadequate health care access. “Healthcare facilities in some
parts of the country are found to be inadequate and also mostly ill equipped
and the coverage also varies across the provinces. The shortage of trained
health workers and the rising population pressure on public health institutions
has allowed the private sector to bridge the demand/supply gaps,” the survey
says.
The health sector under-development is manifested in Pakistan’s poor
health indicators. Life expectancy at birth is 59 years while the average for
other comparable countries is 61 years. The infant mortality rate is 95 per
thousand as compared to 60 in other countries. Expenditure on health as a
percentage of GNP also remains low.
WHO sums up the government health services situation saying that though
an extensive health care infrastructure is in place, it has not been translated
into optimal health care delivery because of poor motivation of the health
workforce due to lack of good career structures and work environments,
maldistribution of resources between urban and rural areas, and the lack of a
national human resource for health policy. It says Pakistan spends only 0.5%
of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health, which is very low. This leads
to an inability of the government to provide the required medicine and laboratory
support to healthcare delivery resulting in an out-of-pocket expenditure on
health of around 80%. The health information system does not produce the
quality data required for planning.
Health budget (All provinces)

This year’s federal budget has allocated Rs 26.8 billion for running several
national health programmes such as hepatitis, malaria and tuberculosis control.
Health is a provincial subject. Punjab kept Rs 73.2 billion or 5.4 per cent
of its budget and KP just over Rs29 billion or 7.9 per cent of its budget, for
health. Sindh was to spend Rs 43 billion, 20 per cent more than the last year.
The amount constituted 7.3 per cent of its budget. Balochistan pledged Rs
14.14 billion to health, an increase of 26pc over the previous year’s budget.
With 9.9 per cent, the province also topped in the percentage of its total budget
allocated for health.
Maternal health and infant mortality

Despite being priority areas under the health initiatives taken by the
governments, poor maternal health and high infant mortality continue to haunt
the country. A recent report released by the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA) states that an estimated 14,000 women die annually in Pakistan due
to complications in childbirth. The report adds that the country’s maternal and
infant mortality rates are the highest in South Asia.
Pakistan has also been ranked 26th on the list of countries with the highest
infant mortality rates across the globe in a report titled “The State of The
World’s Children 2014" released by The United Nations Children’s Fund
(Unicef).
A survey and a study shared by Save the Children, UK, in 2014 reveal
some stark realities that call for immediate action and planning by the authorities.
The survey titled “Ending Newborn Deaths” states that Pakistan records the
highest number of stillbirths globally making it the most dangerous place to be
a mother or a child. The research study “State of the World’s Mothers: saving
mothers and children in humanitarian crises” ranks Pakistan 147 out of 178
countries (covered under it) in terms of child and maternal well-being due to
poor healthcare services, poverty, malnutrition and natural calamities.
Due to malnutrition, deliveries carried out by inexperienced midwives,
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unsafe abortions, child marriages, and lack of access to quality health services,
to quote Pakistan’s Population Council, unsafe abortions account for 13 percent
of maternal deaths in the country and 34 percent of pregnant women suffer
from malnutrition, including deficiencies in vitamin A, zinc, and iodine.
High maternal mortality ratio also comes from marriage of young girls
unequipped to handle pregnancy and childbirth. The Sindh Assembly has passed
Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2013 and raised the minimum age of both
the intending bride and bridegroom to 18 years. The Punjab Assembly has
passed a resolution to put an end to under-age marriages but it was yet to
legislate on upgrading the laws to this effect by the yearend.
In Pakistan, under-5 mortality rate is 89 per 1000 live births and two third
of these occur during the neonatal period (55 per 1000 live births) while 74
per cent of total neonatal deaths take place in the first week of life. Pakistan
Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2014 shows that the country has the
highest bottle-feeding rates and the lowest exclusive breastfeeding rates in
South Asia.
Malnutrition
Pakistan continues to suffer from acute food insecurity and malnutrition,
particularly in Sindh where close to a thousand people including newborns
and infants died in drought-hit Tharparkar during the year due to these reasons.
According to a Save the Children report, about 800,000 children die annually
in Pakistan, 35% of them, i.e. 280,000, due to malnutrition.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) has
said that 40% of the country’s children are malnourished and underweight due
to lack of access to adequate food. It has also expressed concern that despite
Pakistan being one of the major food producing countries in the world, half of
its population is food insecure.
Besides, Pakistan is among the countries that suffer from two of the
commonest forms of malnutrition: under five stunting and anaemia among
women during the child bearing years. Malnutrition in Pakistan also contributes
to high morbidity among pregnant and lactating women.
An SDPI report titled “State of Food Security in Pakistan and Policy
Options” states that apart from the Punjab, province-wise situation is alarming.
The Punjab has 21 food surplus and only 9 deficient districts. Balochistan,
FATA and GB have the largest number of food deficient districts. Balochistan
has 22 districts, which are extremely food deficient and three with less
deficiency. In GB, the number is 6.
The report adds that distribution of districts on availability scale shows a
more balancing picture in Sindh. Here seven districts fall in the categories of
Around 19% of the population and 30% of children under the age of five are malnourished.
extremely to very deficit while 9 districts fall in sufficient to surplus categories.

The reasons for this situation are poverty, poor governance, inequitable
distribution, climate change, insufficient emphasis on agricultural growth, urban
development, growing population, inflation, internal displacement due to natural
disasters such as drought and floods.
The federal government established National Food Security Commission
(NFSC) in 2014 which is a step forward towards development of a national
policy for the long-term sustainability of food security and agriculture
development. The commission is headed by the prime minister of Pakistan.
However, there was no development regarding the Infant Feeding Board which
was formed by the federal government in 2013 to implement breastfeeding
law. The board failed to meet even for once in 2014. Pakistan has the highest
bottle-feeding rates and the lowest exclusive breastfeeding rates in South Asia.
Another step in this regard is the formulation of “revised national guidelines”
on community-based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) by the federal
government to help improve the health of children and women. The Ministry
of National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination (NHSRC) has shared
these guidelines prepared during 2014 with the provinces.
Drug price mechanism

Pricing of medicines in Pakistan is contentious and has historically been a
subject of the federal government. Even after the devolution of health as
provincial subject, a Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has been
established to look after registration and pricing of drugs. DRAP failed to firm
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Prices of some drugs were comparatively high in the market.
up a drug pricing policy in 2014.

Saira Afzal Tarar, Minister of State for Health Services, Regulations and
Coordination, has promised a drug pricing policy by the end of 2016. According
to her the pricing mechanism will be linked with Consumer Price Index inflation;
the prices will increase or decrease automatically with changes in CPI. Some
manufacturing companies had got stay orders from a court in 2013 and so,
prices of some drugs were comparatively high in the market.
Otherwise, the industry claims that pharmaceutical companies have not
been allowed an across-the-board increase in prices of their products. Increase,
if allowed, was only in hardship cases where certain manufactures had
contacted the authorities and contested that they could not manufacture certain
medicines due to their financial non-viability.
Multinationals and local pharmaceutical companies are demanding a hike
in drug prices. They say that 61% of the top 28 selling brands are cheaper in
Pakistan than in India and Bangladesh. They also contend the government has
denied companies an increase in prices on 318 molecules that form the
components of hundreds of drugs and is forcing them to reduce prices of
some drugs by as much as 30%.
Pharmaceutical companies are demanding a price mechanism recommended
by the World Health Organization (WHO). Called “reference price mechanism,”
this formula links the prices of drugs to the average price of similar medicines
in the neighbouring countries. At the moment, price determination is done on
the basis of the cost-plus system. Under this system, DRAP has to get involved
with each manufacturer and work out the prices of their products on the basis
of the manufacturing cost of individual units.
Unsafe blood transfusion

The world was taken by storm when the news about some thalassemics
being found HIV-positive was carried by the national media. The news was
based on a statement made by the Thalassemia Federation of Pakistan, a
consortium of organisations working with thalassemia patients. It said the
children were injected tainted blood donated by donors who were HIV positive.
Besides, it saw a very high incidence of hepatitis B and C in transfusion-
dependent thalassaemics in the country with up to 80% of patients being
hepatitis B or C positive.
Though the Health Department termed it a sweeping statement as the
affected children had not been defined, the inquiries into the incident revealed
many flaws in the blood transfusion mechanism.
In another incident, a Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) doctor
said that out of the 1,250 patients registered with the hospital’s thalassaemia
centre, one had tested positive for HIV. The affected girl lived in Rawalpindi.
She tested positive for HIV after receiving infected blood from a blood bank in
Rawalpindi.
Blood transfusion services in Pakistan are neither organised nor consistently
regulated. Blood and blood products are only produced and stored by isolated
blood banks, operated by both state and private providers. The blood banks
are subject to unsystematic state quality controls and they do not always meet
the standards for patient care. The level of training among staff entrusted with
blood transfusion also varies considerably among the various transfusion
services.
As the concept of blood safety implies collecting blood from healthy
voluntary donors, ensuring proper storage of blood, screening donor blood to
ensure that it is safe from transmissible infections, preparing blood components
and avoiding irrational clinical use. To achieve this end, the Government of
Pakistan planned launching a nationally organized and coordinated blood
transfusion service to meet the nation’s routine and emergency requirements
of blood. Development of a National Policy and Strategic Framework 2014-
20 for Blood Transfusion Services (BTS) with the support of GIZ is a step in
this direction taken by the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation
and Coordination.
According to Safe Blood Transfusion Programme (SBTP), Pakistan faces
an acute shortage of blood for transfusions. Out of the total blood collected
annually through donations, 30 per cent is given to thalassaemia patients. This
increases their vulnerability to diseases contracted through blood transfusions.
The risks are high as a number of blood banks across the country are selling
blood for transfusions without proper screening.
Reproductive health
The right to reproductive health implies that people are able to have a
satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capacity to reproduce and
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Thalassaemia patients are at HIV risk due to unsafe blood transfusion.
the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so. Pakistan has a National
Reproductive Health Package which offers family planning for women and
men, maternal healthcare, infant health care, treatment of infertility and
management of reproductive health related problems faced by adults.
Though several efforts are underway to ensure Sexual and Reproductive
Health Rights (SRHR) to masses, the results are not that satisfactory, thanks
to lack of education, religious and political conservatism, lack of decision
power with women, people’s vulnerabilities to migration, natural disasters,
conflict, and displacement.
Despite constituting half the country’s population, women in Pakistan still
struggle to have access to good health and education services. Half the women
in Pakistan get married before the age of 18. Deaths from pregnancy-related
complications stand at 276 per 100,000 live births and early marriages are a
major reason for this mortality. The Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) has
been stagnant for many years and hovering around 35 per cent.
Abortion is legal only if carried out for the medical treatment of a pregnant
woman in the early stages of pregnancy. Previously, the Pakistan Penal Code
allowed for abortion only if it was required to save the life of the pregnant
woman. The amended section 338 of the Penal Code states: “Whoever causes
a woman with child whose organs have not been formed, to miscarry, if such
miscarriage is not caused in good faith for the purpose of saving the life of the
woman, or providing necessary treatment to her, is said to cause Isqat-I-Haml
(abortion).”
The National Commission on Status of Women (NCSW) has redrafted
the Reproductive Healthcare and Rights Bill, 2014, which has been referred to
the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination for
introducing it in the parliament for approval. It is hoped that once approved
this law will go a long way in ensuring SRHR of the citizens.
There has been a significant increase in the allocations under the public
sector development programme for population welfare. The government aims
to take CPR from the current 35 per cent to 55 per cent in 2020. There are
4,500 outlets providing family planning services alongside 14,000 healthcare
centres across the country, a number insufficient to cater to the needs of the
growing population.
Mental health
The cases of psychological or behavioural disorders have gone up sharply
in South Asia and especially in Pakistan owing to socioeconomic changes in
the past few years. Besides, the deteriorating law and order situation and
incidents of terrorism have infused a sense of fear and insecurity among the
masses. This has badly affected their mental health.
More than 15 percent of the country’s population is estimated to be
suffering from mild to moderate psychiatric illnesses and most of these patients
are women. The shortage of mental health professionals makes things worse.
Pakistan has only one psychiatrist for every 10,000 people suffering from any
of the mental disorders, while one child psychiatrist for four million children.
According to Pakistan Association for Mental Health (PAMH) there are only
750 trained psychiatrists in Pakistan and 3,000 hospital beds, while the number
of patients is increasing by the day.
Unfortunately, in Pakistan, most mental disorders remain undetected and
people who suffer from these are referred to quacks, shrines, holymen, self-
acclaimed spiritual healers and practitioners of black magic. The abnormal
behaviour of mentally ill people is believed to be caused by the influence of evil
spirits on them.
Pakistan lacks a proper legal framework to cover mental health patients.
The Sindh government made a major advancement in mental health legislation.
The provincial assembly passed the Sindh Mental Health Act 2013, replacing
the Lunacy Act 1912, in September 2013. However, the Sindh law department
is yet to announce the rules and regulations required to implement this law.
The other three provinces have not come up with similar acts so far.
According to Sindh Mental Health Act 2013, “Any person who carries out
any form of inhumane treatment, on a mentally disordered person which
includes: trepanning, branding, scalding, beating, exorcising, chaining to a
tree etc of any such person or subjecting a child to the cultural practice of
rendering him mentally retarded, by inducing microcephaly, or subjecting any
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The cases of behavioural disorders have gone up sharply in Pakistan.
such person to physical, emotional or sexual abuse, shall be guilty of an offence,

punishable with rigorous imprisonment which may extend to five years or
with fine extending up to rupees fifty thousand or with both.”
Following the terrorist attack on Army Public School (APS), Peshawar,
the government has decided to establish psycho-trauma centres for victims of
natural disasters, accidents, and terrorist attacks. The National Psycho-Social
Advisory Council, headed by the prime minister took this decision.
Occupational safety and health (OSH)

The industrial and agricultural workforce in Pakistan is highly vulnerable
to diseases of all sorts. Workers are not protected against the health hazards
they confront due to the nature of their work and the processes involved. The
burden of healthcare provided to these workers can be reduced by making the
employers comply with the health and safety regulations. Proper labour
inspections by the provincial labour departments can serve but unfortunately
these are mostly conducted just to fulfil the formalities. Tuberculosis, silicosis,
joint and back pain, injuries, burns, vision loss are some of the health hazards
workers face in the country.
Pakistan has ratified 36 ILO Conventions out of the total 189. Of these
189 ILO Conventions, 20 relate to OSH. Of the 36 ILO Conventions ratified
by Pakistan, only 1 (C-45) relates to OSH – though not directly. Unfortunately
for the workers, Pakistan has not yet ratified major OSH Conventions (C-155,
C-161, and C-187).
In 2012, after the factory fire of Baldia Town, Karachi, ILO supported the
Tuberculosis, silicosis, joint and back pain, injuries, burns, vision loss
are some of the health hazards workers face in the country.
government, the employers and the workers to develop a Joint Action Plan on
Workplace Safety & Health. Signed up in October 2013, the plan has 23 action
points categorized under three main areas, i.e. (a) Occupational Safety &
Health; (b) Labour Inspection and (c) Social Protection/Work injury
compensation.
Work on 12 (out of 23) action points has started in Sindh. A tripartite
provincial steering committee on OSH has been established. First provincial
OSH policy has also been drafted and sent for cabinet’s approval. A standalone
provincial OSH law has been drafted and is being vetted by the government,
workers and employers. A process for revival of defunct ‘Sindh OSH Centre’
has started. A national ‘Labour Inspection and OSH Profile’ is being developed.
Through the federal ministry for overseas Pakistanis and human resource
development, other provinces are being encouraged to adopt similar systematic
and mutually accepted provincial plans.
Polio
With 306 cases, the year 2014 has been described as one of the worst
years in the history of polio eradication in Pakistan. Of these 306 cases, 179
were detected in Fata, 68 in KP, 25 in Balochistan, 4 in Punjab and 30 in Sindh.
The cases in Pakistan accounted for 86% of the 356 detected worldwide.
According to a statement released by the Emergency Operation Centre
(EOC) established at the Centre, more than 90% cases were detected in areas
inaccessible for polio vaccination due to poor law and order situation and the
ban imposed by militants. Though 17 national, sub-national and short interval
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Polio cases in provinces

campaigns were conducted during 2014 targetting over 34.6 million children
below five years of age, the international community is asking the country to
take concrete measures to tackle this menace.
Travel restrictions
After issuing repeated warnings and keeping in view the dismal performance
of the country in eliminating polio, the World Health Organisation (WHO)
recommended strict travel restrictions for Pakistan on May 5, 2014. Under
these restrictions that became effective on June 1, 2014, it was made mandatory
for people of all ages to receive polio drops and produce certificates confirming
this before travelling out of the country. This meant that the outbound travelers
would receive polio drops and get certification issued by the health department.
The certificates issued for this pass are valid for a year and supposed to
be shown at the points of departure-airports, international borders, seaports
etc. Emergency polio vaccine booths have also been set up at such locations
to facilitate passengers who fail to produce certificates at the time of departure.
Of late, some countries have decided to ask Pakistani visa applicants to
provide polio vaccine certificates at the time of applying for their visas. India
is one such example.
Killings of polio workers

The violent attacks on polio workers and their killings have had an adverse
impact on polio vaccine campaigns in Pakistan. Over the years, armed groups
have attacked polio workers with impunity. The polio workers have been
charged with spying for CIA and working as agents of anti-Islam forces.
Though most such incidents occur in Fata, KP and Karachi, this year
polio workers were killed in Balochistan and Punjab as well. Figures shared by
authorities reveal that 45 members of polio teams-vaccinators and their
facilitators were killed during 2014. The deadliest attack of the year took place
on March 1, 2014 when 11 members of a polio vaccination team died in a
roadside bomb blast in Khyber agency.
The militants also killed many security personnel deputed to guard polio
workers throughout the country evidencing the failure of the state to provide
security to its citizens and protect them from a crippling disease.
Malaria
Malaria, the second most prevalent and devastating communicable disease
in the country, has been a major cause of morbidity in Pakistan. More than 90
percent of disease burden in the country is shared by 56 highly endemic districts,
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mostly located in Balochistan (17 out of 29 districts), FATA (7 agencies),
Sindh (12 districts) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (12 districts).
HIV/ AIDS
The prevalence of HIV/ AIDS is considered to be less than one percent.
The AIDS Control Programme focuses on Behaviour Change Communication
(BCC), services to high risk population groups, treatment of Sexually
Transmitted Infections (STIs), supply of safe blood and capacity building of
various stakeholders. There will be an emphasis on increasing screening
facilities across the country.
According to the National AIDS Control Programme 86,000 HIV-positive
patients are registered with the government. The HIV positive cases are reported
to the AIDS Control Programmes at federal and provincial levels. The
programme is technically supported by the UN agencies and Global Fund
against AIDS, TB and Malaria.
Hepatitis C
Approximately 1.5 million people die of viral hepatitis every year worldwide.
An estimated 18 million people are infected with the hepatitis B and C virus in
Pakistan and the number is continuously increasing. According to the Aga
Khan University Hospital (AKUH) there are around 250,000 new hepatitis
infections annually. The majority of untreated and relapse cases are at risk for
progressing to liver cancer. As a result, liver cancer is now the fastest-growing
cancer in Pakistan.
The Prime Minister’s Programme for Prevention and Control of Hepatitis
in Pakistan aims at 50 per cent reduction in new cases of hepatitis B and C by
2015 through advocacy and behaviour change communication, hepatitis B
vaccination of high risk groups, establishment of screening, diagnosis and
treatment facilities in 150 teaching and DHQ hospitals, Safe Blood Transfusion
and prevention of hepatitis A and E.
Safe Blood Transfusion project, with the technical cooperation team GIZ
and Kfw, is being implemented in all four provinces aiming at bringing down
the incidence of hepatitis in the country.
Dengue
Dengue has become a major public health concern in Pakistan for the last
few years. The disease is transmitted through a bite of a mosquito but not
from a person to person. The epidemic occurs every year and its range has
extended to several cities in Pakistan.
According to Sindh health minister the number of dengue deaths in the
There are around 250,000 new hepatitis infections annually.
province in 2014 was 12 — 11 in Karachi and one in Hyderabad. However, a

representative of Dengue Prevention and Control Programme, Sindh, said 15
people died from dengue fever in 2014, all in Karachi. He said 1,286 dengue
fever cases were reported at various public and private hospitals of Sindh.
Except for 36 cases reported from the rest of Sindh, all the cases were reported
from Karachi. In 2013, 5,750 dengue viral fever cases were reported across
the province, with 5,058 detected in Karachi. Thirty-two people died in 2013
in Sindh.
A marked decrease was recorded in the number of dengue patients across
Punjab. Rawalpindi was the most-affected city in Punjab. In 2014, 1,460
patients were tested positive for dengue fever there. One woman died there of
dengue. The Punjab advisor on health said that due to the government effort
dengue could not become a virus and so, only 94 dengue cases were reported
in Lahore during the year. Thirty two people were diagnosed with dengue in
Sheikhupura.
Swat district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa witnessed a 96% reduction in dengue
cases this year as compared to 2013. According to the Swat district health
department, a total of 306 dengue cases were recorded this year with no
casualties, a sharp decline from the more than 9,000 people infected in 2013
with more than 30 dead. According to the KP Health Department’s data, over
11,600 people were affected by dengue fever in K-P in 2013.
Stagnant water in affected areas may cause severe health issues and spread
of dengue is one of these. The focus of the governments, therefore, is on
creating awareness among the masses about cleanliness, hygiene and the need
to destroy breeding grounds of mosquitoes.
One reason for the failure of the government to fight this disease out is the
Health 295
Dengue has become a major public health concern in Pakistan.
use of substandard chemicals for anti-dengue spray. In many cases fumigation

is not carried out at all.
TB control programme
Pakistan ranks fifth (after India, China, South Africa and Indonesia)
amongst 22 high burden countries in terms of Tuberculosis (TB) prevalence.
The annual number of new cases is 420000 (0.4 million) with a rate 348/
100000 population. An international survey has shown that Pakistan has reduced
the number TB patients over the years. The prevalence of TB disease in 1990
was 566 per 100,000 but it stands at 348 in 2014.
There is a persistent shortage of anti-TB vaccine in the country but the
authorities are not taking the issue seriously. The Pakistan Medical Association
(PMA) took up the issue in 2014 and complained that millions of infants were
denied vital immunization due to the shortage of this vaccine.
Organ transplant
A few years ago Pakistan was a leading hub of illegal human organ trade
organ. Recently declining rates of living donor transplantation were observed
here after the country passed a law on Transplantation of Human Organs and
Tissues and declared organ sale a crime.
Organs that can be donated include kidneys, heart, liver, lungs, pancreas
and intestine. Some tissues that may also be donated include corneas, skin,
bone and bone marrow among others. The Human Organ Transplantation
Authority (Hota) is also working to prevent illegal organ trade in the country.
Though there is a drop in the number of organ transplants carried out
illegally, the authorities are yet to end this practice. The needy patients have to
look for people willing to sell their kidneys etc in the absence of enough voluntary
donors. To overcome this problem, awareness campaigns are being held all
over the country to apprise people of the importance of donating organs after
death and making announcement to this effect during their lifetime. As per
health department estimates, around 50,000 people die each year because of
kidney failure, 10,000 because of liver failure and more than 6,000 due to
heart failure in the country.
The Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) in Karachi and
Al-Shifa Trust Hospital in Islamabad are carrying out transplants successfully.
SIUT has over the years served all patients alike, free of cost, and with the
highest standards of professionalism.
In Punjab there is a transplant centre at Sheikh Zayed Hospital Punjab,
Lahore that has carried out a limited number of liver transplants with the help
of Indian surgeons. However, the Punjab government is pursuing a project to
set up a Pakistan Kidney and Liver Transplant Institute and Research Centre.
This 750-bed institute will be constructed on 50 acres of land at Burki Road,
Lahore.
The enforcement of the law on organ transplant is a challenge and law
enforcers have carried out severed crackdowns and arrested organ traffickers.
For example, in November 2014, two people allegedly involved in illegal organ
trafficking were apprehended at the Karachi airport by the personnel of the
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). They were trying to board a flight to
Mauritius. The suspects included a carrier and his subject who had agreed to
sell his kidney for Rs 500,000. In the same month, a judicial magistrate in
Lahore remanded three suspects in police custody for allegedly stealing a
woman’s kidney. The woman complained that she had been taken to a hospital
The prevalence of TB disease declined from 566 per 100,000 in 1990 to 348 in 2014.
Health 297
in Sahiwal and deprived of one of her kidneys without her consent.
Measles
Measles is a contagious and sometimes deadly viral disease which can
spread very swiftly among unvaccinated children. There has been a resurgence
of the disease in some countries including Pakistan and the US.
Outbreaks of measles started in December 2012 hitting the under-developed
areas of the Sindh province. Later on, they also became apparent in other
parts of the country, mainly Punjab. In 2012, the number of suspected cases
was 12,354, out of which 2,975 were confirmed. In 2013, the number of
suspected cases nearly tripled. Out of 33,314 cases, 8,616 were tested positive.
From 2012 to 2013, 600 children died of measles in the country.
In 2014, the number came down mainly due to the immunization drives
carried out throughout the country. The advisor to the Punjab chief minister
said that only 89 cases of measles were reported in 2014 in the Punjab due to
a Rs 1.5 billion anti-measles campaign launched by the government in 2013.
He said none of these cases had been fatal. He announced Rs 2.7 billion would
be spent on a similar campaign in 2015.
There is no specific treatment for measles and most people recover within
a few weeks. However, the poor and malnourished children and people with
reduced immunity can face serious complications due to measles. This disease
can cause blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhea, ear infection and pneumonia.
Pakistan is implementing a nationwide Measles Supplementary
Immunization Activity. Approximately 63 million children aged 6 months to
below 10 years are to be vaccinated with one dose of measles vaccine through
this vaccination campaign. All children within the target age range will be
vaccinated irrespective of their previous vaccination status and illness. The
federal and provincial EPI programs are to implement these campaigns.
Disability
The WHO says that persons with disabilities (PWD) comprise around
15% of the total population of Pakistan. The Pakistani authorities come up
with a lower figure. The exact figures cannot be confirmed as families normally
hide such details due to the social stigma attached with disability.
Unfortunately, successive governments have not taken initiatives to
rehabilitate PWDs. Pakistan ratified the UN Convention on Rights of Persons
with Disabilities in 2011 but has not come up with an action plan. Besides, the
government is yet to conduct an authentic and credible census to determine
the exact population of PWDs. The draft of Pakistan Disability Act 2015,
developed in consultation with WHO, is under consideration of the governments
A beggar with disability on his way to his post.
and there is no indication that it will be passed sometime soon.

Legislation on PWDs is the need of the day. It is not easy to extend them
the favours they deserve, in the absence of a legal framework. PWDs face
several difficulties such as inaccessibility to private and government buildings,
discriminatory attitude of the society towards them, lack of jobs despite a
quota reserved for them, improper public transport, their non-inclusion in
government schemes of public welfare, unavailability of affordable equipment
such as wheelchairs, artificial limbs, hearing aids and so on.
Recommendations
1. All the provinces must increase their budgetary allocations for health
to meet the needs. They should focus more on prevention than on cure and
educate people on how to adopt a healthy lifestyle. The state must ensure that
its citizens have access to safe drinking water, pollution-free air and non-
adulterated food. Diagnostic services should also be made available to people
so that they know the diseases they are suffering from well in time.
2. The provinces must streamline their basic healthcare system and provide
basic health facilities to people close to their homes. The abandoned primary
health units and basic health units must be revived and provided with proper
staff and equipment. The government must come up with policies to ensure
that doctors and paramedical staff have no qualms working in remote and
backward areas of the country. The missing facilities at government hospitals
should be provided on a priority.
3. An effective drug regulatory mechanism should be put in place to
check irregularities and malpractices in the health sector. The Drug Regulatory
Authority (DRA) and Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) must
act strongly against sellers of fake, unregistered and smuggled drugs. A clean-
Health 299
up operation against quacks is also the need of the time.
4. Steps should be taken to make Pakistan polio free not only by providing
security to vaccination teams but also by gaining the trust of the masses.
Other vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles should also be eradicated
through effective routine immunisation and, wherever necessary, special periodic
campaigns.

Housing
The state shall secure the well-being of the people, irrespective of sex,
caste, creed and race, by raising their standard of living .
Article 38(a)
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and
wellbeing of himself and his family, including ... housing ...
Article 25 (1)
The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone
to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate
food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living
conditions...

Article 11 (1)
Several issues impacted housing in Pakistan in 2014. A military offensive,

Operation Zarb-e-Azb, against Taliban and foreign militants in North Waziristan,
which began in June and continued into 2015, displaced more than a million
people. The internally displaced people or the IDPs, whom the government
called temporarily displaced people or the TDPs, were partially accommodated
in the camp sites in the nearby border towns, such as Bannu, in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province, but many of them largely avoided government-
Housing 301
Conflict and floods rendered a large number of people without shelter and livelihood.
established camps and settled with their relatives. Floods in Punjab rendered a
large number of people without shelter and livelihood during August and
September. Some other issues that became acute during the year were fire
threats, building collapses, land grabbing, an unbridled rise in real estate
development ventures and illegal construction in peri-urban locations, inadequate
responses to the problems of katchi abadi [squatter settlement] dwellers,
illegal occupation of graveyards and limited opportunities to housing finance.
Housing options for various cross sections of the urban (and even rural) society
were very limited and this showed up in the creation of slums, squatter
settlements and peri-urban hutments across the country. Demand for housing
repairs, replacement and redevelopment remained quite visible in urban areas
across the country.
Legal and institutional context

Constitutionally, housing – including its planning, development and
regulation — is a provincial subject. The institutional context of local
government and corresponding agencies on housing is in a state of flux. In
Sindh, a new local government law has replaced the legal edifice of military
ruler General Pervez Musharraf’s devolution plan. But some key institutions
such as Karachi Development Authority – devolved in 2001 to the erstwhile
City District Government Karachi (CDGK) – have not been revived. In Punjab,
the provincial government has resurrected the commissionerate system. But
the development bodies such as Lahore Development Authority are also
functioning, with overlapping jurisdictions and responsibilities. The provincial
administrations of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have resorted to a
hybrid form of local administration. Except Balochistan, no province held
local government elections and administrators appointed by the provincial
governments managed municipalities and development authorities, despite a
consensus that capable and democratically elected local governments can
respond to housing issues better.
Social
Pakistan is urbanizing fast. The urban population, recorded as 43 million
(or 32 percent of the total population) in the 1998 census, is conservatively
projected to be more than 65 million now (See the table below). By the year
2030, about 49.8 percent of the people are likely to be living in cities – 17 cities
having one million people or more apiece — or other urban settlements. Since
there has been no census since 1998, no accurate figures are available for
estimations and planning. And as most of the urban populace is believed to be
from the lower- and lower-middle income strata, access to housing shall remain
a crucial issue.
The changing sociological dynamics in the urban areas are contributing to
an increase in housing needs. The joint family structure in cities is breaking
down and nuclear families are spreading fast. The demand for housing,
especially apartments in large cities such as Karachi and single-unit villas in
various other urban locations, last seen rising in the 1998 census, continued to
go up in 2014. Socially unviable housing choices, like cramming in the existing
dwellings, remained the only option. People with no shelter used streets as
their makeshift dwellings and often faced deadly accidents. On October 11,
members of a homeless family were asleep in their makeshift tent in front of a
school on MA Jinnah Road, Karachi when a speeding car ran them over. Two
Pakistan – urban population estimates for 2014

Khyber
Indicators Pakistan Pakhtunkhwa Punjab Sindh Balochistan Islamabad
(including FATA)
Population as per 1998
132,352,000 20,920,000 73,621,000 30,440,000 6,566,000 805,000
census
Urban Population (as per
43,038,111 3,079,165 23,021,287 14,839,500 1,569,274 528,885
1998 Census)
Population (Projections
prepared by Bureau of 202,386,661 32,179,755 111,704,255 47,351,414 9,701,548 1,809,314
Statistics, GoP in 2014)
Urban population
(projections prepared for 65,775,665 4,800,485 34,963,432 23,107,490 2,318,671 1,188,720
2014)
Source: Estimates based on the data available with Population Census Organization and growth rates
provided in studies based on 1998 census.
Housing 303
siblings, Fareed and Sajna, succumbed to their injuries.
Backlog, need and demand

An important contributor to the swelling housing demand is the expanding
housing backlog. At the yearend, according to some studies, the backlog stood
at nine million housing units, in which the urban portion was 3 to 3.5 million
units — almost all in low-income households.
The supply and demand situation in the housing market is highly skewed,
indicating there is huge “cash on the table”. According to some estimates 68%
of Pakistan’s population has only 1% of total housing stocks, whereas 56% of
housing stock is meant for 12% of the upper income segments. There appears
to be an untapped market and unmet demand for housing units in the urban
areas particularly for the low- and lower-middle income segments.
According to the Planning Commission of Pakistan about 300,000 housing
units are built annually, mainly in urban areas. The number falls quite short of
the demand, and so, gives rise to the backlog in the large urban agglomerations
already bulging due to migrations for better healthcare, educational, employment
and business opportunities, and safety and security. Katchi abadis and shanty
towns then serve the excluded.
The operation Zarb-e-Azb and inter-clan feuds compelled a sizable people
from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA to relocate to Karachi and other cities.
Many clans and families of non-Baloch origins were forced to leave settlements
in Balochistan during 2014 for Karachi or other towns.
In the city cores of Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar old heritage residences
were in need of restoration. Informally built multi-storeyed structures continued
to pose danger for their inhabitants in the face of seismic shocks and rains.
Housing and land related issues

Housing is directly impacted by the status of land availability and
management in urban areas. Several factors affect the land supply and availability
for housing in the urban areas. Urban land has become a commodity attracting
huge investments. Therefore, its prices rise to such high limits that its availability
for housing, become impossible especially for low- and middle-income clientele.
The large metropolitan centres face encroachment of public land, which limits
chances of its availability for housing. Political interests define and determine
land supply and distribution, while social and development-related demands
such as housing become a low priority.
The allocations of land to Defence Housing Authority at less than the
market price in Karachi, creation of DHA city in the peri-urban location,
unapproved land subdivisions and development of housing schemes by realtors
A large chunk of population in urban areas is forced to reside in ill-planned areas.
in Lahore and Islamabad are cases in point. Bahria Town also announced a
large housing estate on the outskirts of Karachi triggering brisk sales and
transactions in 2014. Vast chunks of land under already announced schemes
remained unused despite planning and development.
Housing as real estate

Housing development for middle and upper income groups is also a means
of real estate investment. Several sub sectors and combination of services like
design and construction, brokerage, marketing, financial services and the
assistance to realtors to liaise with public agencies are linked to the real estate
sector. The real estate sector is managed by a range of stakeholders comprising
builders, developers, regulatory agencies, development authorities, estate
agencies, customers and government functionaries. Media advertisements
flashed the announcement of new schemes all across the country. However,
urban and rural poor had no access to such schemes due to ultra-high price
tags.
Provisions for low-income segments

Housing for the urban poor is a vital area of intervention for policymakers
and planning and development agencies in cities and towns. Poverty indicators
show that a sizable population in the country, including the one in urban areas,
has to be extended with the option of decent living and social progress.
According to the Karachi Strategic Development Plan 2020 (KSDP 2020),
urban poor households, whose members mostly reside in informal settlements
Housing 305
Many poor people live in mud-brick homes that have to be restored yearly.
of various kinds, were estimated at 941,968 in the year 2010. The process is
ongoing. More than 100,000 new households in this category are added yearly,
which require a corresponding number of housing units and allied facilities.
Since Karachi is among the fastest growing metropolises, the estimates for
the absolute need for urban poor are quite high.
With provisions for low-income segments, the Housing Policy looks good
on paper. However, the policy failed to serve the purpose precisely because,
according to experts, the “procedures adopted for their implementation are
incompatible with the sociology and economics of lower income groups.”
The government has already announced its plans to provide and finance
500,000 houses for the low-income segments. In the 2014-15 budget, the
government allocated Rs 6 billion to be spent on low income houses through a
newly formed company, Apna Ghar Limited. There was no evidence yet of
any tangible progress by this company. There were corresponding schemes
of the provincial governments – with housing being a provincial subject – and
Punjab’s Ashyana scheme seemed doing well. In addition, the government
also earmarked Rs 20 billion in the budget as guarantee for housing loans to be
issued for low-income segments. However, the policy environment was marked
by horizontal expansion, rigid zoning laws, restrictions on building heights and
high mortgage costs.
The emergence of katchi abadis in Islamabad shows that better controlled
and managed cities have not been able to extend affordable options for urban
poor. As per Capital Development Authority records, more than 15 katchi
abadis have emerged at different locations in Islamabad comprising a varying
number of households and profiles. Once created, katchi abadis pose the
tough question of regularisation or eviction for the city administrators. The
urban poor communities pay development charges to informal developers. As
OPP Progress Reports show, in locations such as Zubo Goth in Karachi, the
households not only paid for the price of the land to the government – but also
gratified financially the staff of law enforcement agencies for seeking protection
and security of housing rights.
The middle and upper income groups invest in housing in the large cities,
constituting a substantial cross-section of demand. Information gathered from
the records of Association of Builders and Developers showed a net demand
of 400,000 housing units in Karachi region alone constituted by the middle and
upper income groups. Due to the poor law and order situation, cumbersome
regulatory mechanisms and shortcomings in legal and administrative procedures
for the transfer and registration of properties, much of this demand is suppressed.
Another factor connected with demand is the unapproved densification of
low-density neighbourhoods in the city such as North Nazimabad, PECHS,
Federal B Area, Societies Area and Clifton where single-storeyed bungalows
are demolished and replaced by multi-storeyed apartments and other similar
formats of housing. Many schemes are still unoccupied or partially used in
Karachi, thanks to speculation and poor law and order. In Lahore and Faisalabad,
the members of northern region of ABAD say, sprawling housing options are
in sizable demand. However, regulatory restrictions and limited availability of
land pose a significant problem. Housing demand for Islamabad is also rising,
given the political and administrative significance of the city. An indication is
the continuous announcement of new schemes in the adjoining areas of the
capital territory. To attract the overseas Pakistani investors, many marketing
companies also opened offices and outlets in the Middle East, Europe and
North America for the diaspora.
Wrong political decisions, obsolete and often retrogressive legal structure,
weak administrative controls, incomplete and error-laden land records system
and a cumbersome financial system adversely impact real estate in urban
housing.
The National Accountability Bureau cracked down on fake housing
schemes such as the Capital Builders Housing Scheme and the New Islamabad
Garden housing scheme. Launched in 2005 in Islamabad, one of the housing
schemes booked 3,000 plots against a tract of land measuring 305 kanals
earning more than Rs 8 billion. Later, it purchased different tracts of land
measuring more than 1,800 kanals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad through the
money collected from the general public. NAB recovered more than Rs 1
billion from the accused to be distributed to the people affected by the scam
Housing 307
Not more than two percent of the finances are arranged through
formal housing finance institutions.
by cheques. The payment to the affected was divided into two phases. In the
first phase, 30 victims were refunded their investment by pay orders.
NAB, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa took up a case of a Provincial Housing Authority
Land Acquisition Collector and his supposed frontman for allegedly embezzling
more than Rs18 million while purchasing land for a housing scheme in Surizai,
Peshawar, in July.
The NAB Chairman sought a report from Punjab regional office regarding
an alleged Rs 500 million fraud in the Formanites Housing Scheme. The housing
scheme had allegedly cheated the public by selling non-existing plots. Lahore
Development Authority (LDA) had approved 1,200 kanals of land for Phase-I
of the scheme but the scheme sponsors sold thousands of kanals of land they
did not own.
Housing finance and transactions

Housing finance, an important sub-sector, facilitates a vast clientele. It is
affected by high risks in transactions, poor governance and a routine breakdown
of law and order. Studies indicate that not more than two percent of the
finances are arranged through formal housing finance institutions. About 10
percent lending is facilitated through informal sources while the remaining is
steered through personal savings and other related means.
The financial institutions including House Building Finance Company,
nationalized commercial banks and private banks consider housing finance a
very high risk lending, courtesy scams and events leading to protracted litigation
with the so- called bad clientele. Ambiguities in the administrative and legal
framework decelerate the normal pace of registration, transfer, sale and mutation
procedures. In many parts of the country including large cities, land records
are inaccurate and become a source of corruption and malpractice. The
transactions of properties are often done informally, even for the legally held
properties. In many cases, the property markets become a favourite avenue
for utilizing the black money or wealth accumulated through illegal/
undocumented sources. Thus the sales and purchase of Benami (unnamed)
transactions through a simple power-of-attorney document are rising fast.
Such transactions are mostly not reported to the land management agency or
registration department.
Huge stretches of state land exist in the peri-urban rim of Karachi while
ample private land exists on the peripheries of Lahore, Peshawar and Islamabad.
More than four months are needed to complete the transaction of state land
while more than two months are required to complete the transaction of a
private property. At the slightest of procedural lacunae, the transaction gets
delayed by weeks and months.
Land transactions often cause long standing disputes which drag on for
months and years in courts. In many cases, even after obtaining favourable
verdicts from courts, litigants do not benefit due to the unlawful influences at
work in Karachi and cities in southern Sindh. Informal mechanisms of dispute
resolution through the intervention of political activists or influential persons
occasionally help but such attempts do not make the titles of properties bankable
or worthy of mortgage. Similarly while the foreclosure laws and other legal
structures allow the re-possession of properties to be stuck under default or
other forms of non-payments, the same properties fetch very low prices and
show remote possibility of becoming worthy of consideration for lenders.
In May, during a Punjab Assembly session Deputy Speaker Sardar Shair
Ali Gorchani was accused of using local police to encroach upon Auqaf land
in D G Khan.
Salim Alimuddin, who works as Director of Orangi Pilot Project – Research
and Training Institute, was injured in a bomb attack on his car on January 29.
Perween Rahman and Abdul Waheed Khan of OPP were killed in similar attempts
in 2013.
Mohammad Ishaq, Deputy Director of Land in Karachi Metropolitan
Corporation, was killed on February 02 while trying to remove illegally-built
structures on the 50-feet-wide green belt in Shahrah-e-Usman, New Karachi
after land grabbers opened fire at the anti-encroachment team.
Despite the huge demand for housing, the overall contribution of housing
finance is very low – less than one percent of the GDP. In the formal sector,
the HBFC is the key player which has evolved into a corporate outfit after
struggling to function as a government-sponsored autonomous corporation
Housing 309
A labourer places a cement brick alongside an iron framework of a house
that is being constructed in Malaar, Awaran. More than one year after
the earthquake, reconstruction is still under way in the town.
for more than half a century. The HBFC has perhaps the most spread out
network of branches in more than 80 cities in the country. However, in terms
of total disbursement, it has less than a quarter of share in total housing finance.
Gross outstanding housing finance of all banks and development finance
institutions (DFIs) registered a growth for the third consecutive quarter,
according to the latest housing data released by the State Bank of Pakistan
(SBP).
It amounted to Rs 52.9 billion at the end of September 2014, which is up
by Rs 268.2 million or 0.51% on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
“Housing finance has started picking up after 2008. It is expected that the
SBP’s stance of reducing policy rate will further help in enhancing affordability
and demand for housing finance in Pakistan,” the SBP wrote in its brief
commentary on the housing data.
House Building Finance Company (HBFC), which is the only housing
bank operating in Pakistan, is the largest market player in terms of gross
outstanding portfolio with a share of 24%.
Other than HBFC and Islamic banks, gross outstanding of the banking
sector decreased on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Gross outstanding housing
finance of Islamic banks showed an increase of 3.78% from the preceding
quarter to reach Rs 14.28 billion.
The increase in HBFC’s gross outstanding housing finance was 0.7%
over the same period.
Data shows a large portion of HBFC’s portfolio consists of small-sized
loans of up to Rs1 million as opposed to other institutions whose portfolios
seem tilted towards bigger loans of Rs 5 million and above.
The Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD) said the
stock of housing finance as a percentage of the size of economy is
‘embarrassingly low’.
“Instead of Rs 52.9 billion, housing finance should be at least Rs 500
billion in Pakistan. Its share in other economies of the region is 5% or above.
Banks must allocate at least 5% of their total annual disbursements to the
housing sector,” ABAD said.
The mortgage-to-GDP ratio was 0.45% at the end of the third quarter of
2014.
Referring to the moratorium on new gas connections to high-rise residential
buildings, ABAD said investors were holding back hundreds of billions of
investment because of bad policies.
Non-performing loans of the housing sector went up 1.75% during the
quarter to reach Rs15.93 billion. At the end of the July-September quarter,
HBFC’s share in total sector-wide NPLs was 40%, SBP data shows.
The stakeholders argue that multiple risks impact the performance of the
housing finance sector. Investment market in the country is in its very
rudimentary stages. Various scams and similar avenues of investment affect
the flow of investment. Lack of transparency in property markets is a key
constraint. Poorly conducted valuations and inadequate documentation hamper
the proper realization of the potential in this area. There are complicated and
cumbersome procedures of foreclosures. As many as 47 procedures have to
be fulfilled in this respect.
These costs do not include the various informal payments that are made
to functionaries. For
entrepreneurs and Hindu temple facing
investors in housing and demolition
construction sector, the
same risks and A historic Hindu temple in
predicaments exist. Rawalpindi was set to face demolition,
Despite the ample outraging the minority community in
potential of business and the country. The plan to demolish the
social need of housing, the Maharishi Valmiki Swami Ji Temple,
highly challenging popularly known as Balaknash Temple,
business environment along with a Hindu graveyard and 53
usually prevents single-room houses was stayed for
international investors, now, following a petition filed against
local businessmen and the order.
even ordinary people to
Housing 311
The emergence of katchi abadis shows that better controlled and managed
cities have not been able to extend affordable options for the urban poor.
save and invest in housing enterprises.
Katchi abadis
A katchi abadi (squatter settlement) is defined as an informal residential
area developed on land owned by public agencies or departments. When the
phenomenon of squatting became organized and spread to a sizable proportion
of urban residential locations in Karachi and other large cities of Sindh, the
Sindh Katchi abadis Authority Act was enacted in 1987 and an authority was
founded to manage katchi abadis affairs. Implementing government policies
on regularization, developing and improving katchi abadis, preparing guidelines
for implementation of policies, identification of new katchi abadis and their
monitoring, conducting socio-economic and cadastral surveys, preparing
development schemes and extending leases after fulfillment of conditions are
some key tasks undertaken by SKAA. As per standing criteria, katchi abadis
established before 30 June 1997 are eligible to be regularized. But the progress
on regularization has been slow in Karachi. The urban poor groups, many of
whom have been residing for several years, do not enjoy the security of tenure
that could encourage them to improve the conditions of their housing units.
With an estimated 9 million katchi abadis dwellers, the city requires a speedy
and efficient process of resolving katchi abadis issues.
The Punjab also approved a similar statute namely Punjab Katchi Abadis
Act of 1992. Abadis formed on the state land until 31 December 2011 were to
be considered for regularization. A survey on 154 katchi abadis of various
sizes was conducted by Lahore Development Authority in 2010 to examine
the status of regularization. Islamabad, once claimed a squatter-free city, now
faces several issues related to squatter settlements. According to an Islamabad
Police survey there are at least 24 katchi abadis in urban and rural areas of the
city, with 13,521 families consisting of 84,591 individuals living in them. The
police said that during the last five years, it traced 674 cases to residents of
these areas. Most of the crimes were related to the sale and purchase of drugs
and liquour.
Out of the 24 slums, the CDA only recognises 10. Slum-dwellers took out
protests against the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) announcement to
demolish 12 katchi abadis in and around Islamabad. The operation was
temporarily halted.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Katchi Abadis Act of 1996 has similar provisions
for the city of Peshawar and elsewhere. The katchi abadis are scattered all
along the city and peripheries. Many settlements also exist on railway lands.
While top government officials have announced the regularization of all abadis
on railways lands, the local functionaries often doubt implementation due to
administrative and legal reasons.
Regulatory matters
Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) is a key regulatory body.
However, the same body is also responsible for planning. It is a bizarre
arrangement that lacks checks and balances.
In Lahore and other cities of Punjab, an adequate statutory cover has been
in place for the past three decades. The Punjab Land Use (Classification,
Reclassification and Redevelopment) Rules of 2008, promulgated under Punjab
Local Government Ordinance 2001, provide a framework for classification of
residential areas and empower the LDA to undertake surveys and prepare
schemes for upgradation and re-development according to technical and
administrative prescriptions. A core issue faced by the urban neighbourhoods
in Lahore is low-density low-rise development towards the south.
Though the matter was adequately addressed in the Lahore Master Plan
2005-2021, no schemes were prepared for re-development and enhancement
of densification. The Punjab Private Housing and Land Sub Division Rules
2010 lay down the regulatory framework for development and sale of residential
and other properties. However, many unapproved and unregulated schemes
are frequently developed, often by politically influential developers in violation
of legal and administrative provisions. In Islamabad, the CDA exercises strict
control on the land development and housing construction process but expanding
peri-urban developments often flout the planning controls of the authority.
Peshawar also faces similar administrative and statutory issues due to the
absence of a technically sound and administratively valid master plan.
Rental housing
Access to housing in Pakistan is largely through ownership. As much as
Housing 313
Rising rent.
67.6 percent of the total existing housing stock was owner occupied as per
1998 census. A small percentage of households reside as tenants. Rental housing
has been found as an under developed option in the urban contexts in Pakistan.
Though housing choices are becoming exceedingly expensive for lower and
middle income groups, the possibilities of extending rental housing could not
be explored.
Rent control laws in Pakistan generally favour the tenants. Sindh Rent
Control Ordinance 1979 and Punjab Rent Restriction Ordinance 1959 have
many identical provisions. For instance, the law provides for an increase of
rent after three years. Given the high inflation rate, this escalation remains low
and adversely impacts the returns to the owner. Most of the tax increments
have to be shouldered by the owner. The law allows for passing not more than
half of the tax increment burden on to the tenant. Evictions are only possible in
the case of nonpayment.
Rental housing accounts for 20 percent of the urban stock in Punjab and
27 percent in urban Sindh. In Islamabad, with better provisions, the rental
housing market is 40 percent of the total. The owners also argue that the
tenants damage the property beyond the normal status of repairs. Also the fear
of losing control of property due to unauthorized and extended stay restrains
any increase in rental housing.
The Sindh Rental Premises Ordinance, 1979 is tilted against the property
owner. For instance, the law insists on the charge of “a fair rent” which is to
be mutually agreed or determined as a baseline by the Controller of Rent. For
repairs and maintenance, the law puts the burden on the owner. If the tenant
has damaged the property, there is hardly any possibility to legally recover the
charges from him or her. The tenants cannot be easily evicted from the
accommodation through legal course of action even when the cause for
A fire in Lahore’s congested Anarkali Bazaar led to the loss of at least 13 lives.
demanding vacation is genuine. It discourages people to rent out premises,

even in dire needs. If the tenancy agreement is executed in the name of a
widow or person from a disadvantaged category, the possibility of acquiring
possession becomes doubly difficult for the owner. Whenever the tenant wishes
to prolong the tenure of his tenancy, he or she conveniently resorts to litigation.
These type of cases can stretch to anywhere between five to ten years or even
more.
Directly and indirectly involved with this contractual arrangement are estate
agents who try to finalise the deal as quickly as possible to obtain commissions
from tenant and owner. In doing so, they seldom check the documents,
background and details of tenants or the status of the property. Since many of
the tenants or owners have little or no background of such documents and
their legal importance, they suffer in the eventuality of a dispute.
Fires
Fires in inhabited areas in the country remained a major hazard. While
accidental fires broke out in different types of locations including commercial
and industrial areas, the blazes in residential areas caused enormous agony to
ordinary people. A woman was killed in Rahimyar Khan when fire broke out as
a result of a terrorist attack on 10 February 2014. The terrorists targeted gas
pipelines in Yousufabad area and Basti Afzal Hamid Khumbara. Many people
were injured when gas cylinders filling LPG in a dense locality exploded on 07
May 2014 in Faisalabad. Two ghastly calamities hit the country during the last
days of December. Fire in timber market in Karachi caused loss of millions of
rupees, besides the agony to hundreds of affected households and businesses.
Several apartment buildings situated in the close vicinity were adversely
impacted, some of them possibly rendered unsafe for human habitation. A fire
Housing 315
broke out in Lahore’s congested Anarkali Bazaar rapidly engulfing the Alkareem
Market Plaza, leading to the loss of at least 13 lives and considerable damage
to merchandise and infrastructure. This occurred just a day after Karachi’s
Timber Market area was similarly burnt to ashes. Reportedly, there was just a
single entry-exit door at the multistorey Alkareem Market Plaza which housed
dozens of shops. That most of the deaths occurred as a result of suffocation
tells its own tragic tale.
Recommendations
1. A land and housing appraisal in the districts is needed to act as the
baseline inventory of housing situation. Development of a Housing Resource
Centre in each district is also necessary. The piloting of this approach can be
done in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi / Islamabad.
2. Initiation of Housing Price Index (HPI) and Housing Access Index
(HAI) through the assistance of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics is required.
3. HBFC needs to be overhauled to make it a potent and creative
organization. It may be encouraged to venture into new avenues such as
community mortgage programmes, housing credit assistance to public and
corporate organization employees, support to bankable housing projects in the
private sector and options of drawing funds from the public through permissible
financial channels.
4. Many options for extending support to less privileged groups can be
evolved. Relaxation of Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for house building projects
that aim to target urban poor, initiation of Transferable Development Rights
(TDR), revision of urban housing density standards in existing neighbourhoods,
initiation of urban re-development on the pattern of mixed land use and
revitalization of already launched low income schemes are some possibilities.
5. There is a need to take stock of the research work done on construction
of different forms and scales of housing, and examine its suitability and
relevance to housing demands in various contexts of the country.
6. Coordination among civic agencies such as the fire department and
rescue squads needs urgent improvement; tight alleyways and multifarious
encroachments across the country pose a formidable challenge of access to
firefighting and rescue teams; and most importantly, the need for public
buildings to be constructed to at least some modicum of safety standards, with
much stricter regulation.

Environment
All human beings have the fundamental right to an environment adequate
for their health and well-being.
States shall conserve and use the environment and natural resources
for the benefit of present and future generations.
States shall establish adequate environmental protection standards and
monitor changes in and publish relevant data on environmental quality and
resource use.
Proposed Legal Principles for Environmental
Protection and Sustainable Development
Article 1,2,4
Concern for the environment started gaining traction in the 70s when the
effects of rapid and rampant ‘development’ on the ecosystem manifested
themselves significantly and the muted voices warning about the finite nature
of resources grew louder.
The UN Environment Conference in Stockholm in 1972 saw the
mainstreaming of discourse on a clean and sustainable environment as a human
right. The Stockholm Declaration sought to lay down certain principles to
“inspire and guide the peoples of the world in the preservation and enhancement
of the human environment.”
Its first principle focused on the environment not just as a shared resource
for the present but for its preservation for the future generations.
In Pakistan, while the constitution does not recognise environmental rights
Environment 317
to be part of the fundamental human rights, the Bhurban Declaration adopted
by the Conference on Environmental Justice in 2012, set out a common Vision
on Environment for the South Asian Judiciaries. Important among other
collaborative and capacity/knowledge building measures recommended in the
Declaration, was the one “that the right to clean and healthy environment be
incorporated as a Fundamental Right in the Constitution.”
The Fundamental Rights granted by the Constitution of the Islamic Republic
of Pakistan, 1973 do not specifically mention water, energy, electricity or
water. However, the superior courts have extended the meaning of the
fundamental right to life to include a right to access to clean drinking water
(West Pakistan Salt Mines Labour Union (CBA) Khewra, Jhelum vs. The
Director, Industries and Mineral Development, Punjab, Lahore, 1994 SCMR
2061), a right to electricity (Pakistan Flour Mills Association vs. WAPDA, WP
26524 of 2011 decided by the Lahore High Court on 28 January 2013) and a
right to a clean and healthy environment (Shehla Zia vs. WAPDA, 1994 Supreme
Court 693) as interpreted in the light of Article 9 (right to life), and Article 14
(human dignity).
Pakistan is also a signatory to 15 Multi-Lateral Environmental Agreements
which makes it mandatory for the State to ensure the implementation of the
agreements that have been endorsed. These are:
1. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
2. Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety
3. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora (CITES)
4. Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially
as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention)
5. Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS)
6. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC)
7. Kyoto Protocol to UNFCCC
8. Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer
9. Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer
10. United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
11. Rotterdam Convention on prior Informed Consent (PIC) for certain
Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade
12. Basel Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movements
of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal
13. Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic pollutants (POPs)
14. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
15. Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and
Natural Heritage
The situation oscillated on two ends of the scale with the government. It
cannot claim ignorance of the indicators cited above, as all the reports were
either prepared in collaboration with the government or for the government.
However, the gap in governance belies the impression of knowledge, or concern
about the threats from a degraded environment.
In an interconnected world where forums are being set up to resolve
cross-cutting global, regional and trans-boundary issues, the subject of
environment was devolved to provinces after the 18th Amendment.
At the federal level, the Ministry of Environment went through a name
change and became the Ministry of Climate Change, then Ministry of Disaster
Management, which was then a Climate Change Division within the Planning
Commission. However, the law clearly states that “laws relating to the
environment enacted by the federal government before the 18th Amendment
will remain in force in the provinces till such time as it is amended or repealed
by the competent provincial assembly.”
Each provincial assembly was now to make its own law, and on 20th
March 2014, Sindh, the last province not to have done so, passed the
Environment Protection Bill. The other provinces already had their Green
Benches in place, as a follow-up to the Bhurban Declaration.
Progress on legislation has been slow because the importance of
environmental issues has not yet seeped into the political system. The political
parties that had taken part in the 2013 elections, gave very low priority to
environment in the manifestos, and some did not mention it at all. (See page
320)
Party Position Chart
Political Parties Position on Key Issues – Elections 2013
Issues ANP JUI(F) MQM PML PML-N PPPP PTI
Environment Issues n û nn nnn n n nn
No Stance û General n Detailed nn Extensive nnn
Forest cover
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf formed a coalition government in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa. This allowed it to put into action the Green Growth Initiative,
developed by party member and former minister of state for the environment,
Malik Amin Aslam, who is also the Global Vice Chair of IUCN.
He has listed the key environmental challenges of Pakistan, i.e. energy,
Environment 319
Environmental Issues
Environmental issues figure prominently in the overall governance framework.
Environment not only affects productivity, availability of natural resources, but also has an
effect on health expenditures, reduced labour productivity, and other areas. Following table
outlines the environment-related policies and programmes of various political parties:
Party Proposed programme
ANP a Special importance to be accorded to protection of environment in the country
b Ensure improved access to clean air, drinking water, waste management,
sanitation and open spaces.
MMA a No specific reference made in the manifesto.
MQM a Improvement of environment by making efficient use of natural resources and
energy, respecting the natural world and wild life, utilizing the open spaces, eco-
friendly designs and construction methods, recycling waste, plantation on a large
scale and creating parks in each locality
b Extensive forestation to be undertaken in a most aggressive way
c Ensure industrial effluent and untreated sewage are not dumped in to the sea
d Environment friendly urban development will be regulated
e To combat industrial waste initially the government will facilitate installation of
Combined effluent Treatment plants.
PML a Set up a National Environment, Climate change and Water Resources Authority
b Compliance with all EPA requirements will be ensured
c Establish green spaces through public parks
d Design national guidelines and modules for the development of towns and cities.
Activate the environment protection act 1997
f Eliminate the timber mafia
g Ban the import of hazardous chemical wastes
h Deny exploitation of off shore resources
i Waste disposal measures to be put in place
PML-N a Encourage ecologically sound development policies to preserve and develop the
country's natural and forest resources to counteract the impact of global warming
PPPP a Develop national parks, sanctuaries and reserves and promote ecotourism
b Deforestation to be curbed
c Curb the trafficking of endangered species
d Use the green economy frame work
e Strengthen the federal and provincial Institutions engaged in sustainable
development activities.
PTI a Clean air and potable water to all will be the primary focus
b The Environmental Impact assessment (EIA) requirements will be enforced for all
development projects
c Industrial pollution to be tackled through CETPs/clean production promotion EIAS
d Rapid deforestation will be halted
e Green jobs will be created through environment friendly alternative economic
activities
f Mass transit system in the most affordable and green manner will be introduced
g Policy of Value Nature to Preserve Nature will be followed
h Climate change will be addressed
i Disaster management will be treated with urgency. -- Source: PILDAT

water, forestry, transport, air pollution, waste generation, agriculture,
biodiversity protection, ecosystem valuation as well as overall environmental
governance.
This initiative envisages gathering stakeholders to plant a billion trees in
the province. This move to increase the woefully small tree cover is designed
not only to prevent environmental degradation, and soil runoff during torrential
rain, but also to earn them carbon credits by sequestering carbon as a mitigation
measure.
Pointing out to the scarcity of water, skeptics have voiced concern as to
the volume of water resources needed to nurture so large a number of trees.
But there is no denying the need for an aggressive tree plantation to increase
the woefully inadequate forest cover of Pakistan (4.8% against the global
recommended 25%), which has the highest rate of deforestation in Asia. This
has already resulted in disasters related to rain and flood as the soil cover is
denuded and the water runoff has no barrier to check its flow. Other than the
right of the local communities to use forest and forest products, the timber
mafia, either in collusion with the local officials, or due to a weak governance
system has been denuding the stock.
Citizen activism was able to halt the trend last year after getting courts to
intervene and overturn the decision of the outgoing prime minister, Raja Pervez
Ashraf, regarding timber movement in Gilgit-Baltistan, under the pretext of
which new stock was cut down.
The KP government initiative for increasing the forest cover and monitoring
the stock, should serve as a model for the other provinces to take advantage
of the international mechanisms like REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation) which “is an effort to create a financial
value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing
countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon
paths to sustainable development.”
It may work in a manner similar to the Trophy Hunting programme initiated
by Pakistan for biodiversity conservation in which the community has a financial
stake in the efforts to save the threatened forests. Similarly, once the community
realizes that there is financial benefit in saving, preserving, and increasing the
forest reserves, the weakness of the governance structures can be overcome.
Besides this one ambitious move, the situation in other provinces is
reflective of the vision, or lack thereof, of parties ruling them; it corresponds
to the glaring omissions that can be seen in the election manifestos.
This then, is the situation in a country that has been ranked among the top
ten in the Global Climate Risk Index, for three years running; one with the
lowest tree covers and highest rate of deforestation in Asia; a country that has
been moving down the scale from being a water stressed to being water
Environment 321
Pakistan has woefully inadequate forest cover.
scarce; has the worst incidence of urban air pollution in the world; is the most
urbanized country in South Asia, with its attendant problems of resource
constraint, slum dwelling and socio-economic impact of migration; with around
6% of the GDP going in as health costs of environmental degradation.
Water resources
These measures were taking place alongside Pakistan’s adopting, among
others, Indicator 7 of the Millennium Development Goals which commits to
‘ensuring environmental sustainability.’ The UNDP report tracking Pakistan’s
progress in meeting these goals has this to say about the Indicator 7:
“With regards to MDG 7, Pakistan has achieved the target of access to
improved water resources when three sources of improved water are taken
into account: tap water, hand pumps and electric motor propelled water. Pakistan
has also surpassed its target of converting 0.920 million of vehicles on
Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) with more than 2.8 million vehicles reported
to be running on CNG in 2008. Pakistan is on track to meet the target for land
protection for the conservation of wildlife as a percentage of total land area,
an indicator for MDG 7.
“Similarly in the area of ensuring environmental sustainability, MDG 7,
while Pakistan has made significant progress in some indicators allowing the
achievement of 2015 targets to be likely, there is a lag in equity based indicators
of forest cover, sulphur content in high speed diesel, proportion of population
with access to sanitation and energy efficiency. Attitudes and a lack of
awareness about environmental issues as well as gross violation of government
regulations pose serious challenges in overcoming this lag.”
Despite falling short in areas which impact the largest number of Pakistanis
the commitment to work towards their materialization was evident in accepting
the Sustainable Development Goals outlined in the Rio+20 summit. These
goals have been described as building on the foundation laid by the MDGs,
and seeking to complete the unfinished business of the MDGs, and to respond
to new challenges.” These goals have a far more interconnected agenda and
environment can be seen as a crosscutting theme, which can tie in with the
Vision 2025 espoused by the Planning Commission.
This also falls in line with the definition of environment given by the
Pakistan Environment Protection Act (PEPA 1997), that is:
“environment” means:
(a) air, water and land;
(b) all layers of the atmosphere;
(c) all organic and inorganic matter and living organisms;
(d) the ecosystem and ecological relationships;
(e) buildings, structure, roads, facilities and works;
(f) all social and economic conditions affecting community life; and
(g) the inter-relationship between any of the factors specified in sub-
clauses (a) to (f)
According to the “Environment and Climate Change Outlook of Pakistan”
prepared by the Climate Change Division of the Planning Commission and
UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), there has been a growing
realization, post-2000, to pay attention to the environmental problems beyond
the economic development paradigm. The social sector linkages plus a more
holistic ecosystem-based approach is now reflected in the number of sector-
specific policies drafted. This change in priorities flowed from the adoption of
the National Conservation Strategy in 1992.
These include:
♦ Biodiversity Action Plan of Pakistan 2000 ·
♦ National Action Programme to Combat Desertification in
Pakistan 2002
♦ Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper 2003
♦ National Energy Conservation Policy 2006
♦ National Sanitation Policy 2006
♦ Pakistan Wetland Programme 2007
♦ Energy Security Action Plan 2005
♦ National Drinking Water Policy 2009
♦ National Water Policy 2005
♦ National Rangeland Policy
Environment 323
♦ National Wetland Policy
♦ National Forest Policy
♦ National Climate Change Policy
These in effect cover all actions and interactions, which if not conducted
sustainably would impact human rights.
Water impacts all life, human, plant and animal. So, it needs to be looked
at the regional, trans-boundary, provincial levels from the angle of availability
and equitable distribution, with the underlying principle of securing the rights
of the lower riparians.
Pakistan already has the Indus Water Treaty with its own dispute resolution
mechanism that governs the volume and distribution of water from the
Hindukush-Himalayan mountains between India and Pakistan. The treaty has
withstood the test of time despite two major wars and several armed conflicts
like Kargil.
Growing population and its demand for water, especially for agriculture,
has given rise to contentions about the interpretation of the treaty. International
arbitration has so far ruled in favour of India by factoring in the element of
climate change which was not known at the time of drafting the treaty.
This lesser amount of water received into Pakistan from the eastern rivers
because of the reservoirs being built by India has been touted as ‘water wars’
and many have tried to claim political mileage out of the divergent stands of
the two countries on this. The decibels increased when in 2014 more water
than was expected entered Chenab and flooded vast tracts, and this was also
seen as a sign of provocation.
Agencies like World Bank have recommended “Work[ing] with
neighbouring countries through international agencies such as UNDP/Global
Environmental Facility (GEF) to prevent chemical and biological pollution by
effectively managing industrial, domestic and agricultural effluent disposal.”
Seen in the context of degradation of the river Ravi, and the contamination
from the Hadyara Drain of India flowing into the Ravi, trans-boundary dialogue
with third party oversight becomes imperative. The lives of all the people
associated with the river Ravi, be they farmers, fisherfolk or boat owners
who used them for transport and recreation are inexorably linked to the health
of this river.
The hyperbole associated with this complex subject of water sharing needs
to be tackled as the divergent views have created tensions between the two
neighbours, as well as within Pakistan, between the provinces. Despite the
Water Apportionment Award of 1991, there are always allegations of less than
the allocated release by the lower riparians.
Of the 48.76 MAF (Million Acre Feet) of water apportioned for Sindh, the
International Panel of Experts recommended:
An escapage at Kotri Barrage of 5000 cubic feet per second (cusecs)
throughout the year has been recommended as the amount needed as e-flows
or water for the environment that is needed to be allowed to flow to the sea to
recharge the delta. It recommended that a total volume of 25 MAF in any five-
year period, or 5 MAF annually, be released below Kotri as flood flows (Kharif
period).
WWF Pakistan and WWF UK report on the Indus River Basin security,
while focusing on Integrated River Basin Management, recommends the
involvement of farmers in decision making about water use, especially at farm
level. Right now, they do not have access to the benefits of technology like
timely meteorological, cropping and input information. Access to modern
technological tools, like computers, cell phones and other tools of ICT must
come with safeguards about the disposal of e-waste, for which no legislative
framework exists. While Pakistan’s rural areas may be late starters in their
use, the tools are widely used in urban areas. The rate at which the tools
become obsolete is very high. As there are hazards attached to the many of
their components, guidelines need to be adhered to in their disposal, in line
with the Basel Convention.
Conventions, laws and regulations are the basis on which a system can be
made to function. Even on water, research reports call for ‘a comprehensive
set of water laws that define water rights, uses, value, conservation and
principles of pricing, subsidies, licences and polluter penalties.’
Reservoirs and water storage facilities to ensure availability of this volume
have still not been built, taking water security to dangerous levels. Any such
plans however, must take into account the rights of the communities inhabiting
the lands where the building of storages, dams and reservoirs are planned.
Attention must also be paid to the cultural heritage that stands to be
compromised, especially in the upper reaches, like Gilgit-Baltistan, for instance
in the case of Diamer-Bhasha Dam, where the Gandhara petroglyphs are likely
to be obliterated.
One effect of reduced flows downstream Kotri barrage cited in an IUCN-
Pakistan report is the worst cases of environmental degradation in Sindh. The
report says, “It is believed that sea intrusion is the main cause of destruction
of several thousand hectares of land in the coastal districts of Thatta and
Badin, rendering prime agricultural land barren, contaminating aquifers and
causing degradation of coastal deltaic and riverine ecosystems. The degradation
Environment 325
of land and water resources has severely affected fishing and agriculture –
the two principal vocations of the local populations – resulting in loss of
livelihoods, migration to the hinterland and rise in poverty levels.” These
few points in themselves encapsulate all the human rights compromises the
people of the coastal belt have to bear.
Equitable availability of water for agriculture, industry, urban use and
environmental flows is still a contentious matter, especially in view of the
spectre of glacial retreat as a result of climate change. To promote water
conservation, experts recommend that besides building storages like dams
and reservoirs, water subsidies must be abolished and water must no longer
be made available as a free resource (aquifer management).
The subsidies on power usage for water extraction have wreaked havoc
in places like Balochistan, and have depleted ground water reservoirs. While
taxation in a climate where focus needs to be on poverty alleviation is a step to
be considered carefully, successful pilot schemes have been run by
environmental organizations like IUCN Pakistan whereby water metering
directly resulted in water conservation. The polluter pays concept also served
to save the resource from contamination.
One of the missed MDGs was the availability of clean drinking water for
all. Water quality has a direct bearing on health, as water borne diseases are
the first to take their toll on the segments of the population that have no access
to clean drinking water.
Laxity in adherence to and monitoring of NEQS (National Environment
Quality Standards) has resulted in municipal, industrial and chemical pollutants,
plus agricultural runoff contaminating water courses.
Open defecation and lack of water treatment facilities has caused the
quality of water to be compromised as well as the health of the marine life in
the coastal belt and fresh water sources. This has contaminated an important
link in the food chain, and affected the health and livelihood of the communities
associated with the trade.
Waste management
Also related to health and environment are solid waste management and
safe disposal of hazardous industrial/chemical, hospital and what is known as
‘e-waste.’ Despite years of on again off again negotiations with the Chinese
and then the Turks, we are still without a proper solid waste plan, or carefully
sited landfills. Industrial waste with harmful chemicals and heavy metals falls
untreated into the water bodies.
In the case of Manchar Lake in District Dadu, the toxicity had increased
Industrial waste with harmful chemicals and heavy metals falls
untreated into the water bodies.
to such a level that an entire community of ‘boat people’ was displaced, as

their source of food and livelihood had been snatched from them.
Food and energy security also rest on water.
Depletion of water resources is going to severely affect food security,
which is already a cause for concern because of the high population growth
rate that outstrips all development indices.
However, experts agree that the country has the land and the capacity to
feed its population if rational land use is practised. The agrarian base requires
attention in a variety of ways. A key factor in increasing land under tillage
would be to grant land rights to landless farmers, and make them stakeholders.
Measures like granting them lease have hardly been more than an eyewash
as those given the lease were never really able to own the land. They were not
able to meet the nutrition needs of even their own households.
Climate change
Food security stands to be compromised due to climate change caused by
the shifting pattern of monsoons. For the third year running a pre-monsoon
spell of heavy rain and hail in March has damaged crops.
The farming community is vulnerable to these changes and there are not
enough safety nets to bolster them and help them ensure food security. The
knowledge and research of developments in this field need to reach the farming
community. For the third year running farmers are bearing losses from severe
Environment 327
Pakistan struggles with increasingly unpredictable weather
patterns linked to climate change.
‘pre-monsoon’ rain and hailstorms that have damaged crop ready for harvesting,
and livestock.
Climate change experts cite this shifting pattern of monsoons as the reason
to bring urgency to adaptation measures in the country’s agricultural sector. A
recent study in econometrics, conducted by LUMS/WWF/LEAD under IDRC
funding, clearly showed that the farmers using adaptive techniques including
crop rotation and substitution had a 40% greater yield.
A political revival of the peasants’ movement, still in its nascent stage,
may auger well for ensuring the rights of the marginalized tillers and growers.
Professional farmers’ associations, now being formed at district and even
some union council level, need to be strengthened to ensure safeguards for the
farming community. The coming together of the farming community provides
the government a negotiating partner when fixing prices and subsidies. The
last two years have also seen growing activism on the part of farmer
communities in trying to get the best deal for themselves.
Here again, complete decentralisation, right down to the union council
level is seen as a solution to the problem, by agro-economists like Dr Pervaiz
Amir, who says that Pakistan’s nine different agro-ecologies have different
problems so their solutions also need to be developed at the micro level to be
able to protect their rights and ensure food security for all.
Farmers have to be a part of the participatory approach in the development
of solutions, and greater emphasis needs to be put on mainstreaming gender in
dialogue and implementation. The agricultural sector has a very large number
Members of the Islamabad civil society protesting against the tunnel project.
of women workers, but they are mostly voiceless farm hands with no say in
decisions about choice of crops or prices. They are also not paid wages equal
to their male colleagues, and there are no safeguards available to them against
health hazards caused by the chemicals used in farming.
This is also true of the fisheries sector where women make up a large part
of the labour force. The fisherfolk, along the coasts as well as by rivers and
canals, remain marginalized and suffer from livelihood compromises due to
the environmental degradation of their habitat, resulting in loss of catch. Here
too laxity in regulation of illegal nets, poor implementation of laws that allow
for illegal interprovincial trawling as well as sweeping of the marine stock by
international trawlers just off the Exclusive Economic Zone, and many times
inside it directly impact the economies of the fishing communities.
Many fishing villages have experienced large scale migration of the able
bodied youth in search of livelihood options. This has not only disturbed the
social fabric of the communities but has also contributed to the strain on the
nearby urban areas which act as magnets and draw them towards the cities,
whose infrastructure and municipal facilities are unable to keep pace with this
population shift.
Food and water security and energy shortfall

Tied to the issues of environmental rights is the case of access to energy
which impacts food and water security. The energy supply and demand gap
has become a politically explosive issue. The election promises regarding the
resolution of the power crisis helped the present ruling party to come into
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power, but that resolution still seems to be out of reach.
Energy shortfall, whether due to generation or transmission, has impacted
all sectors, including agriculture and industry. Not only has production suffered
setbacks, but its trickledown effect has resulted in increasing unemployment,
and poverty. Besides overhauling the power infrastructure which is rife with
technical as well as operational inefficiencies, a frenetic search has been
mounted for other options.
Other than the on again off again discussion on the IPI (Iran Pakistan
India) or now just the IP Pipeline and the external support for the TAPI
(Turkmenistan Afghanistan Pakistan India) Pipeline, attention is being focused
on the Thar coal deposits which are being touted as the panacea for all energy
related ills of the country.
Environmental experts as well as civil rights activists have been sounding
a note of caution on two scores; one, the ‘quality’ of the coal, with its sulphur
content, as being environmentally unfriendly, and two, rights of the local
communities to the benefits from local resources.
On the first score, coal, especially Thar coal, fares very poorly due to its
mineral composition. This source of ‘dirty’ energy will do no favours to
Pakistan’s standing on the air quality index. According to a World Bank report,
the harm from Pakistan’s urban air pollution is among the highest in South
Asia, exceeding several high-profile causes of mortality and morbidity in
Pakistan.
This is more in the urban areas due to the mix of the diesel exhaust fumes
from vehicles and the particulate matter in the air in tandem with the problem
of a low tree cover that can act as carbon sinks. However, the prospect of
extractive, strip mining, for a finite, fossil fuel reserve considered to be of low
energy output which is not good value for money means that the non-urban
areas will also experience a serious loss in air quality.
Extractive industry has proved to be quite damaging to the environment.
Another point to watch out for is the extensive use of water in extraction, as
is true in the case of the other ‘silver bullet’ being cited for the energy crisis;
shale gas. Both of them require huge quantities of water, which, in a water-
stressed country like Pakistan, has to be carefully considered.
There has been little or no stakeholder engagement in the discourse on
exploitation of this fossil fuel. Thar is one of the poorest regions of the country.
There is very little by way of land ownership. The population is scattered over
a vast area and one of the biggest problems it faces is the availability of potable
water. Their reliance is totally on underground water. Coal extraction through
the use of this resource will severely compromise their rights to this natural
resource. The people of Thar stand to lose the right over their ancestral land
and its resources.
Indigenous people
Similar to their plight is the case of the ‘indigenous people’ who have not
been defined as such by the constitution, and no laws exist to safeguard their
rights. Many of the traditional fishing and pastoral communities fall within the
definition given by the UN, which has urged countries to draw up their national
definitions and frame laws to protect them. However, Pakistan still lacks any
progress on this count, and that is how their rights on the land they traverse or
live on, and its resources are usurped without their having any recourse to
justice.
We not only see rights of communities in Thar compromised, but all along
the coast fishing communities are seeing their land taken over, and traditional
livelihood resources being put out of their grasp in the name of development
schemes. For instance, Pakistan has a coastline extending from Sir Creek
bordering India to covering 243,000 hectares (ha) along Sindh’s coast and
7,400 ha along the Balochistan coast.
Mangroves
According to Mangroves for the Future, the economic importance of
mangroves to Pakistan largely comes from the fishery resource they harbour.
An estimated 80% of the fish caught in coastal waters spend at least part of
their life cycle as fry in the mangrove creeks, or depend on the food web
within the mangrove ecosystem. Shrimp fishery is the major fish export of
mangroves, accounting for 68% of the $100 million of the foreign exchange
the country earns from fisheries exports.
Despite forestry laws that forbid cutting, and Pakistan twice having entered
its name in the Guinness Book of World Records as the country planting most
mangrove saplings in a day, the depletion and degradation of the coastal habitat
continues. The depletion in the marine stock has a direct bearing on the
economic well-being of the communities whose livelihood depends on fishing.
Pakistan Fisher Folk Forum puts the estimate of persons associated with
fisheries as 4 million, 2 million of them with marine fisheries while the rest
with inland fisheries.
Development projects
Large development projects, and housing developments have been
squeezing their space, and they have been excluded from any of the benefits
of these developments. Besides this, the industries sited along the coast
discharge their effluent in the sea without any treatment. So, the creeks and
Environment 331
Felling of trees along the Lahore Canal.
channels that once thrived with marine live now have very little of it. Samples
taken by members of environmental organizations for testing have shown that
there are traces of heavy metal in the fish and other marine life. This continues
despite the clear guidelines of NEQS which require the installation of effluent
treatment plants by the industries.
Industrial effluents and municipal waste of the city the size of Karachi are
being thrown directly into the sea, severely compromising the health of the
sea and not much action is seen on part of the provincial EPAs against the
polluters. If and when any fines are levied, they are so nominal that they
hardly make a dent in any profitability, and that is why the practice of
environmental degradation continues.
Environment activism
Rights-based activism on environmental issues has been the highlight of
2014. With greater awareness at the level of judiciary and citizenry, we have
seen a clear progress. Taking a cue from the Shehla Zia case that upheld a
clean and healthy environment as a right to life, wherever the government has
not been proactive, citizens have come together as groups and highlighted
rights abuses.
In the case of the Margalla Hills Tunnel case in Islamabad, for example,
which impinged on the laws about Protected Areas and National Parks, or the
Lahore Canal Road Widening case in which massive tree cutting was to be
undertaken, citizens took legal recourse after activism had highlighted the
issue.
In the Margalla Hills Tunnel case, the project was shelved, but in the
Lahore canal case, there has been back and forth with the Punjab government
getting its way, partially, and the citizens taking the case to the Supreme Court.
In the case of violation of biodiversity protection laws, where the
government departments were seen to be dragging their feet, the citizens
stepped in, like in the case of the hunting of the threatened Houbara Bustard
through illegal grant of licenses by the Foreign Office, which is not the
competent authority.
The Balochistan High Court immediately put a ban on its hunting, and the
violators were prosecuted. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa too officials of the Wildlife
Department were suspended after their collusion in hunting of rare birds was
uncovered through the social media by citizens.
Another positive development was when 200 blackpond turtles were
brought back to Pakistan from China through the efforts of Sindh Wildlife
Department and WWF-Pakistan. They had been smuggled to China despite
Pakistan being a signatory to CITES (the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) since 1976.
Perhaps the most promising development on the environmental rights of
the citizens of Pakistan was the decision by the Sindh High Court to admit a
petition against the location of two new nuclear power plants on the Karachi
coast, alongside the existing but now dysfunctional KANNUP.
The basic argument of the citizens was that any such project required an
EIA, Environmental Impact Assessment, in which the pros and cons of the
project are discussed threadbare, and citizens’ fears and reservations are heard
and addressed. This process was bypassed in the name of ‘project of national
importance’, but this was deemed to be in violation of the regulations.
This is the first time ever that a petition of this nature has even been
admitted for hearing and orders given to conduct a public hearing in accordance
with the rules of EIA. The question of projects proceeding without completing
the formalities of EIA is also being raised about the Bahria Town flyover in
Clifton Karachi, and the Islamabad Metro.
Recommendations
1. Adherence to existing laws and regulations in their true spirit will
ensure safeguard of the environmental rights of humans and species that they
co-exist with
2. Concept of ‘polluter pays’ needs to be mainstreamed to not just mitigate
the effects of any ‘development’ action that does not mainstream sustainability
within it, but also to act as a deterrent for any future project design that does
not keep environmental protection as its integral part.
3. Capacity building of the cadre of lawyers and members of the judiciary
Environment 333
to take up environmental cases
4. Capacity building of the Government Line Departments so they are
able to monitor and safeguard the environment.
5. Collaboration between citizens’ bodies who take up environmental
issues because they are ultimately human rights issues.

Refugees
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 1
Pakistan remained home to millions of displaced persons at the end of
2014. These included refugees – Afghan nationals, who had fled their country
during various phases of armed conflict since 1979 — and internally displaced
persons.
At the end of 2014, Pakistan was host to the largest number of refugees
worldwide, nearly all from Afghanistan. These included around 1.5 million
Afghans registered with the authorities and roughly a similar number of
unregistered Afghan nationals, illegally staying in the country. A number of
deadlines have been set for the complete repatriation of these refugees. The
last deadline was given in June 2013 when registered refugees were allowed
to remain in Pakistan until the end of December 2015. The situation in
Afghanistan at the end of 2014, and the pace of repatriation during the year
under review did not offer substantial basis to believe that this latest deadline
for repatriation would be met either.
2014 was another year of multiple displacement crises in Pakistan and
another year when the country chose not to incorporate into legislation or
Refugees 335
otherwise benefit from Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, the non-
binding guidelines drafted by the United Nations in 1998. The bulk of millions
of internally displaced Pakistanis during the year under review were uprooted
amid military operations against militant extremists in FATA and in massive
floods in September in Punjab, and Gilgit-Baltistan. Some displacement
occurred in the Thar and Cholistan deserts, where severe drought forced tens
of thousands of citizens to migrate.
The number of conflict displaced, from North Waziristan Agency in FATA
in particular, appeared to surprise even the authorities and exposed widespread
lack of preparation to support and protect the uprooted populations.
The population affected by the creation of Attabad lake in the Gilgit-Baltistan
region remained displaced for the fifth year and cracks on mountain slopes
raised fears of more villages being affected and their population uprooted.
Some residents of Dera Bugti in Balochistan were able to finally return home,
even though it took a court order and a rather long sit-in on a key national
highway to draw attention towards their plight.
Although the uprooted population was the first to suffer as a result of
displacement, they had little or no influence over the decisions that affected
them. Even among this population, women and children were the most
vulnerable, and had even less say or control over the decision-making process.
Understanding the disaster from an identity and gender perspective remained
missing and conflict displaced women were restricted from receiving relief
goods on account of lack of identity documents or under a jirga pronouncement.
The long wait of hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis, who have been
stranded in Bangladesh since 1971, to be brought back to their country continued
without an end in sight. The only worthwhile attention paid to their continued
plight in 2014 was the Supreme Court of Pakistan admitting for regular hearing
a petition seeking their repatriation from Bangladesh.
Afghan refugees
Pakistan is a signatory neither to the 1951 UN refugee convention nor the
1967 protocol to that convention. A tripartite agreement among Pakistan,
Afghanistan and the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, regulates the presence
of registered Afghans in Pakistan and a programme for their voluntary
repatriation.
In 2005-06, a one-off registration exercise for Afghans in Pakistan was
conducted. All those who registered with Pakistan’s National Database and
Registration Authority (NADRA) received Proof of Registration (PoR) cards.
The holders of these cards were facilitated by the UNHCR and protected
against expulsion. Since then, no new registration has taken place except for
children born to registered Afghans. After a federal cabinet’s decision in 2013
At the end of 2014, Pakistan was host to the largest number of refugees
worldwide, nearly all from Afghanistan.
the deadline for repatriation of registered Afghans was extended until the end
of 2015.
With the exception of a few specific scenarios, NADRA, with support
from UNHCR, concluded in December 2014 the PoR card renewal project for
registered Afghan refugees, whose cards had expired at the end of 2012. The
renewal exercise was expected to close by mid-February in 2015. The renewed
PoR cards were valid until 31 December 2015, as was the Tripartite Agreement
on the Voluntary Return of Afghan Refugees signed by the governments of
Afghanistan and Pakistan and UNHCR, which emphasised the principle of
voluntariness of return.
HRCP acknowledges UNHCR’s support in providing the statistics on
refugees and in facilitating understanding of the refugee issues in Pakistan.
According to the year-end statistics, based on the data of renewed PoR cards,
some 1.5 million registered Afghan refugees still remained in Pakistan. A similar
number of unregistered Afghans were also believed to be in the country.
Until the end of the year, NADRA registered 30,913 new-born children to
PoR cardholders and more than 8,454 Afghan children below the age of eighteen
received birth certificates. Recently simplified procedures for the grant of
birth certificates were expected to lead to an increase in the issuance of this
important document.
A little over half a million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan lived in
76 refugee camps, or refugee villages, as UNHCR called them, while the rest
Refugees 337
lived outside those camps. Of the
UNHCR-assisted repatriation refugee villages, 65 were in
from Pakistan to Afghanistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 10 in
(2004-2014)
Balochistan and one in Punjab.
Year Repatriated individuals
The unregistered Afghans did
2004 383,598
not enjoy any protected status in
2005 449,520 Pakistan and were dealt under the
2006 133,015 scope of the provisions of the
2007 364,476 1946 Foreigners Act.
2008 282,496 The UNHCR-facilitated
2009 51,290 voluntary repatriation
2010 109,383 programme, which only assisted
registered Afghan refugees
2011 52,096
holding valid PoR cards,
2012 83,423 continued throughout 2014.
2013 31,800 During the year under review,
2014 12,991 12,991 registered Afghan
Total 1,954,088 refugees (2,684 families) went
Source: UNHCR back home under the voluntary
repatriation programme. This was
the lowest number of UNHCR-assisted annual returns in the past 11 years.
The previous lowest figure was recorded in 2013 when 31,800 Afghans had
returned under the repatriation programme.
From the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which hosted close to one million
registered refugees, only 5,320 Afghans (1,096 families) left for their country
in 2014. This was a figure lower even than 16,250 refugees who went back in
2013, already the lowest number in the last few years.
The low numbers reflected the refugees’ assessment that the condition on
the ground in Afghanistan had not improved, especially in the east and south
of the country, for them to return home. Besides poverty, natural disasters,
lack of security and political instability in Afghanistan swayed their decision.
There were no reports of Pakistan forcibly sending any registered refugee
to Afghanistan during the year under review.
UNHCR’s mandate did not cover unregistered Afghans. However,
individuals who claimed to be at risk of human rights violations or other serious
harm in case of return to Afghanistan could apply for refugee status with
UNHCR. During 2014, UNHCR received 5,702 applications from Afghan
asylum-seekers. The government of Pakistan had agreed to issue PoR cards
to those Afghans that UNHCR recognizes as refugees during its refugee status
determination (RSD) procedures. This decision was to be implemented in
2015. UNHCR Pakistan was also assisting some 666 non-Afghan asylum-
UNHCR-assisted repatriation of Afghan refugees in 2014
Province/region Families Individuals
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 1,096 5,320
Balochistan 1,088 5,359
Sindh 256 1,141
Punjab 225 1,076
Islamabad 19 95
Total 2,684 12,991
Source: UNHCR
seekers and refugees, mostly from Somalia, Iran and Iraq.

The presence of the large number of Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan
fuelled discussions on its impact on the country’s resources and law and
order. A brutal attack on a school in Peshawar by the Taliban in particular
brought the focus firmly on early repatriation of Afghans from Pakistan.
The usual suspects

The December 16 Army Public School attack in Peshawar, the capital of
the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, negatively impacted the asylum space in
Pakistan and soured the general sentiment even against registered Afghan
refugees.
In the last two weeks of December, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government
asked the federal government to expedite the return of Afghan refugees and, in
the meanwhile, impose curbs on their movement, and house them outside the
province.
In the week following the attack, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government
said the terrorist attack had been planned in Afghanistan and added that Afghan
refugees had a month to leave the province.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister called the “presence and
unrestricted movement of Afghan refugees... a constant source of crime” and
worsening law and order situation in the province. He said the main factor
behind the province being affected the most in the war against terrorism were
the Afghan refugees. He said that the provincial cabinet had unanimously agreed
on sending Afghan refugees back because “they are not only a burden on our
economy but have also caused increase in heinous crimes”. He demanded the
federal government change the timeframe for the repatriation of Afghan
refugees, saying the provincial government could not wait for another year.
He said until repatriation, the Afghans should be confined in camps outside
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Addressing a news conference alongside a UNHCR representative on
Refugees 339
December 23, the minister for states and frontier regions (SAFRON) rejected
the notion that Afghan refugees would be sent back to their country against
their wishes after the Peshawar school attack. He said the registered Afghan
refugees had never been found involved in terrorism-related incidents in the
country and that they “will be sent back respectfully on a voluntary basis and
according to the timeframe decided upon”.
A spokesman for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government later stated that
the province was considering the establishment of around five camps in various
cities of the province and limiting the registered refugees to these camps.
Curbs in Haripur
In one of the first signs of action against Afghan nationals in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, police in Haripur district were reported in the last week of
December to have asked both registered refugees and unregistered Afghan
nationals living in the city limits to relocate to designated camps and restrict
their movement to the camps at night.
Police were reported to have made announcements over loudspeakers in
various localities in Haripur, asking any Afghan refugees who had rented
accommodation within the city limits to vacate the houses within three days
and move to a camp located outside the city. They also asked owners of
houses rented by Afghans to evict them within three days if they did not want
criminal cases filed against them.
The Haripur district police chief said the restriction on the movement of
Afghans had been placed around a year ago under Section 144 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure and the police had merely renewed the previous order. He
said a decision had been made to restrict the movement of Afghan refugees
from 8.00 pm until 8.00 am and the order would apply to both registered and
unregistered Afghans. The police officer said Section 144, which restricted
the assembly of five or more persons at a place, would be applicable to PoR
card holders also.
Afghan businessmen were reportedly permitted to visit the city after 8 am
but had to leave the city area before 8 pm.
Afghan refugees gathered at a central location in the city to protest as the
deadline ended. They said the three-day deadline was insufficient as hundreds
of Afghan families had been living in rented houses for years. They said some
families had established their businesses and relocating to camps without proper
facilities would expose them to a variety of problems. They said their children
were studying at different schools and were not accustomed to living in camp
conditions. The protesters asked the administration to review its decision or at
least extend the deadline to allow them to settle with their families in the
designated areas.
The provincial authorities later said that under the federal government
policy, registered refugees could stay in the province, so the police would not
arrest them.
It was not just the provincial government, but others, including speakers
at a Qaumi Jirga in Peshawar later in December, which called, in the same
breath, for action against terrorists and sending Afghan refugees back to
Afghanistan without delay.
Internal displacement
2014 was another year when the number of internally displaced persons
was higher in the country than the number of Afghan refugees. Armed conflict
and natural disaster were the main causes of displacement. Around two million
citizens were displaced by two military operations in Khyber and North
Waziristan agencies of FATA even as tens of thousands of IDPs languished in
districts bordering the tribal areas following previous military operations against
the Taliban. The figures did not include thousands of families that were not
registered with the authorities and lived with host families or relatives.
Military operations against militant extremists in North Waziristan Agency
in June and Khyber Agency in October accounted for almost all the conflict-
induced displacement in 2014. Hundreds of thousands of citizens displaced
from FATA amid military operations against the militants in previous years also
remained displaced.
Women among the displaced population were reported to have faced a lot
of problems in accessing relief and not much appeared to have been done to
address those problems.
On their own
The exodus from North Waziristan Agency of citizens fearing a military
operation had started much before the actual operation started in June. Families
leaving the area to seek sanctuaries elsewhere had started surfacing as early as
January 2014. Close to the launch of the June 15 military operation, the affected
population had to face a lot of difficulties on account of closure of roads,
suspension of electricity and lack of means of transport. Thousands of people
were reported to have walked tens of kilometres because they could not afford
the inflated transport cost.
The displacement from North Waziristan exposed lack of preparation and
even elementary things such as the precise number of the affected population,
exposing the uprooted citizens to much more suffering than they should have
suffered on account of leaving their homes.
According to the last population census, in 1998, the population of the
Refugees 341
entire FATA region, of which North Waziristan Agency was a part, was 3.1
million. The figure was understood to not count a large number of women as
tribesmen were generally reluctant to provide information about women family
members. North Waziristan’s population was over 360,000, according to the
1998 census. The population at the time of the operation was assumed to be
half a million.
However, the scale of the exodus far exceeded the assumed numbers.
Nearly 400,000 displaced individuals from North Waziristan registered with
the authorities within a week of the operation starting and the number exceeded
one million in the first month. Towards the end of June, the defence minister
had said that the government expected the number of displaced persons from
North Waziristan to be around 700,000. In November, another minister said
the number was around two million, including 1.5 million registered and half a
million unregistered individuals.
The exodus from North Waziristan added a fresh layer of displacement on
top of the crises from Bajaur, Kurram and South Waziristan where the affected
population was yet to be repatriated because peace could not be restored to
their areas.
In October, the security forces launched an operation against an outlawed
militant group in Khyber Agency. In the first three weeks of the operation, the
number of displaced persons (34,054 families) from both Tirah and Bara had
reached 245,482. By mid-December, 597,386 displaced individuals from Khyber
Agency had been registered.
The Fata Disaster Management Authority staff said with most of the new
displaced families already registered with them since 2009 and 2010, they
were providing one time cooked food and free transport to the new families.
Thousands of families who shifted to Jalozai camp near Nowshera district of
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa complained of little or no assistance from the authorities.
Some spoke of living under the sky with very little food and medical care
available to them. The camp had already been housing 5,000 Bara families for
the last five years. Many families that could not afford to rent a house said that
they had come to Jalozai for temporary shelter.
Not welcome
Just as the conflict-affected North Waziristan displaced started leaving
their homes ahead of an operation against the militants, reports emerged of
some provincial authorities opposing entry of the displaced citizens from FATA.
In June, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly criticised what it saw
as a ban on IDPs’ entry into other provinces. A day earlier, the provincial
governor had expressed concern over Sindh and Balochistan ‘banning’ IDPs
from North Waziristan.
In mid-June, the Sindh information minister stated that individuals coming
from outside Sindh would be registered at the inter-provincial borders and
allowed entry only after satisfying the authorities about the purpose of their
visit and giving the name of the person they intended to visit. However, the
leader of opposition in the National Assembly, who was from the ruling party
in Sindh, stated in early July that no one could bar displaced persons from any
part of the country. The Punjab government also rebutted an earlier impression
of barring access to the internally displaced.
Starting in July, a number of Sindhi nationalist parties launched ‘Sindh
Bachao’ (Save Sindh) movement against IDPs’ entry into Sindh. They also
tried to block traffic between Punjab and Sindh for a couple of days. The
protesters stopped traffic entering Sindh from Punjab through a major route
for one whole day. The following day they staged sit-ins at Ghotki and Kandhkot
bypasses. However, on that day the protesters only stopped buses and trucks
carrying the IDPs, while allowing all other vehicles to pass through.
Some commentators suggested that the FATA displaced needed to feel
that they were taking refuge within their own country and also called upon
advocates of curbing IDPs’ movement that they were not coming out in droves
because they wanted to live in camps in Peshawar, Karachi or Lahore.
No timeframe
On November 20, the federal minister for state and frontier regions said
that over 90 percent area of North Waziristan Agency had been cleared of
terrorists in the military operation, but no timeframe could be given for the
return of around two million internally displaced persons from the tribal agency.
He said the government did not want to allow the terrorists an opportunity to
use the population as human shields by sending the displaced home amid an
ongoing battle.
Throughout the year, citizens displaced from other parts of FATA during
security forces’ earlier operations against extremist militants demanded that
they should be allowed to return to those parts of the tribal agencies that had
been purged of the militants. However, only small numbers of displaced from
some parts of FATA trickled back to their native areas during 2014.
Overshadowed
The displaced persons from North Waziristan and those forced to flee the
conflict in Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber and Orakzai tribal agencies were very
critical of a lack of attention to their needs by both the federal and provincial
Refugees 343
government after August, when two separate but somewhat coordinated
dharnas (sit-ins) converged on the federal capital. The displaced persons felt
that the ruling and opposition politicians in both the federal and the Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa government were busy in power wrangling rather than attending
to their needs. They complained that the dharnas had occupied not only the
attention of the government but also pushed IDP concerns out of the media
focus and perhaps also official priorities.
War of words
After the launch of the North Waziristan operation, tens of thousands of
residents were reported to have fled across the border into Afghanistan.
Responding to the Afghan authorities’ statements that they would welcome
the displaced from Pakistan, Pakistani authorities said that instead of tempting
displaced families from North Waziristan, Kabul should focus its energies on
honourable repatriation of the millions of Afghans living in Pakistan for several
decades. The Ministry of States & Frontier Regions (SAFRON) in June rejected
Kabul’s claim that 100,000 persons from North Waziristan Agency (NWA)
had migrated to Afghanistan. It said 33,000 residents of North Waziristan had
crossed back into Pakistan after the armed forces launched the military
offensive.
Protection concerns for the displaced

Besides being forced to leave their homes, the internally displaced persons
also faced threats and attacks from the militants in their camps and at locations
established by the authorities for their registration. At times it seemed that the
very threats which these people had fled from had followed them.
The deadliest attack against displaced persons occurred in Hangu on
September 28, when eight persons, including three children, were killed and
12 others injured in a bomb explosion inside the Muhammad Khwaja Camp for
internally displaced persons from Orakzai Agency of FATA. All the casualties
were individuals displaced from Orakzai after a military operation was launched
against the militants in 2008. Around 1,100 families from Orakzai had been
staying in the camp, while many others had rented houses or were staying
with relatives or in rented accommodation, mainly in Hangu and Kohat.
On June 10, militants had attacked the same camp with rockets and hand
grenades, following earlier threats asking the affected population to leave the
camp by June 11 or face the consequences. A large number of the displaced
persons had left the camp following the June attack. However, some of the
displaced persons were reported to have told the media at the time that they
did not have any money for travel and if they had been condemned to dying at
Internally displaced Pakistanis.
the hands of the Taliban then they could not change that.
Five persons were killed and 10 wounded when a suicide bomber targeted
a registration centre for internally displaced persons of Khyber Agency in
Peshawar on May 11. The displaced persons planning to return to their homes
in Tirah Valley and Bara in Khyber were being registered at the camp and given
Rs25,000 in cash and ration for six months.
In June, families uprooted from North Waziristan were reported to have
refused to stay in a camp set up by the government in the Bakkakhel area in
the Frontier Region (FR) Bannu as the militants had threatened them through
leaflets.
The affected families stated that security for their families was their priority
and that was why they had left their villages. They called upon the government
to open a relief camp for them in either Bannu or Lakki Marwat districts rather
than in Bakkakhel where they had already been threatened by the militants.
Exodus averted
A reportedly impending security forces operation in Bajaur Agency of
FATA was said to have been called off in July, after the local Mamond tribes’
jirga and the security forces agreed that the jirga would support the forces’
efforts against the militants by denying them shelter and joining the forces in
attacking the militants.
Vulnerabilities of displaced women

In their flight, much as had been the case during their stay in their native
area, women were the most vulnerable section of the displaced population.
Refugees 345
They were not consulted on decisions that affected their lives the most and
their special needs were neglected almost without exception.
Because of the local norms in FATA that restricted women’s mobility,
education and social interaction, the displaced women were said to lack
confidence to access relief goods. The female literacy rate in the area was
reported to be only 3 percent. A large number of women did not possess
national identity cards, which made access to relief goods impossible. There
were no separate registration points for women.
Even those who had identity cards found their path to relief blocked.
Under a Jirga decision endorsed reportedly by some political parties as well,
women residing in the camps for North Waziristan IDPs were barred from
receiving the relief goods. This severely affected women who had no adult
male family members, as well as female-headed households of widows or
women whose husbands, brothers, or fathers were working abroad.
The young women in the camps were also reported to be facing sexual
harassment, which was said to be forcing minor girls’ families to marry them.
Civil society organisation highlighted the fact that the relief organisations’
staff and the camps lacked basic facilities for women, partly because men
organised and managed them and struggled to comprehend women’s needs in
displacement settings.
These factors made the suffering of displaced women much more acute
than the situation of men.
Education and children

In September, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government decided to enroll all
displaced children from Waziristan in government schools. Some tented schools
were also opened for the IDPs. However, one of the general complaints of the
displaced persons was that the existing educational infrastructure simply did
not have the capacity to cover the displaced population. Reports of children
from displaced families standing at the back of the class or at the door because
of lack of seating capacity also surfaced.
There were also accounts of children being unable to resume their
education after their displacement, because they were expected to, or felt
compelled to, support their families.
In a further challenge to education, in September when the schools were
about to open after vacations, North Waziristan IDPs were yet to vacate 572
schools where they had been accommodated.
Displaced in Sialkot
Around 40,000 people had to leave their homes in dozens of villages in
Sialkot, after cross-border shelling by Indian forces. Many started living with
Around 40,000 people had to leave their homes in dozens of villages in Sialkot,
after cross-border shelling by Indian forces
relatives in nearby villages. Hundreds of houses were damaged or destroyed in

the shelling.
Finally heading home

A convoy of 100 members of the Bugti tribe reached Dera Bugti district in
Balochistan in early February after being displaced from their homes about
nine years ago. They had tried to move to the district about two weeks earlier,
but the security forces had not allowed them through. The displaced Bugtis
had blocked a major inter-provincial highway in protest and had ended the
protest eight days later. Later on they moved the Balochistan High Court which
allowed them and thousands of other displaced individuals from the district to
return to Dera Bugti after registering themselves with the authorities.
Challenges and opportunities

The massive population movement overwhelmed the healthcare
infrastructure in host communities. In Bannu district, the health department
officials said that the district had never hosted such a large displaced population
and that its health facilities were unable to cope. World Health Organisation
was reported to be helping the authorities build capacity. The Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa health department was sending doctors from teaching hospitals
on rotational basis.
The exodus from Waziristan allowed an opportunity to administer oral
polio vaccine to children, who had not been unimmunised for two years in
North Waziristan. Recent massive movements of IDPs combined with
Refugees 347
displacement by the floods had increased the risks of the polio virus spreading.
Protesting for equal treatment

In August, the displaced in Jalozai Camp, Nowshera district, set up a
protest camp outside the Peshawar Press Club that continued for over 50
days. Their main demand was that they should be given ration and compensation
package equal to that being provided to the IDPs from North Waziristan.
They stressed that the government should not discriminate between the
IDPs hailing from North Waziristan and those who were displaced earlier
from other tribal agencies and were still staying in camps or in rented houses
or with relatives.
Natural disasters
In the first week of September, late and concentrated monsoon rains
resulted in flash floods in Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir
(AJ&K), with more than 2.5 million people affected. Besides partial or total
damage to thousands of homes, significant loss of livestock and crop damage
at the height of the harvest period affected livelihoods.
The National Disaster Management Authority said that 23 districts in
Punjab, five in Gilgit-Baltistan and 10 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir had borne
Flood losses in 2014.

Floods displaced thousands of people.
the brunt of the floods.

The Punjab government called the floods the worst to hit the province in
five decades, destroying 3,450 villages and displacing over half a million people.
In early October, the federal government appealed to the international
community for help to rehabilitate the people displaced by floods and the
military operation in North Waziristan.
The 2014 floods represented the fourth year in a row that Pakistani citizens
had been affected on a large scale by flooding, highlighting absence of effective
prevention and control measures. While some reports acknowledged that floods
were a recurring natural phenomenon, they hesitated to call the subsequent
displacement a ‘natural’ disaster, because of poor planning and preparedness.
Media reports showed evidence of the flood victims becoming desperate and
raiding aid trucks.
Homeless in Hunza
Thousands of people remained displaced in Hunza in Gilgit-Baltistan five
years after a massive landslide which destroyed three villages—Attabad, Sarat
and Ayinabad. Another three villages—Shishkat, Gulmit, Ghulkin—were
submerged when the debris from the landslide blocked the flow of the Hunza
River. The affected villages had a combined population of over 7,400 people.
Around 3,000 continued to live in three temporary camps established for them
since January 2010. The camps lacked basic facilities and the shelters built for
the people grew too hot in the summer and too cold in winter. An early return
for these people did not appear to be a priority with the authorities.
In October, it was reported that nearly 5,000 people could lose their homes
and lives as land around Gulmat village on the slopes of the nearby Nagar
Valley mountain had developed cracks and had started sliding towards the
Refugees 349
Hunza River. Gulmat was not far from Fakar village—also in Nagar and also
facing a similar situation. In mid-September, a large portion of Fakar had
collapsed and landed in the river, blocking its flow temporarily.
The local residents’ demand for an immediate survey by experts to avoid
further disaster was yet to be heeded at the end of the year.
Marooned in the desert

Thousands of residents of the Thar desert in Sindh and Cholistan desert in
Punjab were forced to leave their homes amid drought-like conditions on account
of prolonged absence of rain. The desert inhabitants had to relocate because
of a shortage of drinking water and fodder for their cattle as rainwater ponds
dried up. In Cholistan, disease among cattle was also said to have caused
displacement in the last quarter of the year.
According to media reports in March, tens of thousands of Thar residents
had migrated after Tharparkar witnessed a third consecutive year without
rain. Wind-swept sand covered whatever little grass had survived. The cattle
herders were reported to have migrated along with their stock to areas with
Thousands of residents of the Thar desert in Sindh and Cholistan desert in

Punjab were forced to leave their homes amid drought-like conditions.

water and fodder, while many young men were reported to have moved to big
cities like Karachi and Hyderabad to look for work as in the desert absence of
rain generally meant absence of work.
Stranded in Bangladesh
There was little hope in sight for an early end to the de facto statelessness
of hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh since 1971.
Also known as Biharis, an Urdu speaking community, they lived in refugee-
like conditions and faced discrimination. They maintained that they were
Pakistani nationals when Bangladesh emerged as a separate country and should
be repatriated. However, Pakistan had declined citizenship and repatriation to
them.
In the last few years, Bangladesh granted the right to vote to the Biharis
who were minors at the time of the 1971 war or were born later. There was
still no legal recognition for people who were adults in 1971. They lacked
access to government jobs, schooling or even access to many basic facilities.
The only worthwhile attention paid to the continued plight of these stranded
Pakistanis in 2014 was that the Supreme Court accepted for regular hearing a
petition filed in 2009, seeking repatriation of the Pakistanis stranded in
Bangladesh.
The petitioner said the Pakistan government had no right under the
constitution and the law to withhold repatriation of its citizens. The petition
also requested the court to order the government to look after the stranded
Pakistanis living in camps and provide food and medicines till the time they
were repatriated to Pakistan.
The matter was pending at the conclusion of the year 2014.
Recommendations
1. Pakistan, Afghanistan and the international community must speed
up efforts to find lasting solutions to the prolonged displacement of the millions
of Afghans. For as long as they are in Pakistan, effective steps must be taken
to ensure respect for their rights.
2. Emergency response should only be seen as an initial part and not as
a solution of problems associated with internal displacement. More thought
needs to be given to the recovery and development stage in the displacement
cycle.
3. Participation of displaced persons in the decision-making process
must be ensured to mitigate their plight. They must have a say in how camps,
registration and returns are managed. The challenge of forced displacement
should be used as an opportunity to address social norms that discriminate
Refugees 351
against women, in order to ensure that customs are not used as a fig leaf to
deny women their rights.
4. Registration of internally displaced persons must be made simple and
easy and treated as an entitlement rather than as a favour.
5. The disproportionate effect of displacement on women and children,
including health, education and economic issues, must be taken into account
and addressed. Assistance and healthcare should also include psychological
counseling.
6. Immediate and meaningful action must be taken without further delay
to end more than four decades of de facto statelessness of Pakistanis stranded
in Bangladesh.

Appendices
HRCP activities 353

Appendix - I
HRCP activities
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) carried out a number
of activities during 2014 to raise awareness among citizens about basic rights
and fundamental freedoms, monitor the rights situation and engage in advocacy
to seek protection of human rights in the country.
The various chapter and taskforce offices of HRCP across the country
organised workshops, fact-finding missions, seminars, research and rallies on
human rights issues. The HRCP Expert Group on Communities Vulnerable
because of their Belief continued to highlight the issues and concerns of religious
minorities. HRCP Economy Watch monitored financial allocations for key
human rights concerns in the federal and provincial budgets. Students were
sensitised about human rights at schools, colleges and universities. Public
meetings were held in districts across the country to engage communities on
the issues of peace and tolerance.
The HRCP, in collaboration with the OMCT, held two consultations on
the implementation of the UN Convention against Torture in Karachi and
Islamabad. The consultations brought together foreign and local experts and
stakeholders from almost all parts of the country. A workshop was arranged
in Islamabad to assess federal and provincial laws on access to information
and workshops on electoral reforms were held at the provincial level. Another
workshop at Islamabad discussed ways to make the Election Commission
truely independent and more efficient. The HRCP also arranged a number of
trainings for human rights activists in all the provinces on promoting human
HRCP activities 355
A consultation on the implementation of the CAT in Islamabad.
rights education and research to realise pluralist ideas.

On World Day against the Death Penalty, HRCP offices and district Core
Groups across Pakistan held rallies and seminars to demand abolition of the
death penalty in the country. HRCP organised conventions of writers, poets
and artists in all four provincial capitals to discuss their role in promoting
human rights and peace in society. A convention for the rights of peasants was
also organised to bring to the fore the struggle of peasants in the country.
The HRCP conducted fact-finding missions to Balochistan, Karachi and
Thar in 2014. The provincial chapters of the commission also conducted a
number of fact-finding missions.
In the monthly meetings held at all offices, HRCP members discussed
human rights issues at the regional and national level. The HRCP Complaints
Cell received a large number of queries, complaints and other communications.
The HRCP websites drew extensive comments on the Commission’s stance
and initiatives, and human rights issues in general. Hundreds of students,
researchers, journalists and others interested in information about various
aspects of human rights consulted the HRCP online archives that were
refurbished during the year for better accessibility. A break-down of the
organisation’s main activities during the year follows.
Workshops/Seminars/Meetings
Jan 24, Karachi: Brainstorming session on the state of human rights,
attended by representatives of NGOs and an FIDH delegation
Jan 25 & 26, Karachi: FIDH & HRCP workshop: The state of religious
minorities in Pakistan: challenges & response
Jan 29, Islamabad: Press conference for FIDH mission on the state of
religious minorities in Pakistan attended by local, foreign media and civil society
Jan 31, Karachi: A presentation by Dilawar Khan Tanauly on the impact
of violation of labour rights on society
Feb 14-16, Lahore: Training of Trainers (TOT) from Punjab, KP and
Gilgit-Baltistan on ‘promoting human rights education and research to realise
pluralist ideas’.
Feb 17, Karachi: Presentation by Baseer Naved of AHRC on the ‘State of
Human Rights in South Asia’
Feb 18, Islamabad: A Policy Dialogue to highlight the importance of
‘Women’s Representation in the Local Government Election’, in collaboration
with Oxfam, Centre for Civic Education Pakistan, Khwendo Kor, SAP PK and
SAFWCO, attended by representatives of major political parties, provincial
governments, NCSW, CSOs and media
Feb 20, Hyderabad: Meeting on the cases of enforced disappearance in
Sindh.
Feb 21-23, Lahore: Training of Trainers (TOT) from Sindh and
Balochistan ‘on promoting human rights education and research to realise
pluralist ideas’
Feb 25, Karachi: Arranged a meeting of civil society organizations working
on minority rights with Mrs Razia Jaffar and Mrs Nayyar Salam of the Institute
of Social Sciences (ISS).
Feb 27, Karachi: HRCP council members (Sindh) meeting
Feb 28, Karachi: Monthly meeting. Shamil Shams, from Deutsche Welle,
Germany, was invited to talk on ‘Literature and Human Rights’.
March 07, Karachi: Celebrated Women’s Day at Arts Council.
Peshawar: Focal Group discussion with minorities’ representatives
FIDH -- HRCP workshop
HRCP activities 357

Policy Dialogue: ‘Women’s Representation in the Local Government Election’
March 14, Hyderabad: A session on the ‘rights of people in natural

disasters with reference to Thar famine’ and a candle vigil for the child victims
of Thar drought.
March 19, Hyderabad: Dialogue in collaboration with the Association of
Rural Development (ARD) on the rights of religious minorities in Thar.
March 20, Hyderabad: Civil society meeting on registration of a
blasphemy case against three Hindu boys of village Neo Dhambalo, Badin.
March 21, Hyderabad: Meeting with Hyderabad DIG seeking protection
for Hindus in the area after registration of the blasphemy case.
March 21, Karachi: HRCP members meeting
March 22-23, Kandhkot, Sindh: Training workshop on human rights
education and research to realise pluralist ideals.
March 25-26, Pano Aqil, Sindh: Training workshop on human rights
March 29-30, Mandi Bahauddin, Punjab: Training workshop on human
rights education and research to realise pluralist ideals.
March 28, Karachi: Rochi Ram’s presentation: Pir Pagara Sibghatulla
Shah Rashdi, a freedom fighter and his relevance to the modern times
March 31, Turbat: Seminar on International Women’s Day
April 4, Hyderabad: Meeting on Sindh Assembly Act against Anti-Women
Practices
April 5, Hyderabad: Attended a stakeholders meeting on education
April 5-6, Toba Tek Singh, Punjab: Training workshop on human rights
April 12-13, Swat, KP: Training workshop on human rights education
and research to realise pluralist ideals.
April 12-13, Kehror Pakka, Punjab: Training workshop on human rights
April 19-20, Quetta, Balochistan: Training workshop on human rights
April 19-20, Gambat, Sindh: Training workshop on human rights
April 22-23, Bolan, Balochistan: Training workshop on human rights
April 22-23, Mehrabpur, Sindh: Training workshop on human rights
April 22, Rajanpur: District meeting on the rights of children, women,
labour and minorities
April 23, Layyah: District meeting on the rights of children, women,
April 24, Islamabad: Launch of annual report: “State of Human Rights
in 2013”
April 28, Quetta: Focal group discussion on minorities’ rights
April 28-29, Quetta: Survey at University of Balochistan and BUITEMS
April 30, Hyderabad: A roundtable discussion on ‘privatisation and labour
rights’ to mark the International Labour Day
April 30, Karachi: Meeting to call for an increase in the EOBI pension
May 3, Sahiwal: District meeting on the rights of children, women, labour
and minorities
May 3, Khanewal: Dialogue on enforced disappearances and torture at
District Bar Khanewal
Launch of annual report: “State of Human Rights in 2013”.
HRCP activities 359

Condolence reference for Rashid Rehman.
May 3-4, Lalian, Punjab: Training workshop on human rights education

May 6, Multan: Dialogue on freedom of press, in collaboration with
Multan Press Club
May 8, Gilgit: A meeting to pay tributes to Rashid Rehman, lawyer and
HRCP regional coordinator, who was shot dead in Multan
May 8, Hyderabad: Condolence meeting for Rashid Rehman
May 8, Islamabad: Condolence meeting and vigil for Rashid Rehman
May 9, Karachi: Condolence meeting for Rashid Rehman and protest
against his killing
May 9, Quetta: Condolence meeting for Rashid Rehman
May 10-11, Kalam, KP: Training workshop on human rights education
May 10-11, Kasur, Punjab: Training workshop on human rights education
May 13-14, Bahawalnagar, Punjab: Training workshop on human rights
May 14-15, Bahrain, Khyber Pukhtunkhwa: Training workshop on
human rights education and research to realise pluralist ideals.
May 17-18, Okara, Punjab: Training workshop on human rights education
May 12, Hyderabad: Meeting to discuss livestock department employees’
demands
May 17, Hyderabad: A talk on ‘citizens concerns on media rivalry’, in
collaboration with a net-radio (Voice of Sindh-London).
May 20, Sukkar: Workshop on forced conversion and marriages
Vigil for Rashid Rehman.
May 21, Karachi: A meeting to express solidarity with journalists working

for the Geo-Jang group
May 23, Hyderabad: HRCP Hyderabad members’ monthly meeting
May 23, Hyderabad: A meeting with labourers released from bondage
May 24-25, Mailsi, Punjab: Training workshop on human rights education
May 27, Karachi: A seminar on the ‘Challenges to Freedom of Expression’,
in collaboration with Karachi Press Club
May 27, Hyderabad: Meetings with office bearers of bar associations in
Hyderabad to express concerns on targeted attacks on lawyers and human
rights defenders
May 28, Islamabad: Reference for Rashid Rehman, in collaboration with
SAFMA and AAS Foundation
May 30, Karachi: Talk by Prof Dr Sahar Ansari on ‘Jadeed Daur maen
Adab aur Sahafat kay rohjanat’ [Literary and journalistic trends in the modern
era].
May 30-31, Tangi, KP: Training workshop on human rights education
June 3, Hyderabad: Meeting with Valmeki Hindu youths who complained
against attempts to occupy their ancient graveyard at Tando Yousif Town,
Hyderabad
June 3, Karachi: Comics workshop on ‘Media’s Role in Religious
Harmony’.
June 5, Quetta: District Awareness Raising Programme at Dukki, District
Loralai
June 6, Quetta: District Awareness Raising Programme at Ziarat
June 7-8, Aliabad, Gilgit-Baltistan: Training workshop on human rights
HRCP activities 361
Press conference: “Building Consensus for a South Asia Human Rights Mechanism”

June 7-8, Samaro, Sindh: Training workshop on human rights education
June 9-10, Tandobago: Training workshop on human rights education
June 11, Islamabad: Arranged a meeting for a South Asians for Human
Rights (SAHR) and Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-
ASIA) delegation with the Foreign Affairs Secretary and SAARC DG on the
prospects of establishing a South Asia Human Rights Mechanism for the region
and for broader regional cooperation on human rights.
June 11-12, Nagar, Gilgit-Baltistan: Training workshop on human rights
June 12, Hyderabad: A meeting to condemn murder attempt on a peasant
Haji Sobho allegedly by a landlord of Sanjhoro, Sanghar district.
June 14-15, Daur, Nawabshah: Training workshop on human rights
June 11, Islamabad: Arranged a meeting with the ambassadors and high
commissioners of SAARC countries for a SAHR and FORUM ASIA delegation
on the prospects for establishing a South Asia Human Rights Mechanism for
the region and for broader regional cooperation on human rights.
June 12, Islamabad: Arranged a press conference for SAHR and Asian
Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) delegation on
“Building Consensus for a South Asia Human Rights Mechanism”
June 11-12, Gilgit: Training workshop on human rights education and
research to realise pluralist ideals.
June 13-14: Ghizer, GB: Training workshop on human rights education
June 14-15, Daur, Sindh: Training workshop on human rights education
June 16-17, Gilgit: Training workshop on human rights education and
June 16-17, Diamer, GB: Training workshop on human rights education
June 17, Quetta: District Awareness Raising Programme in Quetta at
Hasan Moosa Girls College
June 20, Hyderabad: Discussion on Sindh Budget for 2014-2015 fiscal
year
June 20, Hyderabad: Meeting in Hala Town on Bhagri community’s
persecution
June 24-25, Pishin: Training workshop on human rights education and
June 25, Hyderabad: A meeting where elders of peasant families camped
outside the press club briefed HRCP on the reasons for their protest
June 26, Karachi: In collaboration with different NGOs, HRCP arranged
a seminar on ‘International Day in Support of Victims of Torture’.
June 26, Gilgit: A meeting with representatives of civil society organizations
to observe the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
June 26, Quetta: Protest to mark the International Day In Support of
Victims of Torture at Quetta Press Club
June 26-27, Ziarat: Training workshop on human rights education and
June 26-27, Takht Bahai, KP: Training workshop on human rights
June 27, Gilgit: A workshop on “the role of youth in sectarian harmony
Consultation on Laws on Sexual Harassment and their Implementation
HRCP activities 363

and democratic development in Gilgit-Baltistan”
June 27, Karachi: Monthly presentation by Momin Khan Momin on
‘Conflict Resolution’
June 28, Hyderabad: A consultative dialogue titled ‘the impact of water
supply and sanitation on citizen’s health’
June 28, Islamabad: A consultation on the laws on sexual harassment
and their implementation in Pakistan
July 4, Hyderabad: Joint meeting of civil society organizations HRCP,
PILER, PFF and SPARC in the context of peasants’ protest.
July 4, Karachi: A presentation on the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR) at ZABIST
July 7, Hyderabad: Javed Memon, a political activist, thrown blindfolded
near Badin bus stop, Hyderabad told HRCP he was abducted on November 25,
2013 and tortured by unknown persons. According to him they questioned
him about explosions in Sindh, weapons, and party funding.
July 17, Karachi: Workshop on ‘Local Government: Pitfalls & Prospects’
in the context of Sindh Local Government Act, 2013.
July 18, Karachi: Meeting of the HRCP Expert Group on Communities
Vulnerable because of their Belief
July 21, Karachi: HRCP press conference on the findings of a fact-
finding mission on Karachi situation.
July 22, Hyderabad: Alternative resolution of dispute between peasants
and a landlord
August 5, Karachi: HRCP, PILER and PFF organized a meeting on Baldia
factory fire.
August 8, Islamabad: Monthly meeting of Islamabad-Rawalpindi HRCP
members and lawyers
August 8-9, Meharr, Sindh: Training workshop on human rights
education and research to realise pluralist ideals
August 9, Kasur: District meeting on the rights of children, women,
August 9-10, Layyah, Punjab: Training workshop on human rights
August 10, Gujranwala: District meeting on the rights of children, women,
August 10-11, Sehwan Sharif: Training workshop on human rights
August 11-12, Kot Addu: Training workshop on human rights education
and research to realise pluralist ideals
August 12-13, Ratto Dero, Sindh: Training workshop on human rights
August 16-17, Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab: Training workshop on human
rights education and research to realise pluralist ideals
August 19, Nankana Sahib: District meeting on the rights of children,
women, labour and minorities
August 19-20, Ahmedpur Sharqia: Training workshop on human rights
August 23, Sukkar: Meeting on electoral reforms
August 23-24, Abbottabad: Training workshop on human rights education
August 27-28, Mansehra: Training workshop on human rights education
August 29, Islamabad: HRCP members’ monthly meeting. Presentation
by Shakil Chaudhry on Urdu-language newspapers
August 30-31, Shangla, PK: Training workshop on human rights
August 29, Karachi: Discussion on “Democracy and Pakistan” by Ayub
Qureshi, Information Secretary, Sindh National Party.
August 29, Karachi: Demonstration by JAC to express solidarity with
democratic forces of the country
August 29, Dalbandin: District Awareness Programme at Dalbandin Press
Club
August 30, Vehari: District meeting on the rights of children, women,
HRCP’s consultation: Pakistan’s Post-2015 Development agenda.
HRCP activities 365

August 30, Islamabad: A consultation titled Pakistan’s Post-2015
Development Agenda identified the challenges faced by Pakistan in meeting
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and prioritized key development
goals for the next 15 years.
September 4, Hyderabad: Interaction with students of St. Bonaventure
School, Phulleli, Hyderabad on human rights
September 04, Quetta: District Awareness Programme in Kharan at
Inter Girls College, Kharan
September 04, Quetta: District Awareness Programme in Noshki at
Elementary College, Noshki
September 04-05, Gilgit: Training workshop on “promoting human rights
education and research to realise the pluralist ideals” for human rights activists
September 06-07, Danyor: Training workshop on “promoting human
rights education and research to realise the pluralist ideals” for human rights
activists
September 06-07, Matiari: Training workshop on “promoting human
activists
September 9, Quetta: Interactive meeting on electoral reforms
September 9-10, Sanghar, Sindh: Training workshop on “promoting
human rights education and research to realise the pluralist ideals” for human
rights activists
September 9-10, Minimerg, Gilgit-Baltistan: Training workshop on
“promoting human rights education and research to realise the pluralist ideals”
Hyderabad: Interaction with students on human rights.

for human rights activists
September 11-12, Jamshoro, Sindh: Training workshop on “promoting
rights activists
September 13-14, Tando Allahyar: Training workshop on “promoting
rights activists
September 13-14, Ghanche, Gilgit-Baltistan: Training workshop on
September 16-17, Mithi, Tharparkar: Training workshop on “promoting
rights activists
September 16-17, Shigar, GB: Training workshop on “promoting human
activists
September 12, Islamabad: Lawyers and journalists meeting on IDPs in
Bannu and street children
September 13-14, Ghanche, Gilgit-Baltistan: Training workshop on
September 14, Turbat: Training workshop on the rights of children,
women, minorities and labour
September 16-17, Shigar, GB: Training workshop on “promoting human
Youth Festival in Quetta.
HRCP activities 367

Consultation on election reforms.
activists
September 19, Hyderabad: Cecilia Borgia of META research,
Netherlands, was briefed on the issues of fishermen communities of Sindh
coastal areas.
September 20, Hyderabad: Forum on Understanding Scottish
Referendum
September 20, Shiekhupura: District meeting on the rights of the child,
September 20, Islamabad: Consultation on election reforms, attended
by representatives of political parties, civil society and media
September 20-21, Uthal, Balochistan: Training workshop on “promoting
rights activists
September 21, Turbat: Training workshop on rights of children, women,
minorities and labour.
September 23, Sargodha: District meeting on the rights of the children,
September 23-24, Bela Town, Balochistan: Training workshop on
September 25, Naseerabad: District Awareness Programme
September 25, Islamabad: Consultation on special laws and reforms in
Fata
September 26, Jhal Magsi: District Awareness Programme
September 27, Jaffarabad: District Awareness Programme
October 10, Islamabad: Monthly meeting
October 6, Hyderabad: Meeting at HRCP Sindh chapter office, Karachi
to review HRCP activities in Hyderabad
October 8, Quetta: Consultation on local bodies in Balochistan
October 9, Quetta: Interactive meeting on electoral reforms
October 10, Gilgit: A consultative meeting of civil society representatives
in connection with the World Day against Death Penalty
October 14, Hyderabad: Preparatory meeting for Writers and Artists
Convention in Hyderabad
October 18, Gilgit: A session to review the “Caught in a new great game?”,
HRCP fact-finding mission’s report on GB
October 18, Turbat: A training workshop on the rights of children, women,
minorities and labour
October 18-19, Noorpur Thal, Punjab: Training workshop on “promoting
rights activists
October 21, Hyderabad: Consultation on the rights of minorities, women,
children and labourers in Hala Town, Matyari
October 21-22, Shorkot, Punjab: Training workshop on “promoting
rights activists
October 24-25, Kabirwala, Punjab: Training workshop on “promoting
rights activists
October 22, Tando Muhammad Khan: District meeting on the rights of
minorities, women, children and labour
Consultation on special laws and reforms in FATA.
HRCP activities 369

October 24, Multan: A lecture by Qazi Abid, head of Urdu Department,
BZU, Multan on human rights
October 25, Sialkot: District meeting on the rights of the children, women,
October 25, Quetta: Balochistan Writers and Artists Convention
October 28, Toba Tek Singh: District meeting on the rights of children,
October 31, Jamshoro: District meeting on the rights of children, women,
October 31, Hyderabad: District meeting on the rights of children, women,
October 27-28, Chitral, KP: Training workshop on “promoting human
activists
November 1, Chinot: District meeting on the rights of children, women,
November 1-2, Shereen Gal, KP: Training workshop on “promoting
rights activists
November 1-2, Deepalpur, Punjab: Training workshop on “promoting
rights activists
November 4-5, Adenzai, KP: Training workshop on “promoting human
activists
November 6-7, Karachi: Consultation on ‘Convention Against Torture in
Pakistan: towards implementation and accountability’ attended by journalists,
lawyers, former judges, doctors and civil society representatives from
Balochistan and Sindh
November 8-9, Malakand, KP: Training workshop on “promoting human
activists
November 09, Hyderabad: Sindh Writers and Artists Convention,
Hyderabad attended by Sindhi and Urdu language writers, poets, media persons
and artists
November 10-11, Islamabad: Consultation on ‘Convention Against Torture
in Pakistan: towards implementation and accountability’ attended by journalists,
lawyers, former judges, doctors and civil society representatives from
Islamabad, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.
November 11, Sibi: District Awareness Programme at Sibi at Government
Girls Degree College
November 12-13, Razzar, KP: Training workshop on “promoting human
Sindh Writers and Artists Convention, Hyderabad.
activists
November 13, Karachi: Discussion on electoral reforms
November 14, Hyderabad: A consultation on the illegal detention of the
son of a civil society activist, Zebunnisa Mallah
November 14-15, Dasht, Balochistan: Training workshop on “promoting
rights activists
November 14-15, Lachai, KP: Training workshop on “promoting human
activists
November 15, Islamabad: A workshop to assess the provincial laws on
Access to Information
November 15-16, Multan: National Peasant Convention attended by
peasants and workers from all the provinces of Pakistan
November 16-17, Pasni, Balochistan: Training workshop on “promoting
rights activists
November 17, Quetta: ‘Balochistan Youth Festival’
November 21-22, Bolan: Training workshop on “promoting human rights
November 22-23, Machh: Training workshop on “promoting human rights
November 23-24, Muslim Bagh: Training workshop on “promoting
rights activists
November 26-27, Dera Allah Yar, Balochistan: Training workshop on
HRCP activities 371
November 28, Karachi: Consultation on revival of trade union activities
November 30, Lahore: Youth Festival
December 2-3, Zhob: Training workshop on “promoting human rights
December 3-5, Sanghar, Mirpurkhas, Thattha, Sujawal: District
meetings on the rights of children, women, labour and minorities
December 5-6, Naseerabad, Balochistan: Training workshop on
December 5-6, Dera Murad Jamali, Balochistan: Training workshop
on “promoting human rights education and research to realise the pluralist
ideals” for human rights activists
December 7, Multan: Writers Convention on “the role of writers in the
promotion of tolerance”
December 8-9, Khanozai, Balochistan: Training workshop on
December 10, Quetta: Peace Award for Courageous Seekers of Education
at SBK Women’s University
December 13-14, Mirpur, Azad Kashmir: Training workshop on
December 13-14, Dheerkot, Azad Kashmir: Training workshop on
December 12-16, Shikarpur, Sukkur, Noushero Feroz, Ghotki and
Khairpur: District meetings on the rights of children, women, labour and
minorities
December 22, Multan: District meeting on the rights of children, women,
December 22, Bahawalpur: District meeting on the rights of children,
December 26-27: Public hearing and meetings with civil society in Mithi
December 29, Karachi: Consultation on ‘Women’s wages and
employment’
Fact-finding
January 11, Karachi: To know the facts regarding a gang rape case of a
12-year-old girl in Karachi.
January 20, Peshawar: To probe accusations of poisoning of 29-year-
old Husain Khan, held on murder charges in a judicial lockup in District Jail,
Mardan
January 21, Hyderabad: To know the circumstances in which Mushtaq
Ahmed Soomro, a political activist, was abducted from Employees Residential
Colony of Sindh Agriculture University, Tando Jam
January 22, Peshawar: To know the facts about the targetted killing of
a 60-year-old herbalist from the minority Sinkh community, Baghwan Singh,
on his way home from his shop in Tangi Bazar, District Charsadda.
January 22, Hyderabad: To know the facts about the killing of a two-
year-old boy and injuring of a seven-year-old girl among three persons during
a police raid in Kunri town of Umerkot district. All the persons belonged to
Kolhi community who were set free by an Umerkot court from a three-year
bondage of a landlord.
January 30, Hyderabad: To probe complaints by a Hindu nomad clan
‘Bhagris’ settled in a coastal village near Jati town, Thatta district, of having
been attacked by some men who accused them of kidnapping a Muslim girl
from Thar for forced begging.
March 5-6, Peshawar: Baseline study of freedom of religion and belief in
Agriculture University Peshawar in collaboration with the Institute of Social
Sciences.
April 29, Hyderabad: Meetings with the family of Rano Meghwar, area
shopkeepers, eyewitnesses and the police over his abduction
May 15: Visits to Singidi and So-Range coalmines
May 22: Visits to Machh-Aab-e-Gum coalmines
June 7: Visits to Dukki coalmines
June 11: Visit to Sharag, Harnai district coalmines
July 17-20, Karachi: Karachi fact-finding mission. Amid growing
complaints of human rights violations, a fact-finding mission of the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan concluded that the Rangers-led Karachi
operation launched in September last year had failed to achieve its targets. The
mission, which assessed the law and order situation in Karachi after getting
inputs from representatives of the media, civil society, political parties,
minorities, government and law enforcement agencies as well as the families
of victims, observed that the “objectives of the operation have not been met”.
February 17, Hyderabad: To know the facts after bullet-riddled body of
political activist Sahib Khan Ghoto was found in Ghotki. A JSMM activist,
Ghoto had gone missing on February 14, 2014 in Sukkar.
August 1, Gujranwala: To know the facts of an incident of vigilante
justice in Gujranwala. A woman and two of her young granddaughters died of
HRCP activities 373
suffocation after a mob of roughly 1,000 people rampaged through an Ahmadi
neighborhood set some houses on fire. The mob was alerted to a photograph
an 18-year-old Ahmadi man had allegedly uploaded to Facebook of the Kaaba,
which they considered blasphemous.
August 8-10, Turbat: To look into the claims of discovery of mass graves
in Turbat
September 24, Multan: To find facts surrounding the death of four
newborn babies due allegedly to the non-availability of oxygen at Children
Hospital, Vehari.
October 10-12, Quetta: Fact-finding mission on Balochistan situation
October 25, Multan: To know facts of the killing for so-called honour of
Abdul Ghafoor in Khanewal
November 05, Kot Radha Kishen: To know facts about the killing of a
Christian couple accused of blasphemy at a brick kiln in Kot Radha Kishan,
Kasur district. The HRCP team found no evidence of the alleged desecration
of Holy Quran and the incident appeared to be rooted in a dispute over wages
and outstanding payments.
November 26, Hyderabad: To know facts about an allegation of a police
raid at Hoosri Camp of released bonded labourers without search warrant, and
beating women and children and snatching their cash and jewelry. While villagers
at the camp confirmed the occurrence, the police denied it.
November 27, Hyderabad: Gathered facts about student activist of Mehran
University, Kamlesh Kumar who was abducted on November 26 from
University Housing Society, Jamshoro
December 3, Multan: To know facts about the rape of a student by
three persons in Kot Sultan, Layyah. Police registered a criminal case.
Demonstrations/rallies/protests/visits:
Jan 28, Karachi: An HRCP team visited Shia Hazaras who were injured
in a suicide attack on their bus in Balochistan and were shifted to Agha Khan
Hospital, Karachi for treatment.
Feb 9, Hyderabad: A delegation enquired after a nationalist activist of
Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz, Muhammad Ali Nonari, who was found in a
critical condition near Nooriabad 11 months after he had gone missing.
January 10: Islamabad: A candlelight vigil in memory of Shia Hazaras
of Quetta killed in twin bombings in 2013
January 24, Karachi: HRCP, in collaboration with Poster for Tomorrow
and Arts Council, arranged a poster exhibition, ‘A Home for Everyone’
February 2, Hyderabad: Candle vigil in solidarity with Baloch missing
persons and against mass graves discovered in Khuzdar, Balochistan.
February 2, Karachi: A delegation met Brig. Basit of Sindh Rangers to
discuss eviction of the residents of Old Slaughterhouse, Lyari, and their
rehabilitation.
February 14, Peshawar: Visited Jallozai Camp to know the conditions
IDPs were living in
February 15, Turbat: Visited the area to know about the situation for
education.
February 28, Islamabad: HRCP members welcomed long marchers
protesting for the recovery of missing persons
March 8, Hyderabad: Women’s Day rally, attended by students of the
Sindh University and peasant women from Hoosri Hari camp.
March 17, Hyderabad: HRCP and minority rights organizations arranged
a demonstration to express concerns on damaging of a temple in Larkana
incident.
March 26, Hyderabad: Visited the family of political activist Mushtaq Ali
Soomro of Tando Jam. He was produced before an anti-terrorism court after
two months of his forced disappearance. The court sent him to jail.
March 28, Hyderabad: Visited Hanuman Temple in Kali Mata Colony,
Hyderabad, which was damaged in an attack. Also met Deputy Commissioner,
Hyderabad to seek security for non-Muslims and their worship places.
April 3, Hyderabad: Demonstration and walk against the attack on the
temple
April 6, Hyderabd: Welcomed participants of a march by Awami Jahmoori
Party against ghost schools and for reforms in education policy.
April 12, Hyderabad: A sitting on the human rights situation and political
assassinations in Balochistan and Sindh
April, 30 Karachi: Met Baloch students who were on a hunger strike at
Karachi Press Club for the recovery of BSO president Zahid Baloch
May, 01 Karachi: May Day rally
May 1, Hyderabad: May Day rallies and a seminar at the Hyderabad
Press Club
May 5, Hyderabad: Visited Naseem Nagar, Qasimabad for meeting the
parents of a missing person Rohail Lughari
May 9, Hyderabad: Protest against Rashid Rehman’s murder
May 10, Sukkar: Meeting and rally against Rashid Rehman’s killing
May 10, Gilgit: Candlelight vigil in Rashid Rehman’s memory, in
collaboration with the civil society in Gilgit-Baltistan
May 11, Turbat: Demonstration to condemn Rashid Rehman’s
assassination
June 23, Hyderabad: Visited the members of Hindu community observing
a sit-in hunger strike to protest occupation of Kali Mata Temple land.
HRCP activities 375
May 13, Hyderabad: Visited police and regional human rights cell officials
on bonded labour
May 14, Hyderabad: Token hunger strike to express solidarity with Baloch
missing persons.
May 21, Hyderabad: Demonstration against kidnapping of four bonded
Haris.
May 26, Quetta: Protest against threats to girls education in Panjgur,
Balochistan
May 27, Karachi: HRCP team met protesting Balochistan Student
Organisation-Azad (BSO-A) activist, Lateef Johar, who was on hunger strike
outside the Karachi Press Club for the last 37 days.
June 1, Hyderabad: 24-hour hunger strike in solidarity with Latif Johar
on a hunger strike in Karachi for the safe recovery of Zahid Baloch.
June 12, Hyderabad: Candle-light vigil for Baloch nationalist leader Kair
Bakhsh Marree
June 20, Hyderabad: Reference and candle vigil for Balochistan Assembly
member Hendry Masih who was killed in Quetta
June 22, Hyderabad: Death anniversary of peasant leader Mai Bakhatwar.
June 26, Hyderabad: A walk on the International Day in Support of
Victims of Torture
June 26, Hyderabad: Rally on the International Day in Support of Victims
of Torture
June 26, Turbat: A meeting and rally on International Day of Solidarity
with Torture Victims.
A rally on International Day of Solidarity with torture victims.

Rally on the International Day against Death Penalty.
July 10, Hyderabad: March against ill-treatment of agricultural workers

July 17, Hyderabad: Solidarity visit to survivors of police firing at Lalu
Raink that killed an elderly woman and her son and severely injured others.
August 9, Hyderabad: Rally against Israeli war crimes
August 10, Hyderabad: Observed the International Day of the World’s
Indigenous Peoples by holding a discussion.
August 14, Hyderabad: HRCP team met the mother of Asif Panhwar, a
student of Sindh University, who had gone missing from Nasim Nagar,
Qasimabad, Hyderabad.
August 15, Hyderabad: Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz - Arisar Group (JSQM-
A) spokesperson Amir Azaad Panhwar visited the HRCP office and complained
about harassment by intelligence agencies and police.
October 10, Hyderabad: Rally and a street theater performance to mark
International Day against Death Penalty.
October 10, Multan: Rally on the International Day against Death Penalty.
Participants signed a petition for the president of Pakistan for abolishing death
penalty.
October 16, Hyderabad: Rally and a dialogue to mark International Food
Day.
October 21, Hyderabad: HRCP team and a women’s organization visited
Eesa Colony in response to a complaint of domestic violence.
November 06, Karachi: Participated in a protest against a mob burning
to death a Christian couple at a brick kiln in Kot Radha Kishan.
November 27, Hyderabad: Visited the family of missing activist Asif
Panhawar whose bullet-riddled body was found from Larkana.
November 29, Hyderabad: Protest against disappearances and custodial
deaths of political activists from Sindh.
HRCP activities 377
December 01, Hyderabad: HRCP team visited the mortuary of Liaqat
University Hospital, Hyderabad, where bullet-riddle bodies of political activists
Sarwaich Pirzado and Wajid Langhah were brought. They were abducted on
August 13 and Sept 11, 2014 from Karachi.
December 8, Hyderabad: A joint civil society protest against kidnapping
and forced conversion of three girls Kajaol Bheel, Marvi Kolhi and Badal Kolhi.
December 09, Hyderabad: Rally against custodial deaths of political
activists in Sindh and Balochistan
December 10, Sukkar: Rally in collaboration with local NGOs to mark
International Day of Human Rights
December 10, Hyderabad: Rally in collaboration with District Bar
Association, Jamshoro and local NGOs in Kotri city to mark International Day
of Human Rights.
December 14-15, Hyderabad: Compiled details of missing persons killed
in Sindh.
December 10, Multan: Participated in a rally on the International Day of
Human Rights arranged by Justice and Peace Commission
December 17, Hyderabad: Candle Vigil for the victims of the Peshawar
school attack
December 18, Hyderabad: Condolence reference for Sobho Gianchandani,
a progressive intellectual of the subcontinent.
December 25-27, Hyderabad: Three-day visit to Mithi-Thar for public
hearing and a consultation with civil society representatives
Rally against custodial deaths of political activists in Sindh and Balochistan.

Jail visits
March 13, Peshawar: Nowshera judicial lockup visit to know the
conditions of the inmates
March 14, Peshawar: Swabi judicial lockup visit to know the conditions
of the prisoners
March 18, Peshawar: District Jail, Dagger (Buner) visit to know the
conditions of the inmates
March 21, Peshawar: District Jail, Kohat visit to know the conditions
of the inmates
March 24, Peshawar: Sub Jail, Charsadda visit to know the conditions
of the inmates
Complaint Cell
HRCP received 1,500 complaints during the year under review. The
thematic breakdown of the complaints is as follows
Nature of Complaints:
Excesses by police/administration: .......................................... 500
Excesses: by non-state actors/influentials ............................... 506
Violation of women’s rights /domestic violence ...................... 286
Miscellaneous: .......................................................................... 368
Complaints from abroad: ........................................................... 40
Total: ...................................................................................... 1,500
Letters written to Authorities ................................................... 600
Replies received: ....................................................................... 188
Website
The HRCP website (www.hrcp-web.org) offers electronic versions of its
publications, including Urdu monthly magazine Jehd-e-Haq, press statements
issued by the organisation, and information about HRCP’s mission and activities.
The online archives section of the website, which is consulted by students,
researchers, journalists and the like, was formally launched in August 2012.
Publications
♦ State of Human Rights in 2013 (English/Urdu)
♦ In the crosshairs Assault on places of worship. Report of HRCP
Expert Group on Communities Vulnerable because of their Belief
♦ Jirga still favourite tribunal in Sindh. An HRCP survey
♦ Caught in a new great game? Report of an HRCP fact-finding mission
to Gilgit-Baltistan
♦ Detained and disregarded. A survey of prisons in Pakistan
HRCP activities 379
♦ In the crosshairs: assault on places of worship
♦ Report of HRCP Expert Group on Communities Vulnerable because
of their Belief
♦ Belief and relief: access to justice for religious minorities
♦ Report of HRCP Expert Group on Communities Vulnerable because
of their Belief
♦ Say No to Death Penalty -- Mental disorder is never a crime
♦ Religious minorities in Pakistan (Urdu)
♦ Children’s Rights?
♦ Women: Torture and deprivation (English / Urdu)
♦ Labour: Equal opportunities of employment
♦ Say No to Death Penalty (Urdu / English)
♦ Say No to Torture
♦ Calendar 2015 – Tribute to five great human rights defenders
♦ Jeh-e-Haq: 12 monthly issues (Urdu / English)
HRCP Internship Programme 2014

The HRCP Summer Internship programme 2014 commenced in June and
ended in July, with each of the five interns working with HRCP from four to
six weeks. The interns chose a research area related to human rights, which
the HRCP staff assisted in further narrowing down to reach a refined topic.
During the programme, interns had the chance to meet experts of various
research subjects, had access to the organisational resources, and the
opportunity to accompany staff members in meetings and conferences linked
to their work.
The following interns successfully submitted reports concluding all the
research they had conducted during the internship.
♦ Qasim Ali of University of Windsor, USA
♦ Nadja Wunsche, Hildesheim University, Germany
♦ Ali Faateh Khwaja, Bennington College, Vermont, USA, from Pakistan
♦ Noreen Shahid, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan
♦ Ali Noor, LUMS, Lahore, Pakistan

Appendix - II
HRCP stands
Freedom of belief
January 8: HRCP strongly condemned the killing of six men at a shrine in
Karachi reportedly by Taliban-linked militants and demanded meaningful steps
to put an end to killing of citizens by the extremists. The Commission said:
“The brutal killing of six young devotees in Karachi apparently for visiting a
shrine is proof, if more proof was needed, that staying alive in Pakistan today
is a privilege reserved for those who unthinkingly and without question comply
with the whims of cold-blooded killers who have long tried to fool people into
thinking that their actions have something to do with religion.”
HRCP said that a note left with the bodies, threatening that all those who
visited shrines would meet a similar end, was no guarantee that anyone outside
the shrines was safe from “the killers’ boundless thirst for blood”. The
Commission said condemnation and sympathy from official quarters brought
little comfort to the affected families or the multitudes of people who sought
peace and an end to the senseless killings unleashed by the militants. It demanded
the government formulate and publicise a firm strategy to save the people
from such atrocities and take unambiguous steps to implement the same.
January 28: A two-day workshop organised jointly by HRCP and the
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) concluded with demands
for urgent measures to end violence, discrimination and marginalisation faced
by citizens on account of their religious beliefs.
Members of religious minority groups and minority Muslim sects from
HRCP stands 381
different parts of Pakistan participated in the workshop held in Karachi. The
participants stated that the authorities—through their failure to adequately
intervene despite Pakistan’s obligation under UN treaties stressing equality,
dignity, rule of law and protection of human rights of all Pakistanis—rendered
themselves responsible for serious violations of international human rights
law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The
absence of or inadequate and inappropriate intervention were highlighted in
several sectors:
♦ The urgent need to ensure respect, protection and promotion of equality
of human rights of all Pakistanis irrespective of their faith and religion was
emphasised. The blatant impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of violations on
account of religious belief was noted, which unfortunately fuels the perpetration
of further crimes. The absence of adequate protection to the judges and lawyers
involved in the prosecution of these crimes was also highlighted.
♦ At the heart of the judicial challenges were the abuse of blasphemy
law and its impact on society. Pakistan, as requested by UN human rights
mechanisms, should repeal this law or at the very least immediately put in
place safeguards to prevent abuse of this law victimizing citizens, often from
minority religious communities. In addition, hate speech against minorities
should be punished under the law.
♦ Discrimination in law and practice was also noted as a major cause
for concern. Keeping a separate list for Ahmadi voters; lack of codified personal
law for Hindus and Sikhs; lack of effective representation for religious minority
groups; reservations of religious minorities ahead of the next census; and
denial of control over administration of religious sites to the minorities were
underlined as key concerns.
♦ The institutionalised discrimination was also highlighted as feeding
hatred within society through the inappropriate representation of minorities in
curricula and in school textbooks, which needed to be revised, in compliance
with Pakistan’s international human rights obligations. Religious education, if
it only addressed one religion, even if that was the religion of the majority,
should be excluded from general curricula.
♦ Throughout the pattern of religious discrimination, women and girls
were stated to suffer doubly, notably through the practice of forced conversion,
and the multiplication of sexual violence. The need for the cases to be
investigated, prosecuted, women and girls provided with appropriate shelters,
redress, and reparation was emphasised.
♦ The pattern of systematic discrimination was laying foundations on
which the political violence had grown throughout the country, at the hands of
a minority of extremist elements. Such violence was also insufficiently
addressed. There was a lack of action in response to militants demanding jizya
(protection money) from Sikhs in FATA. The Taliban in Khyber Agency in
particular had reportedly been giving written acknowledgements for the jizya
they received.
The violence, while initially targeting minorities, now threatened civil society
and all progressive elements—including human rights defenders and conscious
citizens who demanded respect for human rights—and those who defended
them, notably the independent media. Beyond these were the fundamentals of
the Pakistani nation, and its economic and social survival which were
endangered. It was thus fundamental to respond to such violence by addressing
its root causes, and ensuring promotion of equality of human rights of all
Pakistanis irrespective of their faith and religion.
The Paris-based FIDH is the world’s oldest human rights body, an NGO
with a membership of 178 organizations operating in over 100 countries. The
FIDH delegation to Pakistan included four eminent human rights activists:
Shawan Jabarin (Palestine), Rosemarie Trajano (Philippines), Antoine Madelin
(France) and Ihsan Ali Fauzie (Indonesia).
March 21: HRCP sought the intervention of the chief justice of Pakistan
to protect an old Hindu temple in Karachi that was threatened by the construction
of underpasses and flyovers at Clifton.
In a letter sent to the chief justice, the Commission noted that business
interests in complicity with officials of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation
(KMC) had started construction of flyovers and underpasses around the Clifton
seafront without any prior notice.
It stated that such a major venture “which would vandalize the very face
of a historical part of the city, had not undergone the Environmental Impact
Assessment (with public hearings) mandated by law”. HRCP highlighted its
deep concern over the adverse impact this project could have on the more
than 150 years old Sri Ratneswar Mahadev temple located within a few meters
of one of the underpasses. Every year thousands of Hindu and Sikh devotees
visited the temple located in a cavern. “Ground vibrations from excavation
and from the eventual high-density traffic running so close to the temple could
cause collapse of this irreplaceable place of worship,” HRCP said, requesting
the chief justice to summon KMC officials to explain the matter and ensure
that all necessary steps were taken to protect the temple.
March 31: HRCP expressed alarm over a number of disturbing
developments, including an attack on Raza Rumi in Lahore, a spate of assaults
at Hindu temples, the most recent one being in Hyderabad, and the death
sentence for Sawan Masih in a blasphemy case.
It said: “HRCP believes that we are witnessing a new wave of intolerance
and these instances stem from the same motivation. While the court’s verdict
against Sawan is another matter, the assault on the Christian-dominated Joseph
Colony in Lahore in March 2013 and torching of over 100 houses in Sawan’s
neighbourhood following the charge of blasphemy is part of the same wave. It
is a matter of concern that while Sawan has been sentenced to death a year
after the incident, cases against those involved in the arson and looting are not
HRCP stands 383
progressing.”
HRCP urged the government to be more than a spectator as this new
phase of intolerance got under way.
HRCP said the targeted attack on Rumi sent a message to all journalists
who dared to speak their mind; if well known journalists could be targeted so
brazenly in the heart of Lahore, the challenges to the freedom of expression
elsewhere in the country were not too difficult to imagine.
It stated: “We are very concerned at the spread of intolerance and temples
being torched and attacked in areas where citizens of all faiths had long lived
in harmony... Improved security and apprehension of the culprits involved in
recent attacks would almost immediately have an impact in the short term. In
the medium to long term, more effective and sustainable ways to weed out
intolerance and deny sympathy and impunity for the perpetrators must be the
goal.
“The problem is not confined to any one part of the country and the
worrying trend can only be reversed if the federal and all provincial governments
and civil society make urgent and sincere collective efforts.” It urged political
and religious leaders to reconsider their past practice of calling for reform of
the blasphemy law only following widely reported instances of the law being
abused and not persisting with that demand. The government was also asked
to facilitate the discourse highlighting the immediate need for reforming the
blasphemy law.”
July 28: HRCP slammed the mob attack and killing of four members of
the Ahmadi community in Gujranwala and burning of five houses after a
blasphemy allegation. HRCP said: “As things stand in the country now,
particularly in Punjab, a blasphemy charge, however unfounded, makes such
cold-blooded killings somehow less repulsive. The people who were killed
were not even indirectly accused of the blasphemy charge. Their only fault
was that they were Ahmadi. Torching women and children in their house
simply because of their faith represents brutalisation and barbarism stooping
to new lows.
“The community, rights respecting citizens and civil society would and
must demand accountability of the mob that cheered as the deceased and
injured cried for help. …There are many others who are so blinded by their
hate and intolerance that they feel justified in cold-blooded murder, even of
children, as was reported from Gujranwala. What agonises HRCP is that nothing
concrete is being done to tackle neither of the two tendencies. That the mob
was dancing for the TV camera after torching the houses of people who were
not even accused of blasphemy proves that the whole episode had nothing to
do with blasphemy but was aimed at further vitiminising an already persecuted
community. It should not be too difficult to imagine the feelings of members
of the targeted community in Gujranwala, or anywhere in Pakistan for that
matter.”
November 5: HRCP expressed grave concern over a mob beating to
death a Christian couple at a brick kiln where they worked, in Kot Radha
Kishen, over unfounded charges of desecration of a copy of the Holy Quran.
Members of the mob later burned the couple’s bodies in the kiln.
In a statement based on the preliminary findings of an HRCP team sent to
the area, the Commission said: “HRCP is shocked and saddened beyond words
by the callous murder of the couple and their unborn child. An HRCP team that
went to the site of the tragic killing did not come across any evidence of
desecration of the Holy Quran….
“Word of alleged desecration was spread to nearby villages and
announcements made through mosque loudspeakers, and a mob of hundreds
headed towards the kiln. Four policemen at a nearby post visited the kiln and
demanded the couple should be handed over otherwise they would be killed by
the mob. However, the HRCP team learned that the kiln owners instructed
their employees not to hand the couple over and the policemen were also
beaten up.
“Shehzad and his pregnant wife Shama appeared to have been severely
beaten up at the kiln and locked up in a room. Some witnesses said Shehzad
had died in the beating. The mob later burned the bodies of Shehzad and
Shama, who was reported to be alive at the time.”
HRCP said that it did not want to influence the investigation in any manner
but must voice its outrage at the tragic killing and state that the chances of the
couple getting any benefit of doubt diminished when they were accused of
desecrating the Holy Quran. The religious belief of the victims also apparently
did not work in their favour. HRCP hoped that that fact would not be lost on
the authorities and would persuade them to reflect on their obligation to protect
all citizens. The inability of the police to rescue the couple despite reaching the
site was stark evidence of the state’s vanishing writ. HRCP called for the
individuals at the kiln and in nearby villages who instigated violence against the
victims, and those who prevented their rescue, to be prosecuted. It added that
the exploitation of kiln workers was an essential part of the context of the
tragic killing and this incident should lead to accelerated efforts to ensure that
slavery-like practices that continue despite a promise in the constitution ceased
without delay.
Law and order

January 9: HRCP expressed serious concern over the lack of protection
for citizens’ lives in Lyari, and other violence-hit parts of Karachi, and demanded
that the outrage over the killing of four members of a family and rape of a fifth
reportedly over the victims’ political affiliation must lead to a clear compunction
as to how the port city has been carved up among criminal groups affiliated
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with political parties.
In a statement, HRCP said: “Violence in Karachi has become so
commonplace that reports of ever more gruesome excesses against the citizens
are usually taken in the stride. However, the recent killing in Lyari of four
members of a family and rape of a woman because of their links with a
political party is disturbing on many levels. The victims had apparently been
expelled from the area by the local gang leaders because of the family head’s
political affiliation. In explaining progress in catching the perpetrators, the
police officials have highlighted that the motives were political, that the victims
had dared to return to their house and the attack was a ‘revenge’ for that, and
that the police were not informed in advance of the victims’ returning to their
house in Lyari. Those tasked with protecting the people in Karachi certainly
did not come across such alarming facts last week. That is a deplorable attempt
at trying to dodge responsibility for failure to do basic policing.
“Gang and turf wars in Karachi are not recent but stooping to such lows
and raping a woman because of her father’s political affiliation certainly is!
Quotes by Genghis Khan come to mind.
“Blame must be laid squarely at the doorstep of the political parties that
have either actively supported or acquiesced in carving up the city along ethnic
lines. HRCP hopes that they would actively support, or at least no longer
create obstacles in ridding Karachi of their present or former criminal
surrogates. HRCP believes that while failing to put an end to the bloodshed in
Karachi, the government is defaulting on its obligation to protect people’s right
to life and all other rights that follow. It must show that it is at least trying to
keep up in its efforts to improve the state of affairs as the city plunges into
ever deeper turmoil.”
January 27: HRCP voiced its serious concern over the discovery of 15
badly decomposed dead bodies in Khuzdar district of Balochistan on Saturday
and called upon the federal and Balochistan provincial government to urgently
establish the identity of the deceased and their killers.
In letters written to the federal interior minister and the Balochistan chief
minister, HRCP demanded that a thorough probe must be immediately initiated
and all efforts made to establish the facts in the case and bring the perpetrators
to justice. If necessary, DNA tests should be conducted at the earliest to
identity the deceased, it added. “Such an investigation is all the more vital in
view of the spate of violence, targeted killings and enforced disappearance
and dumping of dead bodies of missing persons in Balochistan in recent years.
HRCP also calls upon the government to facilitate relatives of missing persons
who are keen to learn if the deceased include their dear ones.”
HRCP also urged the federal and provincial governments to find a solution
to the violence, lawlessness and killings in Balochistan and stressed that such
a solution must respect due process and human rights and that emphasis
should be placed on finding political means to address the challenges.
March 3: HRCP slammed an attack on the district courts in Islamabad
where the fatalities included a judge and several lawyers, and expressed serious
concern that even the federal capital was not safe from such attacks.
In a statement released to the media, the Commission described the incident
as “a serious security lapse which demonstrates that the security authorities
have been unable to clear Islamabad of dangerous elements or preventing their
entry into the city.”
HRCP called upon the government “to significantly improve the effort,
intelligence and policing to prevent such attacks once for all, including by
relying on the necessary use of force, wherever that is inevitable.”
April 11: HRCP called for the release of three labourers and two coastguard
personnel believed to be in the custody of an insurgent group in Balochistan.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP has come to learn that Baloch
Liberation Front (BLF) has two coastguard personnel and three labourers in
their custody. The Commission calls upon the group to release the men on
humanitarian grounds. HRCP also calls upon the group and others groups
active in the province to spare non-combatants and especially the poor labourers
who are trying to eke out an existence amid the violence and lawlessness in
Balochistan.
Enforced disappearance
April 29: HRCP expressed serious alarm at the disappearance of Baloch
Student Organisation-Azad (BSO-Azad) chairman Zahid Baloch who was picked
up in Quetta last month and demanded his safe and immediate release.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP is seriously concerned over
the case of Zahid Baloch who was picked up in Quetta on March 18 by
plainclothesmen believed to be from security agencies. Even more disturbing
is his unacknowledged detention for over a month now.
“BSO-Azad has been holding a hunger-strike camp outside the Karachi
Press Club for the last 10 days to press for Zahid’s release. HRCP is extremely
worried about risks to Zahid’s life and wellbeing in custody and urges the
authorities that his detention must be immediately acknowledged and his release
ordered. HRCP also demands that he must not be mistreated or tortured in
custody….HRCP also thinks it is of vital importance that those who indulge in
disappearing people should be tried without delay, again with all due process
rights. HRCP also wants to humbly suggest to anyone who wishes to strike at
impunity for the perpetrators that it might be useful to record the testimony of
several witnesses who were present when Zahid was picked up.”
August 29: On the eve of the International Day of the Disappeared (August
30), HRCP reiterated its demand that the government must adopt effective
measures to rid to country of the curse of enforced disappearances, beginning
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with immediate ratification of the International Convention for the Protection
of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. In a statement issued here today
the commission said:
“On the International Day of the Disappeared, that falls on Saturday, August
30, 2014, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan joins worldwide campaign
by the various human rights organisations in calling for an end to disappearances
and the culture of impunity that keeps the practice alive. While it is gratifying
to note that the incidence of enforced disappearance has declined to some
extent in Balochistan, increased number of cases continue to be reported from
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. What is particularly unacceptable is the fact
that the victims are mostly persons known for political dissent or communitarian
activism. Further, in a majority of cases the victim families blame the law-
enforcing personnel for picking up their relatives and detaining them indefinitely.
Obviously the redress mechanisms, and judicial forums, have not been able to
expedite recovery of the disappeared people. Little progress has been made on
the need to punish those responsible for enforced disappearances and for a
comprehensive, nationwide programme to compensate the victims.
“HRCP calls upon the government to expedite all measures necessary for
putting an end to enforced disappearances.”
December 5: HRCP expressed grave alarm at the rapid rise in enforced
disappearances in Sindh, with the victims turning up dead. Those taken away
are young men, mainly political activists, picked up from various parts of the
province in the last few months. Mutilated dead bodies of many of the victims
have been found. HRCP demanded immediate steps to put an end to the ghastly
trend and to bring the killers to justice.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP has noted with great alarm
increasing reports of enforced disappearance of citizens, mainly activists of
nationalist political parties, in Sindh and their tortured bodies being found weeks
or months later.
“In several cases the involvement of security forces’ personnel has been
established by witnesses while in some their role has been actively suspected.
Those familiar with the authorities’ inclinations toward dealing with dissent
across Pakistan over the last decade hardly need to be reminded why official
involvement is suspected.
“Nowhere in the world have tactics like enforced disappearance ever yielded
any positive result. It has only fuelled hatred and led to people and regions
growing apart. The leader of the opposition in the National Assembly has
already warned against the creation of “Balochistan-like situation in Sindh”
and said that sending bullet-riddled dead bodies to the province would have
adverse consequences.
“It is deplorable when any state starts abducting its citizens but with
Pakistan already grappling with far too many challenges, only its worst enemies
would wish to see continuation of enforced disappearances in any part of the
country.
“HRCP has long called for trying those responsible for enforced
disappearances, precisely for the reason that the continuing impunity encourages
others in authority to consider going down this brutal path. We reiterate yet
again that without identifying and trying the perpetrators we would not be able
to put this monstrosity behind us.
“HRCP welcomes the condemnation of enforced disappearances in Sindh
by the leader of the opposition and hopes that the government would add its
voice to the censure and put a quick end to the disturbing trend and would
bring the perpetrators to justice.
“We also urge the government to ratify the International Convention for
the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance without further
delay and ensure its prompt implementation. Pakistan should also seek help
from other countries, in this continent and beyond, who were once afflicted
by this outrageous practice but have managed to turn their back on it.
“Civil society and the news media, especially the national media, must
firmly train the spotlight on this disturbing trend and ensure that such extreme
violations of human rights do not take place under the rubric of security or
supposed national interest.”
Custodial torture
November 11: At the conclusion of a mission to Pakistan, the World
Organisation against Torture (OMCT) and its partner the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) called for the implementation of the UN
Convention against Torture and the follow-up to the country’s announcement
to submit its overdue initial report to the UN Committee against Torture.
Over the first two weeks of November, the OMCT and the HRCP held
two consultations on the implementation of the UN Convention against Torture
(CAT) in Karachi and Islamabad.
Representatives from civil society, trade unions, journalists, lawyers,
government officials, members of provincial and national parliaments, and
academics, who participated in the consultations, discussed the challenges the
state was facing and formulated several recommendations in order to improve
the implementation of the CAT.
The participants recommended an urgent amendment to the Pakistan Penal
Code to introduce a provision on torture that fully complies with the CAT.
They also recommended implementation of the right to rehabilitation resulting
from Article 14 of the CAT.
They proposed training of police officers and equipping them with modern
forensic means.
The participants recommended that the Pakistan Protection Act be applied
in compliance with Pakistan’s obligations under the CAT and the UN Covenant
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on Civil and Political Rights.
Right to Information
November 15: Speakers at a workshop on the right to information (RTI)
under the provincial laws organized by Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
(HRCP) on Saturday called for improved RTI laws, particularly in Sindh and
Balochistan, and demanded that blanket exclusions be eliminated and inflexible
procedural demands not used to retard the spirit of the right to information.
Speakers from all four provinces and the federal capital attended the event
and highlighted challenges in implementation as well as deficiencies in RTI
laws. Information commissioners for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab and
officials from information departments in Sindh and Balochistan also joined
the deliberations.
All provincial RTI laws were discussed at length and the shortcomings
and exclusions in 2002 federal RTI law and the near mirror legislations in
Balochistan and Sindh were highlighted. RTI laws in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
and Punjab were praised as among some of the best in the world.
The forum made the following recommendations to ensure that the RTI
laws, known also as sunshine laws, contributed to transparency, accountability
and responsive governance that facilitated citizens’ right to participate in
governance and decision-making:
1. The provinces, especially Sindh and Balochistan, should redraft/amend
their RTI laws in order to benefit from the improvements in the
information laws introduced in the other two provinces. A mechanism
should also be developed to exchange best practices and benefit from
each others’ experience. It was imperative to repeal the prevailing
outdated laws that focused on keeping information from the people.
2. Civil servants must be trained and reoriented to engage with the citizens
with a view to facilitate information access rather than impeding it.
3. Intelligentsia, media, bar associations, politicians and the larger civil
society should join hands to familiarise the people witgh the benefits
that the RTI regime offered and organise/support them to use the
laws. The RTI laws should be translated into regional languages and
published for general public. Imaginative advocacy tools, including
radio programmes and street theatre, should be considered to mobilise
the people. The right to information should be made part of the higher
education curriculum, particularly for law, mass communication,
political science and sociology disciplines. Access to information
through official websites of public departments should be promoted
to discourage wastage of money and time.
4. Overly generous time limits for providing the information should be
curtailed and penalties introduced against officials acting in
contravention of the spirit of the RTI laws.
5. The procedure to access information should be simplified with a view
to facilitating information sharing as much as possible.
6. Management of record should be improved and information about
public departments computerised and made available online.
7. The judiciary must also be brought under the purview of RTI laws.
8. The formulation of RTI laws should be made gender-sensitive/neutral.
9. The officers envisaged under the RTI laws should be designated
forthwith and the rules under the laws framed. Information department
press officers should serve as RTI officers wherever the latter were
yet to be designated. The information officers should be trained and
their capacity enhanced.
10. RTI laws should be extended to Provincially Administered Tribal Area
(PATA) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without further delay.
11. Each government department should be required to produce a white
paper every year on its performance regarding facilitating access to
information to the citizens.
Health
May 7: HRCP has strongly condemned the state of affairs that has led to
the World Health Organisation (WHO) slapping travel restrictions on Pakistan
to prevent the spread of the polio virus to other countries. It also expressed
alarm at lack of concrete steps after the WHO announcement to change the
strategy that had failed to tackle the spread of the disease.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP is exceedingly disappointed
that the government had not taken active steps to eradicate polio virus, which
has resulted in the WHO curbs on Pakistanis travelling abroad. Even more
disturbing are the stereotyped statements vowing reversal of the ban in three
months time. The embarrassment and soul-searching that the WHO verdict
should have evoked remain utterly absent. The blame for the anti-polio fight
might not be confined to the present government alone but the astronomical
spike in the number of reported cases in the first four months year of the year
should have alerted Islamabad about the risks. The authorities failed to make
any headway in areas causing spread of the virus in the country, struggled to
handle the security for the vaccinators and did not strategise with the WHO on
the way forward. These failures culminated in the country not even getting an
advanced warning of the impending restrictions.
“In another country, the minister for national health services and the PM’s
focal person for polio eradication would have felt compelled to resign, failing
which they would almost certainly have been politely reminded to quit. Not so
in Pakistan. Sacking both could be the first step in acknowledging Pakistan’s
HRCP stands 391
abject failure in eradicating polio and making a fresh start.”
May 19: HRCP has voiced concern over a malicious campaign seeking to
close down a media channel and called for unity among media ranks and de-
escalation of the situation to protect media freedom and reduce risks for
journalists.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP can no longer stay silent on
the malicious campaign unleashed against Geo and the manner in which pressure
is being brought to bear to close down the channel….
“HRCP must point out that the environment of fear that has been created
is making the lives of journalists working for Geo extremely vulnerable. They
are being intimidated and a large number of them have faced attacks. This
trend is likely to escalate if the temperature is allowed to rise and it has the
potential to spin out of control.
“Divisions among the media ranks do not augur well for the hard-won
freedom that the media has. …
“HRCP calls upon the government, civil society and media organisations
to take all necessary steps to deescalate the situation, and put an end to this
malicious campaign and intimidation of journalists so as to protect media freedom
from taking any further blows.”
September 05: HRCP has condemned the threats to the life of prominent
columnist Kamran Shafi and the recent incidents of violence on journalists,
and urged the federal and provincial governments to give greater attention to
media-persons’ security. In a statement, the commission said:
“HRCP seen some of the threatening letters prominent columnist Kamran
Shafi has been receiving from an ex-serviceman and is convinced that this is
a serious matter. The government must extend him due security. The fact that
the person issuing threats to him is, or claims to be, an ex-serviceman reinforces
the view that the virus of intolerance and violence has spread to sections of
society that were earlier on supposed to be disciplined and responsible.
“Obviously, the threat to Kamran Shafi should be seen in the context of
rapidly increasing vulnerability of media-persons. Only a few days ago a senior
Quetta journalist, Irshad Mastoi, and two of his colleagues were gunned down
in their office. Then the whole country was offered the spectacle of journalists
being beaten up and their equipment smashed by police and demonstrators in
Islamabad’s Red Zone. No doubt the media community is under attack not
only from the state apparatus but also political and religious zealots. Special
attention needs to be paid to the security needs of journalists in Balochistan,
where more than 30 of them have been killed over the past five years. Likewise,
threats to journalists in FATA have forced quite a few of them to give up their
vocation and places of normal residence.
“Media freedom is a basic pre-requisite to the establishment of functional
democracy and the duty to protect it can be ignored by the state and non state
actors both at the risk of imperiling the highest interests of the people.”
Education
Lahore, June 16: Dismayed at the forced and continued closure of schools
by militants in the Panjgur town of Balochistan, the Human Rights Commission
of Pakistan (HRCP) sees this as the latest sign of extremism gnawing at the
vitals of the country.
A statement issued by HRCP said that a previously unheard of militant
group, Tanzeem-ul-Islam-al-Furqan, had distributed flyers in Panjgur at private
schools against what it called western-style education on 25 April, 2014. Masked
assailants then ransacked three schools, set a school van on fire and manhandled
teachers and other staff to stop girls’ education, which they said was ‘haram
(prohibited) in Islam’. These events intimidated most private schools — at
least 35 private schools and 30 English language centres – and forced them to
close their doors to about 25,000 students.
HRCP said: “The rise of extremism in Balochistan province is very alarming.
… Now extremists are able to dictate their terms in Panjgur. The threat appears
set to spread elsewhere also.
“The drive for stopping girls from going to school is not new in Pakistan
– the attack on Malala Yousafzai is just the most infamous example – but it
now seems to be spreading to parts of the country that had previously been
spared….
“The HRCP calls upon the government to confront the threat to schools in
a manner that shows its resolve to provide security for both male and female
students at all schools and firmly deal with the elements responsible for the
schools’ closure.”
October 31: HRCP has stressed the need for greater commitment and
urgent steps to ensure that universal and compulsory education as guaranteed
in Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan is available to every child.
The demand was made at a consultation HRCP organized in Lahore to
discuss the state of universal education across Pakistan and highlight prospects
and challenges to enroll every child. The participants highlighted that Pakistan
had a very high rate of out-of-school children of primary school going age,
particularly girls. They said the rate of literacy was dismal, with equally poor
survival and enrollment rates in the country.
The discussion focused on provincial legislation and implementation of
laws concerning universal education, ensuring gender parity and the role of
madrassas in achieving universal education. The participants called for greater
allocation to the education budget as well an increase in capacity to efficiently
utilise that budget so that the aims of Sustainable Development Goals and the
Accelerated Framework could be realized. The need for mass mobilisation
HRCP stands 393
was stressed, with a view to bring together government, concerned citizens,
NGOs and the media ensure that the right to education for every child of
school-going age was ensured by enrolling them in schools.
Death penalty
September 11: HRCP has expressed grave concern over reports that,
despite an informal moratorium on executions, a murder convict is scheduled
to be hanged in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, on September 18. HRCP has called
upon the government to stay the hanging and announce a formal moratorium
on executions.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP has received with great alarm
and dismay reports that Shoaib Sarwar, a death row prisoner currently detained
in Haripur prison, is set to be hanged in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail on September
18.
“The convict was awarded death sentence on July 2, 1998 on the charge
of murdering Awais Nawaz in Wah Cantt in 1996. The victim’s brother had
moved the high court against the delay in implementing the sentence despite
exhaustion of all appeals by the convict and rejection of his clemency plea by
the president. The high court ordered the district and sessions judge to implement
the execution of the sentence.
“The last execution of a civilian death row prisoner in the country had
taken place in late 2008. Executions have since been suspended. HRCP wishes
to remind the government that the reasons that have caused the stay of
executions since 2008 have not changed. …
“Against this backdrop, Sarwar’s planned execution on September 18 is a
regressive step and raises concerns at several levels. The convict’s relatives
have once again asked the president to overturn the sentence and are also
trying to settle the issue through payment of blood money. HRCP calls upon
the government to immediately halt this and any other executions that might
be under consideration and make the informal suspension of executions formal
without further delay. We also urge the president to favourably consider mercy
petitions and convert capital punishment to life imprisonment.
“HRCP demands that the government take urgent measures towards
abolition of capital punishment, including deletion of the death penalty from
the statute book, at least for all but the most serious offences.
“HRCP also urges the government to sign the Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aimed at the abolition of
the death penalty.”
October 10: HRCP has welcomed the continuance of the moratorium on
capital punishment by the government and has called for a thorough review of
the death penalty regime.
In a statement made by the HRCP representatives at a demonstration held
on Oct 10, 2014 with regard to the World Day against the Death Penalty at
Liberty Chowk, Lahore. HRCP said: “HRCP welcomes the government’s
commitment that it would persist with the moratorium on death penalty. This
brings some respite for thousands of death row inmates—especially those
whose execution was imminent—and their families.
Although a good first step, the decision will have meaning only if we have
a complete review of the death penalty regime in Pakistan. And the sooner the
better, the HRCP said.
Workers’ rights
November 19: The third Peasants’ National Convention, held by the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) at Multan, has reiterated the peasants’
and farm workers’ demand for land reform and expeditious recognition of the
farming community’s rights.
The convention was unanimously of the view that land reform is vitally
needed for the establishment of genuine democracy, development of egalitarian
economy and elimination of uneven social relations. Meanwhile, it was necessary
to transfer all lands still in state possession to landless tenants – women and
men both – and give ownership rights to cultivators who have been working
on military and seed farms for generations.
The 25-point charter of demands adopted at the convention says:
♦ All state lands must be distributed among landless peasants.
♦ Each landless family should be given 15 acres of cultivable land or
equivalent thereof.
♦ Women among farm workers may be given land equal in size to the
men’s share.
♦ The 1977 land reform law should be updated.
♦ All obstacles to land reform should be removed and the necessary
legislation adopted expeditiously.
♦ A five-year plan for the uplift of the agriculture sector should be
launched.
♦ The framework for peasants’ organization must be strengthened.
♦ Farm workers should be allowed the right to form trade unions, in
accordance with the ILO Convention No II, and fair wages guaranteed
to them.
♦ Agricultural workers should have the same rights as admissible to
industrial labour.
♦ The children of agricultural workers should be guaranteed free
education from primary to the highest level.
♦ Agricultural workers, including women and children, should be
guaranteed an adequate medical cover.
♦ The rights of agriculture workers affected by flood, war or conflicts
HRCP stands 395
along the borders should be fully protected.
♦ Small peasant proprietors’ needs must be met.
♦ The floor prices of agricultural produce must be linked with inflation.
♦ Small owner-cultivators should be given insurance cover.
♦ Field-to-market road links and transport facilities should be guaranteed.
♦ The small cultivators whose lands have been swallowed up by rivers
should be given alternative lands.
♦ When residential colonies are raised on agricultural land the tenants
should be compensated along will the land-owners.
♦ A judicial commission may be set up to probe fraudulent allotments
and the land thus resumed should be given to original cultivators.
♦ Land-grabbing by landlords in Sindh and Balochistan should be stopped
and housing colonies should be built for the Haris.
♦ Balochistan’s land record should be computerized.
♦ Canal water should be evenly distributed. Southern Punjab’s grievance
about discrimination in water supplies should be resolved.
♦ Where canal water is not available the water flowing down the hill
torrents should be conserved in tanks/lakes under state initiative and
planning.
♦ The ownership of lands held under military or seed farm schemes in
Okara. Khanewal and elsewhere must be transferred in favour of
cultivators who have been working these lands for generations.
Police excesses
December 4: HRCP has strongly condemned the police violence on visually
impaired protesters in Lahore and said that this action again exposed the savagery
of the baton-wielding face of what passed for authority in the province.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP is shocked and disgusted
beyond words by the callous police beating of the visually impaired protesters
as they tried to move towards the chief minister’s secretariat on Wednesday.
“Surely, heavens would not have fallen if the protesters had managed to
reach the chief minister’s secretariat. In fact, perhaps the most appropriate
thing would have been for the chief executive of the province, or whoever
was exercising his authority, or a senior representative to come to the protesters
and listen to their demands. …
“Anyone seeking to teach Punjab Police about the undesirability of the
use of force unless it become absolutely necessary has their work cut out.
Whenever Punjab Police, already well known as a symbol of brutality and
inhumanity, has been asked if it could sink any lower, it has accepted that as a
challenge. The Punjab government should be ashamed and must not try and
sweep this shameful incident under the carpet by ordering another one of
those famous inquiries that go nowhere or suspend a few policemen. Of course,
the personnel who beat up the protesters and those who ordered the beating
must be brought to justice. But the whole concept of policing and crowd
control should be looked at from a pro-people perspective.
“Few people have yet given much thought to why the physically challenged
protesters in Lahore believed that the only way for them to be heard was to
congregate outside the chief minister’s secretariat. None of the many answers
would bring much comfort to the ‘leaders’ across the country who have been
gloating over their respective versions of good governance.”
Children
December 16: HRCP has called the killing of more than 120 children in a
Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar a national tragedy which it
said must open the eyes of anyone still harbouring any hope that Taliban and
Pakistan could coexist.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP is deeply saddened by the
large number of children killed in the Taliban attack on Army Public School in
Peshawar. This is a national tragedy of immense proportions, and an extremely
sad day for Pakistan. Our heart goes out to the families of the children whose
lives have been cut short by this abhorrent act of terrorism. …
“HRCP reiterates its firm belief that Taliban and Pakistan cannot coexist
and anyone still harbouring any notions to the contrary is naive beyond belief.
“It had already been established, much before Tuesday’s massacre of
children in Peshawar, where the Taliban stood in terms of education or value
of children’s lives. Their actions today have shown once again that Pakistan
will not know peace until this madness is taken on in all its manifestations and
defeated.
“This cold-blooded slaying of our children should drive home once for all
what the fight against the extremist militants is all about. And if this too does
not wake up all those who have been choosing their words carefully only with
reference to the Taliban, who have buried their heads in the sand or who have
refused to see the logic in launching operations against the barbaric bands
responsible for killing tens of thousands of citizens then nothing else will.
“HRCP calls upon the federal and all provincial governments to pursue
this battle with the unison the task demands and particularly make it an urgent
priority to punish the puppet masters who ordered the children’s massacre.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government must also rethink its policy of hospitality
towards militants and side, through both acts and deeds, with the citizens
suffering from the militants’ brutality.
“The fight against Taliban is literally the fight for the lives of Pakistan’s
children and to secure for them a future safe from the barbaric brutalities that
the Taliban and their ilk stand for.”
December 18: A prompt and thorough probe into the children’s massacre
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in Peshawar should name all actors who facilitated the terrorists, directly or
indirectly, to kill the nation’s future generation, the Human Rights Commission
of Pakistan (HRCP) has said.
The Commission said in a statement: “HRCP urges the government that
response to the horrific blood-letting in Peshawar must not be merely reactive
or emotional but should be well thought out.
“This is no time to be playing to the gallery or diverting public opinion
through sop. HRCP believes that tinkering with the informal moratorium on
executions offers no solution to the challenge that Pakistan faces. The flaws
in investigation and the overall criminal justice system need immediate attention
to ensure certainty of just punishment and not merely quantum of it. It is also
imperative that impunity is no longer be given to any individual or group that
indulges in militancy or hate speech. This should include decisive action against
the so-called banned extremist militant groups.
“HRCP demands that details of all aspects of the incident that culminated
in the tragic targeting of children in Peshawar must be shared with the people.
This is far too catastrophic a tragedy for the information to be made available
only through the news media.
“The people demand and desperately hope that a prompt and thorough
probe into this worst terrorist attack to befall the nation would name all actors
who facilitated the terrorists, directly or indirectly, to kill the nation’s future
generation. It should also identify the reasons for the intelligence apparatus
failure to forestall the massacre. …
“It is vital to acknowledge that our mercilessly butchered children and
their parents paid in no small part for the consistently flawed orientation of the
state and for pandering to streaks of intolerance promoted in the name of
belief. It is now critical that a complete shift takes place from the past.
“It should be clear for all to see that showing respect and concessions to
terrorists and terrorism only encourages more terrorism….There is a consensus
that the terrorism that afflicts Pakistan and Afghanistan has a regional dimension.
If the two countries pull together to deny safe havens to Taliban and other
terrorists they would stand a much better chance of exterminating this grave
menace to humanity.
“The people have been forced to ask what kind of a state we are that a
handful of people come and kill our future generations in this barbaric manner.
There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that if we fail to act in an appropriate
manner even in these grave circumstances it would be difficult to retain
Pakistan’s name among civilised nations.”
January 24: HRCP has voiced alarm at the promulgation of Protection
of Pakistan (Amendement) Ordinance 2014 and said the law violated
constitutionally guaranteed rights and legitimised illegalities.
In a statement, HRCP said: “There are far too many things in the PPO that
rights respecting individuals would find difficult to stomach. The main concerns
include giving the authorities the power to withhold information regarding the
location of any detainee, or grounds for such detention; detention of a person
in internment centre instead of ordinary jails; creating new classifications of
suspects such as “enemy alien” or “combatant enemy”; extending the preventive
detention period for any suspect; and legitimising illegal detention and enforced
disappearance through giving retrospective effect to the law.
“HRCP doubts that when the apex court had declared prolonged and
unannounced detention by security forces illegal and called for legislation,
ordinances like these were what it had called for. Citing exceptional
circumstances to justify derogation of rights and for delegation of exceptional
powers to the law enforcers is particularly worrisome in the context of enforced
disappearances in Pakistan. The ordinance will only compound the saga of
enforced disappearance in Pakistan and strengthen impunity.
“HRCP hopes and expects that the glaring illegalities that the ordinance
seeks to facilitate would not escape the notice of the judiciary.
“HRCP is of the opinion that while the new ordinance would certainly
strip suspects of many rights, it would not contribute to making the country
more secure or holding to account those responsible for widespread bloodletting
in Pakistan.
“HRCP is convinced that there is no justification for promulgating an
ordinance on such an important issue in the presence of parliament, which
should have been allowed to consider the controversial law.”
December 26: HRCP expressed serious alarm over the decision to set up
special courts to be headed by military officials to try terrorism cases.
In a statement, HRCP stated. “The Commission is dismayed that all political
parties supported this unfortunate decision, although some had earlier expressed
reservations. HRCP has a number of concerns over this move.
“Firstly, the decision undermines the judiciary and shows lack of
confidence in an independent and strong judicial system in the country. It
must be noted that the superior judiciary has, several times in the past, ruled
that military courts are unconstitutional.
“Secondly, trying civilians in military courts has always been a controversial
issue and again one that the superior judiciary has opposed. The system of
‘speedy justice’ has never proved to be fair and often not speedy.
“Thirdly, it is feared that political dissidents, particularly in Balochistan
and Sindh, could become the targets of military courts.
“HRCP believes that the need instead is to reform and strengthen the
system of investigation and prosecution. Reforms should include more scientific
methods of investigation, rather than torture and coercion, as well as witness
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protection programmes and better security for lawyers, judges and witnesses.
The hasty decision is all the more questionable as the Supreme Court itself is
attempting to expedite cases of terrorism.”
October 20: HRCP has expressed the hope that the Supreme Court will
look at all aspects of the case of Asia Bibi, whose appeal against her conviction
by a trial court on a blasphemy charge was turned down by the high court last
week.
In a statement HRCP said: “The outcome of Asia Bibi’s appeal has upset a
large number of people and all eyes are now on the Supreme Court. While the
Commission is of the opinion that every effort should be made not to interfere
with the judicial proceedings by making any comment, the fallout of the case
cannot be ignored.
“Pakistan is in a difficult situation because the blasphemy law and the
manner in which it is implemented have not been subjected to due scrutiny.
While we continue to expect that the judiciary of Pakistan will not fail the
hopes for justice of a poor woman, the essential task lies with the lawmakers
and ulema. For if they do not realise the impact that this law is having on the
thinking of the people and in fuelling intolerance in Pakistan we will face even
greater difficulties.
“The Commission also hopes that when the Supreme Court considers the
case, it would be spared the sort of intimidating crowds that had assembled in
and around courtrooms during the trial and appellate stages.
“While HRCP remains confident that in dealing with the case the Supreme
Court will look at all aspects of the matter and examine all aspects the case in
accordance with the strictest standard of proof, it is acutely aware of the fact
that the problem is not confined to Asia Bibi’s case and will not be addressed
until the government and the people are able to sit down to consider the impact
of the law without the fear that has prevented any discussion of this law ever
since it was made.”
Democratic dispensation
February 10: HRCP demanded a transparent inquiry into the abduction
and murder of a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) worker in Karachi and
called for probing complaints by the party of extra-judicial killing and illegal
detention of its workers.
In a press statement, HRCP said: “The MQM has repeatedly complained
about illegal arrests, detention and extra-judicial killings of its workers and
supporters in Karachi because of their political affiliation. The party has accused
law enforcement personnel of such excesses, particularly after the
commencement of a targeted operation in Karachi since August last year.
“These are extremely serious charges and HRCP always hopes and expects
that such charges anywhere in Pakistan would be investigated to the fullest
without the need for the authorities to be constantly implored to do so.
“HRCP is particularly concerned about the killing of Salman Nooruddin,
said to be an MQM worker, who was picked up allegedly by law enforcement
personnel on February 3. His nephew was also detained along with him but
was later freed. Salman’s body was found dumped in Karachi’s Shah Latif
Town the following day. The body reportedly showed severe torture marks,
which was also noted in the post mortem report.
“HRCP calls upon the government and particularly the Sindh chief minister
to ensure an early judicial probe into Salman’s killing and in all other cases
where illegal detention, disappearance or extra-judicial killing of individuals
has been alleged on account of political affiliation. …”
April 21: HRCP noted with serious alarm that while the Muttahida Qaumi
Movement (MQM) has continued to voice concerns about abduction, torture
and extrajudicial killings of its workers, steps have not been taken to investigate
the charges.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP has learned that dead bodies
of two MQM workers were found in Korangi late last week. Both men had
been missing for over a month and their bodies showed torture marks.
“Everyone who calls Karachi their home, and indeed all citizens of Pakistan,
have a stake in peace returning to Karachi. Towards that end, the launch of the
operation to rid Karachi of widespread violence had been generally well received.
HRCP demands that all attempts by police and other law enforcement agencies
to restore peace in the city must strictly adhere to law and human rights.
“HRCP also calls upon the federal and provincial governments to
immediately hold an inquiry with a view to investigate the MQM complaints to
the satisfaction of the party and of the victims’ families.”
August 5: HRCP expressed alarm at an “exaggerated hassle over who
should occupy the gaddi” leading to total neglect of the affairs of the state. It
has called upon the government to focus on the real issues of the people and
urged those seeking to pressurise the government through marching on
Islamabad and other plans to realise the danger their actions have brought
about for the country’s shaky democratic edifice.
In a statement, the Commission said: “As the drumbeat for the so-called
Azadi march and other tactics aimed at mounting pressure on the government
quickens, it is clear that none of the many parties to this spectacle is blameless.
The government has made the mistake of not engaging with Imran Khan
when he raised the question of rigging in four constituencies and instead of
working out a political solution, they are seeking extra-political escape routes.
The government has also made the mistake of treating Imran Khan and Tahirul
Qadri as major threats when its real threat comes from a failure or lack of
interest in appropriately addressing people’s grievances related to lawlessness,
targeted killing, sectarian violence, killing of human rights defenders and
unemployment. The ground that Imran Khan is invoking for marching on
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Islamabad is not broadly acceptable and he has made the mistake of over-
committing himself.
“Dr Qadri and Imran Khan are wrong in assuming that their tactics would
not harm representative governance and the government is wrong in assuming
that the people can be forced to fight for a non-functional democracy.
“There is a consensus that there was considerable mismanagement of the
general elections but also that they were largely free of the official interference
that had been witnessed in the past. In any case, complaints of malpractice
have to be weighed against the respect democratic institutions must enjoy. …
“The Commission feels very strongly about the exaggerated hassle over
who should occupy the gaddi and over the affairs of the state being neglected
week after week. The attention of the people and not just the rulers and their
adversaries has been captivated by this drawn out spectacle - a huge loss of
human resources and time.
“It is time that everyone returned to their posts and looked at the many
pressing concerns of the citizenry, including internal displacement, armed
conflict in the country, and the state of law and order and economy and tried
to restore Pakistan’s plunging reputation in the world.”
December 9: HRCP expressed deep concern over violent clashes in
Faisalabad and criticised the authorities for not doing enough to maintain law
and order as well as failing to constructively engage the Pakistan Tehrik-e-
Insaf through dialogue.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP is saddened by the violence
in Faisalabad that resulted in the death of a PTI activist and injuries to several
others, including policemen.
“Under all circumstances, it is the obligation of the authorities to ensure
that law and order is maintained and citizens’ lives and rights protected. It is
lamentable that even though many indications had suggested that the protest
on Monday could turn violent, not least because of provocative tirades from
both the ruling party and the PTI, the authorities did not show the necessary
resolve and imaginativeness to ensure law and order. Police passively looking
on as individuals openly used firearms was just one indication of that.
“The violence and clashes between activists of PTI and the ruling PML-N
in Faisalabad have not only complicated an already tense political situation but
also introduced a more violent strain in the political wrangling.
“Because of media coverage of the sad events on Monday, the killer of the
PTI activist has not remained anonymous. He must be arrested and tried without
delay.
“Another matter of concern has been reports of PTI workers in Faisalabad
forcibly trying to shut down markets, burning tyres on roads and intimidating
media workers. Both sides need to be reminded about the need for restraint
and taking responsibility for the actions of the crowds they mobilise.
“HRCP believes that engaging the PTI rather than hoping that its campaign
would fizzle out or its call would not find support among the masses should be
the preferred course for the government. Both sides have an infinitely better
chance of finding solutions to the impasse through dialogue rather than through
the constant exchange of accusation and insults.
“Among the first points to ponder for both sides should be finding ways
to abandon the provocative demeanour and leave behind the environment of
hostility and confrontation.
Finally, the events in Faisalabad also highlighted the need for protection of
media workers. The safety concerns of journalists covering these developments
must be addressed and a public commitment to that effect by both sides
would not go amiss.”
June 3: Expressing grave concern over the abduction and brutal murder
of Jeay Sindh Mutahida Mahaz (JSMM) activist Muneer Cholyani, the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said that the incident appeared to be
the continuation of a disturbing trend in Sindh where individuals affiliated with
nationalist groups and political parties were being targetted.
In a statement, the Commission said: “The targetting of activists of
nationalist parties in Sindh is reaching alarming proportions. Even more
disturbing is the fact that the killers have not been arrested in any of these
cases. The JSMM has pointed the finger at state agents for Cholyani’s murder.
It is imperative that the charge is thoroughly investigated to the satisfaction of
the party and the relatives, something which has not been done hitherto in any
such case in Sindh.
“In fact, Munir Cholyani’s nephew, Rooplo, was among three political
activists assassinated in Sanghar in April 2011. Their bodies were then placed
in their car and set on fire. The killers remain at large. An HRCP fact-finding a
fortnight after the 2011 killing had expressed serious alarm at the lack of
urgency shown in holding a credible and thorough probe into the matter. Nothing
has been done in the three years since to dispel that concern.
“HRCP has little doubt that these killings are aimed at bringing Balochistan-
like chaos to Sindh and the attempts must be resisted with full force. We are
also certain that nothing will change without the government’s strong resolve
to end the blatant killings. The Commission calls upon the federal and provincial
governments and the judiciary to take note of the systematic targetting of
political activists in Sindh and immediately institute a judicial inquiry to promptly
identify and punish the killers to remove the aura of impunity. In view of past
experience, HRCP also must insist that the findings of such a probe must not
be kept from the people.”
Women’s rights
March 7: HRCP has demanded that efforts for promoting gender equality
must go beyond ceremonial steps and pending legislation and steps for
economic independence of women must be expedited.
In a statement issued on the eve of International Women’s Day on March
HRCP stands 403
8, HRCP said: “Girls and women continue to face many challenges across
Pakistan. Their dismal human rights situation is aggravated by failure to
implement some positive legislative changes as well as undue delay in adopting
proposed changes to the law.
“While we believe it is important to commemorate International Women’s
Day as an occasion to reflect on progress and challenges during the past year,
doing that alone does not change the ground reality. Improvement in the
condition of girls and women will not come about through cosmetic or
ceremonial steps or the rhetoric around March 8 every year.
“Violence against women in the form of so-called honour crime shows no
sign of abating. Incidents of acid attack and forced conversion are also a
reminder of the challenges at hand. Women and girls in conflict areas of the
country, such as FATA and Malakand, and those who are internally displaced
need particular attention. At a time when peace talks with militant extremists
are high on the government’s agenda, it is important to take into account
women’s concerns and not sign away their rights in a compromise.
“This year’s theme for March 8, “equality for women is progress for all”
is particularly relevant to the situation in Pakistan. Experience from around the
world shows that countries with greater gender equality, empowerment of
women and greater role for them in various spheres have better economic
growth, greater levels of tolerance and economic and social development.
“At the minimum, pending legislation such as changes to the Child Marriage
Restraint Act, among others, should be expedited. The long delay in adoption
of Hindu marriage law and changes in the Christian divorce law add to women’s
problems.
HRCP is of the considered opinion that the problems confronting girls and
women would not go away until they gain equality, economic freedom, including
their right to education, work and to inheritance. Laws alone cannot change
the social attitudes that need to be changed to make gender equality a reality.
Progress on that front remains far from encouraging. That must change
forthwith.”
March 12: HRCP has strongly condemned the retrogressive move by the
Council of Islamic Ideology to roll back the Muslim family laws and called
upon the government to stand fast in defence of women’s rights. In a statement
issued here today the commission said:
“At a time when the state is trying to deal with a grave threat from extremists
posing as religious soldiers and the humanitarian challenges in Thar, Maulana
Shirani, the controversial head of the Council of Islamic Ideology, has chosen
to fire a broadside at the disadvantaged women of the country. And this right
on the morrow of the world-wide celebration of the International Women’s
Day. The edict aimed at giving parents/guardians a licence to give away little
girls in marriage and freeing men of the need to secure the permission of their
first wives before admitting second wives to their harems is nothing short of
a vicious attack on women’s and girls’ fundamental rights. … The people
have a right to know as to what has made the CII, which had claimed to have
completed its scrutiny of all laws quite some time ago, discover flaws in the
Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of 1961 at this particular moment.
“Quite obviously Maulana Shirani wishes to open a new front against
women and to reinforce the militants’ siege of the state. In doing so he has
furnished a good reason for a full-scale review of the CII’s functions, it powers,
and the justification for its existence.
“The government must not yield to the CII manoeuvre.”
March 14: HRCP has expressed grave concern after the death of a rape
victim who had set herself ablaze because a police report had helped the rapist
get bail in the case.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP is pained beyond words by
the death of the 18-year old gang-rape victim in Muzaffargarh. Her sacrifice
has exposed the ordeals that rape victims in the country face when they try to
bring their tormentors to justice. It is common knowledge that only the
courageous rape victims in Pakistan take the matter to the police or court. The
girl had gone to Bet Mir Hazar police station in Muzaffargarh on Thursday to
lodge protest with an investigation officer for helping the main accused get
bail by favouring him in his report. …
“The saddest part is that it took an 18-year old girl who lacked legal
training two months to find out that the odds were stacked against her. Legal
and criminal justice experts should be able to grasp that more quickly. Barring
a sudden and miraculous change of heart somewhere, it is almost certain that
the girl’s ordeal and painful death would have no positive impact in the context
of sexual violence against women in Pakistan. The chief justice has taken a
suo motu notice. If suo motu notices alone could lead to change, Pakistan
would be a much reformed country now. HRCP hopes the government would
at least belatedly realise its obligation to prosecute the rapist and immediately
launch practical measures to ensure that no other rape victim has to set herself
ablaze to get noticed.”
May 28: HRCP has expressed serious alarm and disgust over the murder
of a young woman, who was killed by her family in a manner like stoning to
death, close to the Lahore High Court for marrying without their consent.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP is appalled by the manner of
Farzana Parveen’s death just a few yards from the Lahore High Court on
Tuesday. Her only crime was to marry of her own free will, a right that the
law recognises for all adult citizens but one where the state has failed to
prevent abuse and violence.…
Parveen’s murder was no case of sudden provocation as several months
had passed after her marriage. The family had obviously come prepared to
commit murder. Parveen’s father had no remorse when he surrendered to the
police and called the cold-blooded murder an “honour killing”. He stated that
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he did not regret his actions.
Such brazen actions have been encouraged by the authorities’ failure to
fulfil their duty to protect citizens’ lives. The sheer number of women falling
victim to the so-called “honour killings” is enough to dispel all illusions about
any interest in saving their lives. In 2013 alone, HRCP recorded the killing of
nearly 900 women in “honour” crimes from media reports. These women
were killed because the state did not confront this feudal practice supported
by religiosity and bigotry.
HRCP calls upon the government to unreservedly condemn this shameful
crime and make sure that Parveen’s killers do not escape justice by glorifying
their dastardly act in the name of honour. The government should also consider
starting a public awareness campaign to combat the feudal mentality behind
the crime and ensure that the killers get no premium for invoking misplaced
notions of honour.
December 29: There was a pressing need for greaterawareness of working
women’s rights, ensuring equal pay for equalwork irrespective of gender and
recognition of women’s contribution to society and the national economy, a
consultation organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)
in Karachi concluded.
Participants of the consultation on ‘women’s wages and employment’
called upon the government to recognise home-based workers (HBW) and
domestic workers as labour so that the cover of social security could be
extended to them. The participants in the deliberations said that the informal
sector contributed 35 percent to the national economy and employed millions
of workers, especially women. It was thus a matter of grave concern that
these workers could neither unionize nor demand minimum wage or claim any
of the other entitlements available to workers under Pakistan’s law and the
country’s international human rights commitments.
Khalida Ghous, a prominent human rights activist, presented a paper on
employment trends, gender-based discrimination and exploitation and the wage
gap between men and women engaged in identical or substantially similar
work. Zehra Ali, senior office-bearer of a federation of domestic workers’
organizations, focused on HBWs and domestic workers, stating that in arriving
at a coherent policy for these workers a particular difficulty had been agreeing
on a uniform minimum wage because of the diverse nature of their work,
particularly since HBWs were skilled workers. Social worker Dr Sajjad Ahmed
made a presentation about occupational hazards and other health concerns for
working women and the various issues regarding maternity leave. An exhaustive
presentation on labour laws by Farhat Parween, civil society activist,
highlighted the importance of collective bargaining for women workers.
The participants included a large number of women workers, students,
social activists, female doctors, civil society organisaton representatives.
Human rights defenders

April 10: HRCP has voiced serious concern and indignation over threats
extended to a senior lawyer representing a blasphemy accused inside a
courtroom in the Multan Central Prison.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP is extremely concerned about
threats given to the lawyers of blasphemy accused Junaid Hafeez in open
court. His lawyers Rashid Rehman and Allah Dad had appeared before a judge
for a hearing on Wednesday April 9. The case is being heard in Multan Central
Jail in view of security concerns.
“During arguments for acquittal of the accused, three persons addressed
defence lawyer Rashid Rehman, Advocate, in the judge’s presence and said:
‘You will not come to court next time because you will not exist any more.’
Mr Rehman drew the judge’s attention to the threat but the judge is reported to
have remained silent.
“The difficulty that the accused has had in finding and retaining a lawyer
is well known. HRCP views that as a systematic denial of legal representation
to the accused. HRCP believes that no one except bigots have an interest in the
accused going unrepresented. If this charade continues for much longer HRCP
will have no qualms in concluding that it has been decided that the accused
would not be allowed legal representation and there is no need to bother with
a trial anymore. HRCP demands that the three persons who threatened the
lawyer in the case are proceeded against under the law without delay and
effective measures are taken to ensure the defence lawyer’s security.”
May 8: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan is deeply grieved at
the killing of its Multan Task Force coordinator, Rashid Rehman, Advocate.
Rashid was a committed rights activist and lawyer and had been associated
with HRCP for over twenty years.
It must be recalled that on 10 April, through a statement, the Commission
had brought it to the attention of the authorities that Rashid was being openly
threatened by prosecution lawyers in the Multan District Prison where he was
representing a blasphemy accused. The hearing was being held in the prison
due to security concerns. The judge, it was reported, did not take any notice
of threats issued to Rashid in his presence. Three persons had addressed
defence lawyer Rashid Rehman in the judge’s presence and said: ‘You will not
come to court next time because you will not exist any more.’
It is regrettable that no attention was paid to HRCP’s or Rashid’s concerns
and nothing was done to apprehend the three persons who had threatened
Rashid. In its earlier statement, HRCP had demanded that the three persons
who had threatened defence lawyer Rashid Rehman in the case be “proceeded
against under the law without delay and effective measures are taken to ensure
the defence lawyer’s security.”
HRCP demands that cases be immediately registered against those who
had threatened Rashid and his killers be brought to justice. It would be a
travesty of justice for the cause of human rights and for Rashid’s family if this
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plea was also ignored and meaningful action was not taken.
Rashid had bravely decided to represent a blasphemy accused in a society
where bigots believe that those accused do not have the right of defence. In
his death, HRCP has lost a courageous and committed human rights defender.
The forces of religious extremism, unchecked by the state, may have won a
battle but not the war.
Police excesses
June 18: HRCP has strongly condemned the police action at the Tahirul
Qadri Secretariat, in which eight people were killed, and at least 90 injured.
In a statement, the Commission said: “HRCP condemns in the strongest
words possible the unfortunate events on Tuesday in which eight people,
including two women, were killed at the Tahirul Qadri Secretariat when the
administration reportedly tried to remove some barriers from roads around the
place.
“HRCP condoles with the bereaved families and finds it difficult to accept
that the fatalities occurred in an exercise aimed at removing encroachments
alone. The barriers had been there for a number of years and removing them
on the eve of Tahirul Qadri’s arrival in Pakistan has led many to conclude that
the move was politically motivated.
“This is not the first incident that lack of police training or their inclination
for crowd control without violence has been badly exposed. It is not likely to
be the last. In fact, Tuesday’s incident makes it abundantly clear that there are
no bounds to police brutality in action against political rivals of the parties in
power. …
“An inquiry has been launched into the sanguinary incident. It must fix
responsibility without fear or favour and, unlike the past practice, its findings
must be made public.
“HRCP cannot emphasise enough that this most tragic event must not be
politicised, and must not be used as an opportunity to engage in the politics of
dead bodies. The media must also remain mindful of that.”
Fact-finding missions
Good governance only way to restore order in Karachi
July 21: The lawlessness in Karachi, the collapse of state institutions and
the citizen’s unending travail are symptoms of a multiple-sided political crisis
and no way out is possible until the two main political parties of Sindh establish
functional cooperation and start respecting the people’s right to good
governance, including efficient and responsible local government institutions.
Democracy is facing a stiff test in Karachi and public perception of political
parties’ selfish pursuits, their lack of interest in ending disappearances, torture
and death in custody, economic exploitation of the disadvantaged, and a
pervasive feeling of helplessness and hopelessness is alienating people from
democracy and politics. Many are openly asking for a return to an authoritarian
dispensation, ignoring the clear signals that such a relapse could be fatal for
the highest interests of the state.
These are the main findings of the fact-finding mission carried out by the
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) from July 17 to July 20 to
assess the law and order situation in Karachi, particularly to gauge progress
over the 10 months since Rangers were given security responsibilities. The
mission also looked at the context which led to the Rangers being invited to
operate in Karachi.
The mission was struck by civil society’s indifference to the situation in
Karachi. This could be due to the rulers’ refusal to offer space for interaction
with citizens. Nevertheless civil society’s abdication of its role as a vigilant
watchdog over public interest will only strengthen the forces of disorder,
religiosity and exploitation
At the conclusion of the fact-finding, the HRCP mission wishes to make
the following preliminary observations:
At the time of the start of the operation, the demand for effective across-
the-board action to end lawlessness in Karachi was near unanimous and all
political parties and various segments of society had called for the same.
However, the people the fact-finding mission met were generally not impressed
by the talk-to-action ratio.
The operation had been launched on an ad hoc basis without appropriate
planning. The apparent idea at the time was that police could not prevail over
the elements responsible for lawlessness and bloodshed in Karachi. Throughout
the operation nothing has been done to enhance the capacity of the police.
There has been a complete failure to open channels to convey grievances
to the relevant departments as a result of the fallout of the operation.
Independent oversight of the operation was absent. A promised commission in
that respect had not been constituted. A redress committee that has been set
up had so little credibility that citizens who constantly submitted complaints to
HRCP had not even bothered to contact it.
The mission received several dozen complaints from families whose men
have allegedly been picked up by law-enforcement agencies and have since
been missing. … HRCP will refer all these cases to the relevant authorities. …
No civilised government can ignore the suffering of the people in distress for
no fault of theirs. As for those who are suspected of any offence, they too
must be dealt with in accordance with law.
Based on the perceptions of the people that the mission interacted with, it
appeared that the objectives of the operation had not been met. Even the figures
presented by the police demonstrated that with the exception of murders the
reported crime had not registered much decrease. … Some police officers
tried to explain the increase as a sign of growing confidence among the people
who they said were contacting police now while they previously would not
HRCP stands 409
even come to them. Police maintained that there were few causes for concern
in the law and order situation which some officers called the crime figures
proportionate to the economy.
Police stated that they were not conducting any operation in Karachi, but
merely engaging in proactive policing which was having an impact. They
highlighted that police had not been given any special powers to overcome
crime since the action began in September last year and all of the departmental
safeguards were in place to prevent any violations.
The mission was informed that few criminals would dare commit a crime
on thoroughfares unless they were certain that they would get away with it.
Impunity and inaction fed crime and lawlessness. Many segments cited demands
to end pre-paid cell phone SIMs to control threats and kidnapping for ransom
not being heeded.
Members of parliament, police, and citizens alike seemed to have accepted
lawlessness as an everyday fact of life. Shopkeepers and businessmen consider
payment of extortion money just another business expense, counted it among
their input costs and passed it on to the consumer. Citizens did not report
street crime, which seemed to have been on the rise and which did not seem
to worry either police or politicians. Those who could afford it had sent their
children abroad mainly on account of the fear of kidnappings for ransom.
Many businessmen have shifted their establishment to foreign lands because
of the security situation.
In many meetings with citizens, including professionals, a common view
that HRCP heard was that Karachi was suffering because fiefdoms flourished
in the city in the name of democracy. They believe that the political stakeholders
in Karachi only guarded their respective interests and got along only when
these interests converged. The law and order problems of Karachi particularly,
and Sindh in general, would not be addressed as long as the main political
parties in the city only showed selective commitment to the cause. They said
these political parties were yet to determine the pattern of their cooperation.
Absence of local government system was highlighted as another hurdle in
meeting even the most basic needs of citizens. Effective, democratic
governance and early introduction of effective, representative and democratic
local government institutions was cited as vital in reducing the tensions that
have been contributing to inaction and aggravation of the security situation in
Karachi.
Lack of understanding among major political forces had made the
administration dysfunctional, which had affected the satisfaction of people’s
basic needs, including security. The delivery system of the state even in the
urban cosmopolitan area was so inefficient that the people felt compelled to
meet their needs through informal means. The mission did not notice any role
of political elements or discussion in the legislature that reflected concern over
the seriousness of the law and order situation. There had been a complete lack
of political initiative to back any gains made in the wake of the supposed
cleaning up of the criminal elements to turn communities into law-abiding
ones. The citizens, particularly businessmen, expressed dissatisfaction with
the interest of the authorities in addressing lawlessness and violence. Some
segments of society were so utterly frustrated that they were convinced that
only deployment of army in Karachi would make a difference. The concern
that such desperation should evoke among the political dispensation was largely
absent.
There was a consensus that providing employment to the people would
boost efforts to restore peace and deny recruits to militant and other criminal
elements.
There were reservations over the ownership of the security situation by
both the provincial and federal governments. It was stated that the federal and
provincial governments were not on the same page. Many citizens were
convinced that the prime minister and the federal interior minister taking more
interest in the situation and staying in Karachi for a few days, instead of flying
in and out the same day, would make a difference.
The mission heard numerous alleged accounts regarding police, at least at
the junior level, backing the criminals and much more frequently of police
being aware about crime and criminals and failing to act. There was a sentiment
that a police force that wanted to earn people’s respect and confidence needed
to investigate all such charges in a transparent manner and share the outcome
with the citizens.
There appeared to be willingness among police officers to turn the
department around. However, that appeared unlikely to achieve anything unless
well-intentioned policemen were allowed to have a say. Lack of security of
tenure, frequent transfers/posting, capacity issues, including lack of training
and equipment, were also cited among hurdles in police performance. There
was a feeling that police was a magnet for criticism from the political,
administrative and judicial quarters alike, but their contribution, often at the
risk of their lives, was not acknowledged. The police role in reclaiming the
Karachi airport from terrorists in June was cited as an example. At least 125
policemen had been killed in targeted attacks and during performance of their
duties since the launch of the September operation. Many of the people the
mission met made serious allegations of excesses by the Rangers. HRCP will
refer all such cases to appropriate authorities for speedy redress.
As a force, police were weighed down by the responsibility to guard
important personalities; something that keep 8,500 policemen out of the total
force of 26,800 away from regular policing duties. Even at full strength they
lacked the numbers required to provide security and law and order to citizens.
The police-to-citizen ratio was 1: 1525. The police were expected to take on
well-armed terrorists even though they lacked appropriate training, bullet-proof
HRCP stands 411
jackets and vehicles and chained armoured personnel carriers.
HRCP calls for urgent steps to address challenges in Thar
December 27: HRCP has called for immediate steps in consultation with
the local population to address the many problems confronting Thar, including
those leading to death of children and those brought forth by a drought in the
area.
In a statement issued at the conclusion of an HRCP team’s visit to
Tharparkar, The Commission said: “HRCP is acutely aware of the limitations
of analysing the intricacies of the situation in Thar in a short visit. However,
HRCP is grateful to the women and men from various parts of Thar and to
civil society activists and development experts who gave us the benefit of
their experience.
“HRCP appreciates also the role of the media in attracting attention to
infants’ deaths in Thar. This has brought into focus not only the drought but
also other, bigger problems in Thar.
“The problems of the people of Thar are very complex and the death of
children in hospitals or at homes is only one aspect of that. The high mortality
among children is a long standing chronic issue which has not occurred due
to starvation but on account of a persistent failure to address a number of
factors, including food insecurity and malnourishment, lack of safe water and
of hygiene and absence of female education and family planning. These have
been aggravated by poverty, child marriages, long distances restricting access
to emergency maternity and newborn health services, ineffective primary
healthcare structure and an environment of a general resignation to a cruel
fate. The Thar residents also have to contend with the dearth of a middle class
to argue their case and have largely had to depend on outsiders even to articulate
basic demands.
“Drought is a natural and recurring phenomenon which has been really
hurting Thar. This can be mitigated by advanced planning. The people think
that the government has not helped them sufficiently and in a timely manner
and that middle men have been made responsible for providing relief who have
prioritised profit over obligation.
“One of the basic issues is that the economy and resources of Thar are no
longer able to sustain the increased population. The supply of food has stagnated
or dwindled as demand has spiked. Both agriculture farming and livestock
breeding have become largely unsustainable. The pastoral economy has turned
into a cash economy. But people have no cash. The exploration and exploitation
of Thar’s abundant natural resources has not created employment opportunities
and whatever opportunities are available are only at long distances of 400
kilometres or more. The large number of unskilled labour needs immediate
attention to engage them productively. A nexus between development and labour
has not been developed. There is concern that aid dependency is setting in.
“Many of the problems that the Thar people face are no different from
what is the experience of the people of Pakistan elsewhere: police is corrupt,
administration inefficient and political parties insensitive. Rural indebtedness is
at a higher level and it is fuelled by a change in the style of living and demand
for cell phones and motorcycles, which are also catalysts of progress.
“We have also noticed certain positive changes: a recent improvement in
availability of health services, although more needs to be done. The positives
include women being able to leave their homes for work, certain decline in
caste distinction in several areas and communal harmony surviving despite
provocation from extremists.
“Lastly, there is a need for permanent change-oriented combined
development strategy addressing water, roads, health and female education;
and social engineering needed in public-private partnership where the need for
consultation and inclusive decision-making is clearly understood and adhered
to.”
Statements by Executive Council

Lack of remedial measures aggravating rights situation: HRCP
April 28: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has expressed alarm
at the aggravation in key human rights areas and absence of priority and resolve
in dealing with the issues.
A statement issued at the conclusion of its Council and annual general
meetings said: “The General body and the Executive Council of Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) express serious concern that the human
rights situation has not shown any improvements in the six months since we
met in October last. More reasons for alarm have surfaced. The following
issues need to be highlighted in particular:
1. The government seems directionless. Clear policies are lacking. There
is an urgent need to defuse regional tensions and work towards
building relations with neighbours. HRCP proposes the government
extends the role of the Planning Commission to serve as a think tank
for political-social issues facing the country so that clear policies and
strategies are in place.
2. Counter-terrorism policies must protect citizens rather than targeting
them. Legislative measures aimed at countering lawlessness and
terrorism have raised concerns regarding due process rights for the
accused. These concerns must be addressed and laws for tackling
the challenges must not be arbitrary or in contravention of human
rights.
3. HRCP regrets that its proposal to the Balochistan government to set a
up a provincial human rights commission has not been heeded. It was
proposed that an independent human rights commissioner be appointed,
in an honorary capacity, in Quetta and human rights officers in each
district. Such a set-up could be followed in other provinces as well. It
is regrettable that HRCP’s request to visit Totak, where a mass grave
HRCP stands 413
had been discovered, has not been granted.
4. While the Balochistan government was congratulated on holding the
local bodies elections last December, ahead of other provinces, those
elected have not yet taken oath and the benefits of the system remain
out of people’s reach. Other provinces have not yet held these crucial
elections which devolve power to the grassroots level and facilitate
the solving of people’s problems. However, HRCP welcomes the
Balochistan government’s decision to provide compensation to all
victims of terrorism, including civilians.
5. HRCP expresses alarm at efforts to curb freedom of the media through
intimidation and threats of legal action. At the same time, it is deeply
concerned at the ongoing war of words between large media groups,
which it considers a setback to freedom of the media and its ability to
criticise the military establishment.
6. The media is also failing in its duty to encourage rational debate and to
promote a culture of tolerance. The commission believes that it is
time to make Pakistan Television (PTV) an autonomous institution.
7. HRCP condemns arbitrary detentions in Malakand under the Actions
in Aid of Civil Power Ordinance. Reports of enforced disappearance
and custodial deaths have also been received from Malakand, pointing
to the abuse of state power.
8. HRCP once again condemns attacks on places of worship belonging
to non-Muslims. There have been several attacks on Hindu temples in
Larkana, Tharparkar and Hyderabad. At the same time, a 150-year-
old temple in Karachi is facing damage from unplanned construction
of underpasses and flyovers by a private developer. Religious minorities
also continue to be persecuted through the blasphemy laws. It is time
for the government and the parliament to show courage and begin a
debate on reforming those laws.
9. Insecurity felt by non-Muslims is reflected in thousands leaving the
country. Rise in religious intolerance is compelling many to convert
to Islam.
10. The Tharparker drought and its high death toll is one indication of
poor governance in Sindh. Other matters of concern include rise in
kidnappings for ransom in upper Sindh as well as extrajudicial killings
of Sindhi nationalists who are picked up and their dead bodies later
dumped.
11. The terms of talks with the terrorists have not been shared with the
people, increasing fears that concession for them can come at the
cost of the citizens’ rights, particularly women and religious and
sectarian minorities.
12. The practice of enforced disappearance and dumping of dead bodies
has spread to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. The impunity for the
perpetrators that HRCP believe is behind this expansion must be ended
and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons
from Enforced Disappearance ratified.
13. Life has become so difficult for many sections in Pakistan that more
and more people are being forced to consider leaving the country
amid safety and security concerns as well as lack of economic and
livelihood opportunities.
14. The impact of the high cost of living on people’s ability to access
basic rights, including health, education and food, is not getting due
attention. The economy should be revived to generate income for the
poor to enable them to meet basic needs with dignity.
15. HRCP strongly reiterates that the need to mainstream FATA remains
as urgent as ever and neglect in this regard is having serious
consequences for the entire country, not just for the residents of this
long suffering region.
16. The risks for human rights defenders continue and they find it difficult
to work in or report from an ever growing list of areas. Their protection
and facilitation of their work must be prioritised.
17. The attacks on polio vaccinators and a rise in incidence of cases are
matters of grave concern and demand multi-pronged action which
must include awareness drives and reclaiming writ of the state in
regions where lawlessness prevents vaccination.”
Political situation diverting attention from grave human rights
concerns: HRCP
October 14: HRCP has voiced concern at the emergence and deterioration
in a litany of grave human rights concerns across the country and stated that
the prevailing political situation, and rise in religious extremism were proving
significant hurdles in mounting any serious efforts to deal with these concerns.
A statement issued at the conclusion of the two-day autumn meeting of
the HRCP Council said: “The HRCP Executive Council notes with great dismay
the addition of several alarming dimensions to the many human rights challenges
in the country since the council last met in April. It has been considered
imperative to draw attention to the following issues in particular:
♦ The political situation characterised by dharnas has taken attention
away from other more important issues. One of the outcomes has
been strengthening of sectarian forces. The people hope and expect
that the government would remain mindful of its obligation to address
the pressing concerns of the people, especially the human rights
concerns, even as it tries to find way to reach out to the parties
engaged in dharnas.
♦ There has been an unchecked rise in religious extremism and the
situation has worsened for religious and sectarian minority
communities. A sequence of attacks on Sikhs in Peshawar, assaults
on Hindus in Umerkot and on temples elsewhere in Sindh, target killing
HRCP stands 415
of an Ahmadi doctor in Mirpur Khas, killing of Ahmadis in Gujranwala,
of Zikris in Awaran and attack on a blasphemy convict in Adiala prison
are just some of the manifestations of increase in fanaticism and
intolerance. The lot of those charged under the blasphemy law has
become all the more precarious as it has become almost impossible
for them to defend themselves at their trial. The murder of Rashid
Rehman for daring to defend a blasphemy accused whose case no
one else was willing to take and the complete lack of interest of the
authorities to go after his killers has further encouraged impunity.
♦ The ongoing Karachi operation led by Rangers has not proven effective.
Complaints of people being picked up regularly surface and are not
adequately addressed. The judicial process in this respect is very slow.
Sectarian and targeted killings continue in the city and statistics
including killings suggest that the operation has failed to achieve
success. There seems little commitment in any part of the country to
improve the poor law and order situation. Poor governance has
aggravated the challenge. Kidnapping for ransom has become an
industry and failure to nab the criminals has created an environment
of fear.
♦ Targeted killings are also regularly being reported from Balochistan,
where incidents of enforced disappearance and dumping of mutilated
bodies also continue, though the number of incidents appears to be
on decline.
♦ HRCP expresses grave concern at the rising incidents of violence
against women and minor girls all over Pakistan, despite the enactment
of seven laws over the past decade, and calls upon all the provincial
governments to enact strong laws, as well as taking effective measures
for their implementation; and calls upon the public and private media
to adhere to its Voluntary Code of Gender-Sensitive Ethics, adopted
over a decade ago.
♦ WHO has imposed strict measures on Pakistan for external travel,
with further potential sanctions. HRCP expresses concern that these
would have a huge negative impact on Pakistan’s economy and its
international standing. The Commission also condemns the continued
target killings of the brave polio vaccinators, especially those struggling
to immunize the most vulnerable children in the far-flung and
conservative rural areas of Pakistan. It demands that the federal and
provincial governments urgently provide greatly increased and more
effective security cover to these vaccinators, particularly in FATA,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Karachi, and other focus areas.
♦ The killing of journalists in Balochistan and how little attention media
persons’ plight in the province is getting nationwide is exceedingly
disturbing. The attacks must be investigated and the killers brought to
justice.
♦ The situation of flood affectees and conflict-induced IDPs and the
utter neglect of the needs is extremely distressing. Consultation with
the affected citizens regarding important decisions that impact their
lives have remained absent. Meaningful steps are needed to ensure
their early and sustainable return. HRCP calls upon the federal
government to deploy NADRA’s mobile service units to provide CNICs
to women IDPs from North Waziristan, giving priority to the duly
identified women-headed households. This will enable them to register
as IDPs with the FDMA/PDMA/NDMA, thereby becoming eligible
for assistance in the form of cash, shelter, food, health care and
education facilities. The displacement on account of rise in cross-
border tensions with India also deserves immediate attention.
♦ The situation of detainees at internment centres deserves urgent
attention. Lack of meetings with family and neglect of their health
and due process rights must be rectified without delay and each death
in custody independently investigated. HRCP continues to denounce
the law on Action in Aid of Civil Power enforced in FATA and PATA.
The law violates basic human rights principles and provides cover to
illegal acts of the security forces in matters of arbitrary detention,
torture and enforced disappearance. Most sufferers under this law
are the inhabitants of Malakand Division.
♦ The undoing of many positive changes in the curriculum in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa and slogans such as ‘Hum sab Musalmaan’ in Sindh
are going to fuel more intolerance and extremism in Pakistan. HRCP
urges the provincial governments to ensure that the curriculum
promotes humanity and positive values rather than discrimination and
exclusion.
♦ The Council welcomed the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Malala
Yousafzai as a source of pride for the nation and an inspiration for
peace and education, especially for girls.”
Chairperson and Council members

Miscellaneous
Zohra Yusuf reelected HRCP Chairperson
April 27: Ms Zohra Yusuf was re-elected Chairperson and Kamran Arif
Advocate was reelected Co-chairperson of Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan (HRCP) at the election of its office-bearers for the 2014-2016 term,
held at the commission’s annual general meeting.
The Vice-chairpersons elected are:
Balochistan – Tahir Husain Khan, Advocate; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – Sher
Mohamamd Khan, Advocate; Punjab – Ms Nazish Ataullah; Sindh – Asad Iqbal
Butt. Ms Salima Hashmi was named as the commission Treasurer.
The members of the HRCP council (Governing body) elected on the
occasion are: Ms Asma Jahangir; Ms Hina Jilani; Dr Mehdi Hassan; Air Marshal
Zafar A. Chaudhry; Zahoor Ahmad Shahwani, Advocate; Ms Parveen Soomro;
HRCP stands 417
Ms Nasreen Azhar; Ms Uzma Noorani; Habib Tahir Khan, Advocate; Ms Tahira
Kamal; Ghazi Salahuddin; Nadeem Anthony; Ms Sadia Bukhari; Kanjee Rano
Bheel; Joseph Francis; Inder Ahuja; Akhtar Husain Baloch; Roland de Souza;
Badar uddin Soomro; Saleh Zada; Abdul Ghani Mengal; Ms Tahira Abdullah;
Babar Ayaz; Raja M. Ashraf and Amarnath Motumal.
HRCP Videography contest Prizes distributed

November 28: The HRCP viedography contest for universities and colleges
in Punjab concluded this evening with the distribution of prizes at the auditorium
of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
Universities and Colleges in Punjab had been invited to submit videos on
human rights themes made by their students.
Entries had been invited for four categories – Women, Children, Minorities
and Democratic Development. Three categories of videos were admissible for
the contest – of 3 to 5 minutes duration of 5 to 10 minutes, and of 10 and
more minutes.
The first prizes were won by the following institutions.
1. Beaconhouse National University: Women Category.
2. Islamia University of Bahawalpur: Minorities Category.
3. National College of Arts: Children Category.
No first prize was given in the category of Democratic Development as
only two entries were received and neither of these adequately related to the
theme. The institutions taking part in the contest included:
University of the Punjab, Beaconhouse National University, Islamia
University of Bahawlapur, Lahore College of Women University, Government
College University, Faisalabad, National College of Arts, Forman Christian
College, University of Central Punjab, Punjab Group of Colleges.
Obituary
HRCP condoles death of veteran rights activist Mian Nizam Din
January 15: HRCP condoled the passing of a senior former staff member
and veteran human rights activist Mian Nizam Din.
In a condolence meeting, HRCP fondly recalled Mian Sahib “as much
more than a human rights activist. He was the famous developer of our archives
section and that of many other organisations. Even in his school years, he was
a courageous human rights activist. Never one to hold back when he believed
in something, he had been imprisoned for being an avid supporter of the freedom
struggle of India.”

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State of

Human Rights Commission

Price: Rs. 500/-

Cover design: Visionaries Division

PONM Pakistan Oppressed UNDP United Nations

SHO Station House Officer WB World Bank

abadi: settlement; habitation; also population

2 State of Human Rights in 2014

Jails, prisoners and disappearances

Freedom of thought, conscience and religion

In 2014, the federal parliament’s legislative output amounted to 10 laws,

Federal parliament’s legislation

16 State of Human Rights in 2014

Laws and law-making 17

18 State of Human Rights in 2014

Ordinances promulgated by the president

Laws made by the provincial legislatures

certain laws to ensure representation of women in decision-making bodies.

hand over the powers of delimitation of local bodies’ constituencies to the

24 State of Human Rights in 2014

♦ The Sardar Bahadur Khan Women University (Amendment) Act, 2014;

2014; June; to make Ehtesab Commission the sole body to investigate

28 State of Human Rights in 2014

In 2014, the administration of justice in Pakistan continued to struggle.

impropriety or misconduct against superior court judges nor taken measures

Arbitrary exercise of powers

Legitimacy of the constitutional structure strained

Protection of Pakistan Act, 2014

Restoration of death penalty and executions

Offences relating to religion

As many as 24 cases were registered against Muslims, six out of these

46 State of Human Rights in 2014

Cases on religious grounds against Ahmedis

Insulted the Life

50 State of Human Rights in 2014

54 State of Human Rights in 2014

Law and order 59

Crimes against people and property

Image courtesy PIPS

Law and order 63

went down by 30% during the year under review.

Protesters outraged against sectarian attacks.

Law and order 65

Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on MQM camp.

66 State of Human Rights in 2014

2014: Attacks on educational institutions in monitored

Schools targeted in the monitored districts in 2014

2014: Casualties in attacks on educational institutions

Law and order 67

Polio vaccination workers shout slogans against the killing of

68 State of Human Rights in 2014

Article 245: army in aid of civil power

Police abuse and reform

Sindh police registered 1,261 cases of kidnapping women for

Law and order 73

74 State of Human Rights in 2014

Rescue workers collect evidence from a burnt passenger bus

78 State of Human Rights in 2014