Senator Afrasiab Khattak announced that the sub-committee would be headed by Senator Mushahid Hussain while former secretary Human Rights, Shaigan Malik, and a representative of Ministry of Defence would be its members.
Source/Credit: The Nation
By Asim Qadeer Rana | July 5, 2013
ISLAMABAD - Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights here on Thursday formed a sub-committee to look into the blasphemy law and establishment of separate Human Rights Division to bring into limelight the human rights violations and protect people’s rights.
Chairing the committee meeting held here, Senator Afrasiab Khattak announced that the sub-committee would be headed by Senator Mushahid Hussain while former secretary Human Rights, Shaigan Malik, and a representative of Ministry of Defence would be its members.
The committee appreciated the efforts of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) for issuing the facts on human rights violations in the country in its annual report `State of Human Rights in the country 2012’.
Commenting on the report, former Secretary Human Rights, Shaigan Malik said that the source of civil society reports and government’s reports is same as all of them are based on secondary data of newspaper clippings but more weightage is being given to NGOs’ reports as compare to government documents.
He said that the government has issued a report on `Committee on Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women’ but the international community has considered more the shadow report issued by civil society rather then the government report.
The Secretary Law and Justice apprised the meeting that ministry is already dealing with a number of matters and if a separate division of Human Rights has been established it would be helpful for focusing on both HR and Law and Justice affairs.
Discussing the second agenda of enforced disappearance of citizens, the committee members opined that there should be rule of law in the country and there is urgent need of legislation on the issue.
Secretary Defence, informed the committee that a detail report on legislation regarding the security agencies working under parliament has been prepared which has been sent to Prime Minister Secretariat for endorsing the approval and would be presented when the PM is back from China.
Senator Farhat Ullah Babar on the occasion said the Interior Minister has made a policy statement on floor of the house of June 17 and now the matter is with parliament. He stated that scrutiny of intelligence agencies is in the interest of all the organizations.
Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed in his remarks said security agencies should investigate people but there should be some mechanism.
Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan said that he personally knew a number of cases in which people were arrested by security agencies and majority of them are involved in illicit activities but their disappearance gives the concept that all of them are innocent. He said no one is above the law and legislation is the only solution to protect the rights of the people.
Read original post here: Senate sub-committee to revisit blasphemy law
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