Corporate report

Pakistan: country of concern, latest update 30 June 2014

Updated 21 January 2015

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

The human rights situation in Pakistan remains largely unchanged from the previous quarter, with persistent and wide-ranging concerns.

In March, we reported on the increasingly dangerous environment for local media. In April, journalists from Express News in Lahore and Peshawar received death threats, and one had a grenade thrown into his home. In the same month, senior journalist and GeoNews TV anchor Hamid Mir was critically wounded in an attack in Karachi. The attack was condemned internationally and the federal government agreed to form a three-member judicial committee to investigate. Further attacks on journalists were reported in May and June.

Amnesty International reported in May that the “media community is effectively under siege” and “those covering national security issues or human rights are targeted from all sides in a disturbing pattern of abuses carried out to silence their reporting”. On World Press Freedom Day in May, EU missions in Islamabad expressed concern over the “steadily deteriorating environment” for journalists in Pakistan. The British High Commissioner called on “all in Pakistan to support a free and fair press, where journalists can go about their vital work without fear, intimidation or harassment”. In the same month, two Indian journalists working in Pakistan were told to leave the country when, without explanation, their visas were not renewed.

In June, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) suspended the broadcasting licence of GeoNews for 15 days and fined Geo TV 10 million rupees. This followed a complaint by the Ministry of Defence that the channel’s reporting had brought the main intelligence agency into disrepute. Also in June, ARY News and Geo Entertainment had their licences suspended for 15 days, and were fined 10 million rupees each for alleged controversial content.

Hopes were raised in May that the ban on You Tube (blocked since 2012) might be lifted, when the National Assembly passed a resolution asking the government to take immediate steps to unblock the site. In June, Twitter restored access to previously blocked content deemed “blasphemous”. However, in the same month, Facebook consented to block the account of a popular Pakistani band.

There were continued reports of sectarian killings across the country. In April, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) launched its annual report noting sectarian violence had claimed 687 lives in 2013, up 22% from 2012. Also in April, two Hazara men were shot dead in Quetta and, in June, 30 Shia pilgrims returning from Iran were killed in suicide attacks in the border town of Taftan. A group affiliated with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for both incidents. At the end of June, Human Rights Watch released its report, “We are the Walking Dead” documenting the “alarming and unprecedented escalation in sectarian violence” directed against Shia Hazaras in Balochistan, and urging the government to take immediate measures to investigate and prosecute sectarian killings.

In May there were further attacks on Hindu temples in Sindh. The Pakistan Hindu Council demanded protective measures for Hindus and claimed around 25,000 Hindus had migrated to India in the last five years. The Sikh community protested in May against attacks on holy sites and alleged desecration of their holy book, entering the grounds of parliament in Islamabad, and staging a sit-in. Police in Sindh announced a security plan to curb attacks on religious places of minorities and, in June, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister directed that minority places of worship should have increased security and CCTV cameras.

On 4 April, a Christian couple from Gojra in Punjab, Shafqat Emmanuel and Shagufta Kausar, were sentenced to death for blasphemy. The couple had allegedly sent a text message to the Imam of a local mosque insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The couple’s lawyer said that the couple denied the offence and that the text message originated from a mobile phone that had been lost beforehand. In May, senior lawyer and member of the HRCP, Rashid Rehman Khan, was killed in his office in Multan. Khan had been defending a university lecturer accused of blasphemy and had complained of threats from other lawyers. In the same month, a teenage boy entered a police station in Sharaqpur and shot dead an Ahmadiyya man accused of blasphemy. A number of blasphemy cases continued to receive political and media attention, including that of a British national. British officials and Ministers continue to raise concerns and, during the visit to London of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the end of April, the Prime Minister and others raised UK concerns about the blasphemy laws, specific cases, and the need for reform.

A report by Amnesty International marking 30 years of the UN Convention Against Torture noted that “torture in Pakistan is frequently practised by police, intelligence services and the army, particularly in conflict-ridden tribal areas and Balochistan”. In June, local human rights groups urged the government to implement the UN Convention Against Torture which Pakistan had ratified in June 2010. Reports of disappearances and extra-judicial killings continue.

In April, the Sindh Assembly unanimously passed the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Bill, becoming Pakistan’s first elected assembly to pass legislation prohibiting child marriage. There were continued reports of abuses against women in this period, including gang rapes, acid attacks and murders. In May, Farzana Parveen was stoned to death by her family outside the Lahore High Court in an apparent so-called “honour killing”. The brutal nature of Parveen’s killing triggered outrage around the world. The Foreign Secretary condemned the murder as “barbaric”, commenting that “there is absolutely no honour in honour killings”, and urged the Pakistani authorities to bring those responsible to justice. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, urged the Pakistani government to take “urgent and strong measures” to put an end to so-called “honour killings”. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif directed the Punjab Chief Minister to take “immediate action”.

The Protection of Pakistan Citizens Act was finally approved by the Senate on 30 June. The act had been held up due to concerns about some of the more controversial provisions, e.g. permitting 90 days’ detention of suspects at undisclosed locations, and allowing law enforcers to use force to prevent an offence. The act was finally agreed after opposition amendments to address some of these issues, and will now go back to the National Assembly for approval. The UK, along with EU partners, has regularly raised concerns on the provisions of the act that violated international human rights standards with the Pakistani authorities.

The EU has initiated a review of Pakistan’s progress in implementing 27 international conventions on human rights, good governance and labour standards, as required under the Generalised System of Preferences Plus (GSP+) scheme. Sustained progress on these issues is a condition of retaining GSP+ status, which was awarded to Pakistan last year, and which grants tariff-free access for almost all imports to the EU. Pakistan submitted its first “scorecard” of evidence on its progress in May.

In May, the federal government began the process of setting up an independent human rights commission under a law passed by the previous government in 2012. The National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) will consist of nine independent members empowered to investigate complaints of human rights violations.

At the end of June the army launched a major operation to clear North Waziristan of militants. Over half a million internally displaced people (IDPs) have poured out of the region. Local human rights groups expressed concerns that the government had not prepared sufficiently to meet the basic needs of IDPs, citing a lack of basic facilities in officially-run camps.