Times of Ahmad: Highlights: Pakistan | State of Human Rights in 2009

Ahmadiyya Times | Editors note: The opening sentences speak for the rest of the report: "The parliament did very little legislative work in 2009. Much greater legislation was done by invoking the President’s special powers to issue ordinances."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Staff | Report
Source & Credit: Human Rights Comission Pakistan (HRCP)

Launched by Ms. Asma Jahangir, Chairperson HRCP and Mr. I.A. Rehman, Secretary-General
HRCP.

Laws and law-making

The parliament did very little legislative work in 2009. Much greater legislation was done by invoking the President’s special powers to issue ordinances. Only four acts were passed by the parliament, while 61 federal Ordinances were issued.

An ordinance to set up mobile courts was issued but withdrawn after it drew criticism by the civil society. Likewise, the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was introduced in the NA but it was withdrawn before any debate could take place.

On April 13, the NA approved the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 for Malakand region. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) opposed the regulation and staged a walkout from the assembly.

The National Assembly adopted two bills that offered protection to women. The first bill, Domestic Violence Bill, lapsed as it was not passed by the Senate within 90 days of its introduction. The second bill, Criminal Law Amendment Bill, that promised better protection against sexual harassment by amending the PPC and the Cr Pc was adopted by the Senate in the new year and became law.

Administration of justice

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary, along with other judges sidelined under the November 3, 2007 emergency, were restored through an executive order.

On July 31, the Supreme Court declared the imposition of emergency on Nov 3, 2007 and actions taken under it invalid and unconstitutional. The order under which the Islamabad High Court had been set up was struck down and the court ceased to exist.

The SC nullified a number of Gen Musharraf’s ordinances and referred as many as 37 Ordinances, including the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), to the parliament for ratification within 120 days.

The Supreme Court took suo motu notice in scores of cases of human rights’ violations and numerous financial scams.

The Supreme Judicial Council added the following clause to the Code of Conduct for the judges of superior courts:

“No judge of the superior judiciary shall render support in any manner whatsoever, including taking or administering oath, in violation of the oath of office prescribed in the Third Schedule to the Constitution, to any authority that acquires power otherwise than through the modes envisaged by the Constitution of Pakistan.”

In November the Supreme Court directed the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to formulate a policy for the registration of Hindu couples, according to their religious customs, in order to enable them to get computerised national identity cards.

On December 16, the SC struck down the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) as void ab initio and all cases that had been shelved under NRO stood revived.

At the end of 2009, 1.52 million cases were pending in the superior and lower courts of the country.

Law and order

According to non-official estimates, in 2,586 incidents of terrorism, 3,021 people were killed and 7,334 were injured. Out of these, 1,296 people were killed in 108 suicide bombings.

In April 2009, the murder of three Baloch nationalist leaders, sparked a massive wave of protests all over Balochistan. At least 16 people were killed and many others injured in different incidents of shooting during the protest.

Some 164 incidents of target killings took place in Balochistan in which 118 citizens and 158 security officials were killed while 83 citizens and 7 security officials were injured.

In Punjab, 224 cases of kidnap for ransom took place during 2009 as compared to 248 caes in 2008. 163 persons were kidnapped in Sindh, 241 in Balochistan and 592 in NWFP during the year.

1,668 cases of suicides were reported from all over the country.

747 persons were killed in Karachi out of which 291 were killed in target killings, and 209 of them were political activists.

In Punjab 253 people were killed in ‘police encounters’ besides 28 policemen. In Sindh, 74 suspects and 52 policemen were killed in ‘encounters’.

Jails, prisoners and ‘disappearances’

New incidents of enforced disappearances continued to be reported throughout 2009 from across the country.

An informal moratorium remained in place on execution of the death sentence but 276 persons were awarded death penalty in 2009. Some 7,700 people were on the death row.

In Camp Jail Lahore alone, 4,651 prisoners were detained in a facility with a capacity for housing only 1,050 individuals. The story of most prisons elsewhere in the country was not very dissimilar.

There were around 1,800 minor prisoners in the country, with the majority facing trial.

- As many as 54 prisoners were killed and 156 injured in the country’s prisons during 2009.

Freedom of movement

The movement of ordinary citizens residing in the insurgency-stricken areas of Swat, Malakand and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan was seriously affected.

In March 2009, in an attempt to thwart lawyers’ long march and sit-in in Islamabad, police detained more than 600 opposition activists across Punjab, 200 of whom were restricted in the capital city of Islamabad only.

In December, during Muharram, 123 clerics were banned entry into Sindh from other provinces, 190 into Punjab from other provinces.

In November, the government made it mandatory for the Pakistani missions abroad to issue visas to foreigners intending to visit Pakistan only after their clearance from the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

In November 2009, the Interior Ministry placed the names of 248 NRO beneficiaries on the Exit Control List (ECL). Afterwards, the Interior Ministry revised the ECL list and reduced the number from 248 to 165 people.

- A new survey revealed some 450,000 Pakistanis migrate illegally to other countries every year.

Freedom of thought, conscience and religion

The year 2009 saw increasing frequency of organised violent attacks on religious minorities while the government failed to take proactive measures to prevent such violence in Gojra and Karachi.

More than 41 complaints of blasphemy were reported during the year.

At least five members of the Ahmadi sect were murdered in target killings in 2009, raising to 100 the number of killings since the introduction of anti-Ahmadiyya laws by the Ziaul Haq government in 1984.

In 2009, 15 incidents of sectarian violence took place in Balochistan in which 26 men were killed and two others injured.

- As the militancy surged in the northwestern parts of the country, enforced migration and displacement of thousands of people belonging to Christians, Sikhs and Hindu communities from Swat, Kohat and FATA was reported following threats by Islamist elements.

A majority of Hindu women did not possess CNIC cards because of legal complications in registration of marriages.

37 Ahmadis were booked under the blasphemy laws during the year and fifty-seven Ahmadis were charged under Ahmadi-specific laws.

Nearly 80 per cent of the minority population falls below the poverty line and it has usually been ignored during the various government support programmes.

Freedom of expression

Seven journalists were killed during the year while performing their duties across the country; four other journalists were killed in crime related incidents.

In 2009, the freedom of the press in Balochistan remained under threat from coercive state policies as some independent newspapers’ offices were under virtual siege.

A total of 163 direct attacks were made against media during 2009 including murders, kidnappings, threats, assaults and attacks on media establishments. Fifty-four of these attacks were made in Punjab, 52 in NWFP, 28 in Islamabad, while three cases were recorded in Balochistan.

In January 2009, the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) rejected the Printing Presses and Publications Amendment Ordinance for newspapers and magazines and urged the government to cancel the ordinance.

The authorities served 64 legal notices on 18 private television channels in the 2008-09 period for violating the code of conduct formulated by PEMRA.

On July 9 the President reissued the Prevention of Electronic Crimes, Ordinance (PECO) 2009 which covers 18 offences that carry severe punishment. It could be interpreted as giving authorities power to curb freedom of expression.

In March 2009, the media was barred from covering the Senate election held in the NWFP provincial assembly building.

- An aggressive campaign by Jang-Geo media group for expeditious implementation of the Supreme Court verdict in the NRO case, and on corruption charges against the President angered the government which responded by withholding government advertisements from the group.

Freedom of assembly

Worried at some high-profile protest rallies the government resorted to Section 144 and imposed restrictions on the right to assembly. The Section was imposed in Peshawar, Islamabad and across Punjab to prevent / restrict the lawyers’ long march for the restoration of the judiciary.

Several public gatherings were targeted like the attack on the Ashura procession in Karachi which claimed a high death toll and spread terror.

In May, riots erupted in Karachi when KESC failed to address load shedding problems.

Karachi shut down on the anniversary of the May 12th carnage of 2007 and daily life and business in the city came to a grinding halt.

Freedom of association

In Karachi, more than 209 people, mostly belonging to political parties, were killed during the year under review and most probably on account of their political associations.

Civil society organisations throughout Pakistan faced severe threats during 2009 in the wake of increasing terrorism and violence. Employees associated with NGOs in the country suffered huge losses which were often irreparable. They faced risks to their property as well as their lives.

At least 34 trade union leaders were arrested during May 2009 all over Punjab. Also, during this period the Punjab police registered cases against 1,300 workers who were engaged in trade union activity.

Democratic development

In 2009, three joint sessions of parliament were held. The first joint sitting was addressed by President Asif Ali Zardari.

The National Assembly adopted 23 resolutions expressing its opinion on some burning issues of the day.

The NA approved the first military operation in Swat on May 12.

The Lahore High Court on October 7 postponed the polls in four constituencies –NA-55, NA-123, PP-82 and PP-284 - and ordered the Election Commission to announce new dates for the same in consultation with the political parties.

On September 7, the President signed the Gilgit-Baltistan (Empowerment and Self-Governance) Order, 2009, aimed at introducing administrative, political, financial and judicial reforms in Gilgit-Baltistan. Elections for the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) were held on November 12, 2009.

A contentious issue of NFC Award between the four federating units was solved.

Following the exclusion of local government laws from the Sixth Schedule of the constitution the local bodies became a provincial subject. The provinces started making their own laws relating to local government.

Women

Violence against women registered a sharp increase during 2009. A total of 1,404 women were murdered. Out of these, 647 women were murdered in the name of ‘honour’ (including the cases of karo kari) while 757 were murdered for other reasons.

A total of 928 rape cases were reported. Some 563 women committed suicide while 253 attempted suicide.

One hundred thirty-five (135) women fell victims to burning.

The domestic violence (including torture, beating, shaving, amputation, murder attempts) cases shot up from 137 in 2008 to 205.

The government failed to enforce a new law to deal with domestic violence.

The National Assembly passed the amendments in PPC and CrPC to define sexual harrassment and propose enhanced punishment for offenders. The bill was passed by the Senate in the new year.

Children

Pakistan’s child population of less than 18 years of age was 70 million – out of which almost 20.30 million did not go to school while around 20.80 million were less than five years of age. Around 35 per cent to 40 per cent of the children were out of schools.

The infant mortality rate is 73 per 1,000 births against the MDG target of 40 per 1,000 in 2015.

Around 20,000 children die of diarrhoea every year; nearly 20 per cent of the children suffer from asthma.

Around 52 per cent of the children studying in seminaries experience sexual harassment.

Almost 58 per cent of the girls in rural areas are married before the age of 20.

Around 3.5 million children below the age of 15 are working in the country’s rural and urban sectors, mainly informal.

Pakistan suffered from a very high rate of child malnutrition with 39 per cent of children moderately or severely malnourished.

968 children, 285 boys and 683 girls, were sexually abused in the first six months of 2009.

The number of street children in the country rose to 1.5 million.

There were 1357 juvenile prisoners in jails; of these only 132 were convicts and 1,225 were facing trial.

Labour

Estimated labour force in the country was 51.78 million – 40.82 million males and 10.96 million females.

Although the female participation rate in the labour force increased in 2009, the female participation rate was still lower than the male participation rate.

The ban on labour inspection was not lifted.

In 2009, around 285,000 people lost their jobs in the banking sector, 61,200 in the computer industry, 115,000 in the construction sector, 120,200 in the electronic industry and 69,000 in the telecommunication industry.

Education

Pakistan was ranked 117 out of 134 countries in terms of quality of primary education in World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index for 2009.

The budgetary allocation for the education sector for 2009-10 was 2.3 per cent of the GDP, less than the minimum amount of 4% recommended by UNESCO.

At the end of 2009, an estimated 35% to 40% children of school-going age were out in the streets.

Terrorists destroyed more than 187 schools and partially damaged 318 others forcing 50, 000 girls and boys to sit at home.

- About 4000 schools were being used for housing the IDPs.

The Nizam-e-Adal Regulation dealt a blow to female education. Some 4,000 schools enrolling above 40, 000 girls were shut down, further worsening the primary-level gender gap ratio to 11.3%.

The suicide bombing of Islamic University in Islamabad in October was followed by the shutting down of schools and universities all over the country for about a week and several days of schooling were lost.

The New Education Policy draft was announced in early 2009 and met with much critical response.

Health

There is only one doctor for 1,212 persons, one dentist for 18,010 persons and one hospital bed for 1,575 persons.

The health budget for 2009-10 provided for per capita expenditure of less than $16 which was far short of the $34 recommended by the World Health Organisation to deliver essential services in a country.

In April 2009, the federal government set up a task force to prepare a new national health policy to replace the one of 2001.

As many as 116,719 cancer cases occurred and 85,812 deaths were reported.

There were 85,000 individuals infected with HIV-AIDS in Pakistan out of which nearly two percent were children under the age of 14.

Pakistan was ranked 8th among the TB-affected countries across the globe with the number of TB patients increasing every year. Around 75 percent of the TB patients in the country were youth.

13 cases of polio were reported from Swat by October 2009.

Of the 1,078 renal transplants carried out in Pakistan in Sept 2007-March 2009, organs were obtained from live relations in 1,027 cases. Prior to the promulgation of the ordinance banning he sale of human organs, nearly 2,000 kidney transplantations were taking place in Pakistan annually of which only 500 were carried out under ethical conditions.

212 confirmed cases of Swine Flu, caused by H1N1 virus, were reported.

Housing

In the absence of adequate housing facilities, slums (katchi abadis) continued to be the biggest housing issue in Pakistan. The displacement of more than 2.5 million people from Swat also created an issue of shelter for the displaced people.

In the year under review, the total number of housing units in the country was estimated at 22.8 million out of which 67.5 percent were in rural areas and 32.5 percent in urban centers; the household size was 3.13 persons per room.

The country currently faced a shortfall of nearly eight million housing units.

There were 28 katchi abadis in Islamabad inhabited by more than 70,000 dwellers whose living conditions were appalling.

In 2009, LDA demolished more than 200 temporary katchi bastis.

There were 103 illegal housing societies in Lahore alone which were not approved by LDA.

Environment

About 38 percent of Pakistan’s irrigated land was waterlogged.

According to official estimates, collective environmental degradation costs the country at least 6 percent of GDP or about Rs 365 billion per year.

By the end of 2009, the total irrigation water shortage was estimated to be 33 to 34 per cent of the total requirement in 2010. However, Meteorological Department estimated it to be 40 per cent.

More than 60 percent of the country’s population was without access to safe drinking water. In Pakistan water availability per person per year was just a little more than 1,000 cubic metres, much less than the required normal standard of 1,700 cubic metres.

The Sindh government distributed nearly 111,000 hectares of forest land for non-forest use during the year.

- Some 23,000 people died in the country because of air-pollution. As many as 45 million Pakistanis suffered from respiratory diseases, mainly caused by air pollution.

More than 400 million gallons of untreated industrial waste were being discharged into the Arabian Sea daily out of which 80 million gallons was contributed by Karachi and the remaining came from the rest of the country.

Refugees

The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) swelled in the wake of military operations in Swat, South Waziristan, Bajaur, Orakzai and adjacent areas. At the end of 2009, there were 1.25 million IDPs including 500,000 children.

Only 50, 000 Afghan refugees were repatriated to Afghanistan in 2009 as the process slowed down owing to bad security situation at home. There were 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan.