VCheng
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Here are some excerpts to lay the foundation (I hope) of a good discussion. If there are any facts to be corrected, or if there are good plans that can be implemented to rectify the problems identified, then those would be very useful to influence the opinions in the US, specially Congressional.
The full report can be found at:
2010 Human Rights Report: Pakistan
The full report can be found at:
2010 Human Rights Report: Pakistan
Security forces did not report to civilian authorities and operated independently from the civilian government. The major human rights problems included extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and torture. Although the government initiated an investigation into an Internet video showing men in military uniforms apparently committing extrajudicial killings, a failure to credibly investigate allegations, impose disciplinary or accountability measures, and consistently prosecute those responsible for abuses contributed to a culture of impunity. Poor prison conditions, instances of arbitrary detention, lengthy pretrial detentions, a weak criminal justice system, insufficient training for prosecutors and criminal investigators, a lack of judicial independence in the lower courts, and infringements on citizens' privacy remained problems. Harassment of journalists, some censorship, and self-censorship were problems. There were some restrictions on freedom of assembly. Corruption was widespread within the government and lower levels of the police forces, and the government made few attempts to combat the problem. Rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, honor crimes, abuse, and discrimination against women remained serious problems. Religious freedom violations, as well as violence and discrimination against religious minorities continued. Child abuse and exploitive child labor were problems. Widespread human trafficking, including exploitation of bonded laborers by land owners; forced child labor; and commercial sexual exploitation of children remained problems, as did lack of respect for worker rights.
Section 4 Official Corruption and Government Transparency
The law provides for criminal penalties for official corruption; however, the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. The NAB established accountability courts to consider corruption cases (see section 1.d., arrest procedures). Some human rights groups charged that the NAB was a deviation from the normal justice system and that the government influenced the NAB. However, the NAB took on cases of embezzlement, bank loan defaults, pension scams, and illegal kickback schemes, among others.
Corruption was pervasive in politics and government and various politicians and public office holders faced allegations of corruption, including bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement. According to a July Transparency International report, corruption perception worsened compared with 2009. The report indicated a rise in corruption, to 223 billion rupees ($2.6 billion) during the year from 195 billion rupees ($2.3 billion) in 2009. The police and the bureaucracy continued to be seen as the two most corrupt public sector institutions.
A 2007 NRO, promulgated under President Musharraf, provided an amnesty mechanism for public officials who were charged, but not convicted, in cases filed between 1986 and 1999. In December 2009 the Supreme Court declared the NRO null and void, reopening all 8,000 cases against those who had received amnesty, including the president, ministers, and parliamentarians. However, on January 16, the Zardari government filed a petition challenging the Supreme Court's 2009 decision, requesting its review. As of year's end, the issue remained unresolved.
In light of the NRO being struck down, the Supreme Court ordered the government to request that Swiss authorities reopen the money laundering case in Switzerland that had been brought against President Zardari. As of year's end, the government had not complied with the order. In addition, Swiss judicial authorities reportedly cited presidential immunity and did not independently reopen the case. Both President Zardari and the late PPP leader Benazir Bhutto had been convicted by a Geneva court in 2003 of laundering $13 million linked to kickbacks, but the verdict was overturned on appeal. In 2008 Swiss judicial authorities stated that they had closed the money laundering case against Zardari and had released $60 million frozen for a decade in Swiss accounts.
In another high profile case in May, the NAB assisted in extraditing former Punjab Bank president Hamesh Khan. He was accused in a nine-billion-rupee ($105 million-dollar) scam. His case was pending at year's end.
Corruption within the lower levels of the police was common. The July survey by Transparency International noted that the major cause of corruption was lack of accountability, followed by lack of merit and low salaries. Some police were known to charge fees to register genuine complaints and accepted money for registering false complaints. Bribes to avoid charges were commonplace. Critics charged that SHOs' appointments were politicized.
Anecdotal reports persisted about corruption in the district and sessions courts, including reports of small-scale facilitation payments requested by court staff. Lower-court judges lacked the requisite independence and sometimes were pressured by superior court judges how to decide a case. Lower courts remained corrupt, inefficient, and subject to pressure from prominent wealthy, religious, and political figures. Government involvement in judicial appointments increased the government's control over the court system.
The 2002 Freedom of Information Ordinance allows any citizen access to public records held by a public body of the federal government, including ministries, departments, boards, councils, courts, and tribunals. It does not apply to government-owned corporations or provincial governments. The bodies must respond to requests for access within 21 days. Certain records are restricted from public access, including classified documents, those that would be harmful to a law enforcement case or an individual, or those that would cause grave and significant damage to the economy or the interests of the nation. NGOs criticized the ordinance for having too many exempt categories and for not encouraging proactive disclosure.
Section 5 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights
A wide variety of domestic and international human rights groups generally operated without government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases. Other groups that reported on issues implicating the government, military, or intelligence services faced restrictions on their operations. There were very few NGOs with access to KP, the FATA, and some areas in Balochistan. While government officials were sometimes cooperative, they were only somewhat responsive to these groups' views. The PPP-led government delayed or blocked issuance of visas to international staff members of organizations whose work challenged the image of the government.
The government sometimes sought NGO technical cooperation, especially from international NGOs, in the fields of humanitarian relief, development, environment, election operations, and human trafficking. Human rights groups reported they generally had access to police stations and prisons.
The government permitted international nongovernmental human rights observers to visit the country. The ICRC and many agencies of the UN had offices in the country, including the UNHCR, UNICEF, and the UN Development Program.
The Senate and National Assembly Standing Committees on Law, Justice, Minorities, and Human Rights held hearings on a range of problems, including honor crimes, police abuse of the blasphemy law, and the Hudood Ordinance. The committees served as useful forums in which to raise public awareness of such problems, but their final decisions generally adhered to government policy. The committees did not have the resources to do more than conduct broad oversight. The Parliamentarians' Commission for Human Rights, an interparty caucus of parliamentarians, lobbied for reform in several areas.
Section 6 Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
The constitution provides for equality for all citizens and broadly prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, caste, residence, or place of birth; in practice there was significant discrimination based on each of these factors.
Women
Rape, other than by one's spouse, is a criminal offense, with punishment that ranges from a minimum of 10 to 25 years in prison and a fine to the death penalty. The penalty for gang rape is either death or life imprisonment, but sentences were often less severe. Although rape was frequent, prosecutions were rare.
The 2006 WPA brought the crime of rape under the jurisdiction of criminal rather than Islamic courts. Previously, under the rape provision of the Hudood Ordinance, a woman was compelled to produce four male witnesses to corroborate her charge. Under the WPA police are not allowed to arrest or hold a woman overnight at a police station without a civil court judge's consent. A provision in the WPA also modified the complaint procedure in rape cases. Instead of a FIR, it requires a complaint to be made directly to a sessions court. After recording the victim's statement, the sessions court judge officially lodges a complaint, after which police can then make any arrests. While this procedure was meant to eliminate problems relating to social norms that make it difficult for women to go to the police, NGOs reported that this created other barriers for rape victims who did not have money or access to the courts. A February 2009 ruling by the Federal Shariat Court invalidated a 25-year-old legal provision allowing a man accused of rape to question the credibility of the victim by offering evidence that she was "of generally immoral character."
There were no reliable national statistics on rape due to the underreporting and the lack of a central law enforcement data collection system. However, based on media reports, the NGO Aurat Foundation reported that 928 women were raped during the year.
According to a 2008 HRCP report, 80 percent of wives in rural Punjab feared violence from their husbands, and nearly 50 percent of wives in developed urban areas admitted that their husbands beat them.
Women who tried to report abuse faced serious challenges. Police and judges were sometimes reluctant to take action in domestic violence cases, viewing them as family problems. Instead of filing charges, police typically responded by encouraging the parties to reconcile. Abused women usually were returned to their abusive family members. Women were reluctant to pursue charges because of the stigma attached to divorce and their economic and psychological dependence on relatives. Relatives were hesitant to report abuse due to fear of dishonoring the family.
To address societal norms that frown on victims who report gender-based violence and abuse, the government established women's police stations, staffed by female officers, to offer women a safe haven where they could safely report complaints and file charges. There were at least eight women's police stations in the country, located in Quetta, Islamabad, Peshawar, Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana, Lahore, and Faisalabad. The first was established in 1994 in Karachi. However, they were poorly staffed and equipped.
There is no specific law against domestic violence.
Every year hundreds of women reportedly were killed in the name of honor. Many cases went unreported and unpunished. The News reported that in 2009, 29 women and 15 men were killed in 25 honor-killing incidents in KP. During the year 39 women and 29 men were killed in 20 incidents of honor killing. The HRCP reported that during the year there were790 honor killings in the country. The practice of "karo-kari," which occurred in Sindh Province, continued across the country. Karo-kari is a form of premeditated honor killing that occurs if a tribal court or jirga determines that adultery or some other "crime of honor" occurred. Karo-kari means "black male" (karo) and "black female" (kari), metaphoric terms for someone who has dishonored the family or is an adulterer and adulteress. Once a woman is labeled as a kari, male family members have the self-authorized justification to kill her and any coaccused karo to restore family honor. In many cases the karo is not killed or is able to flee.
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act of 2005 increased penalties for karo-kari and other forms of honor killing. However, human rights groups criticized the act because it allows the victim or the victim's heirs to negotiate physical or monetary restitution with the perpetrator in exchange for dropping charges, known as "qisas" and "diyat."
Many young girls and women were victims of forced marriages arranged by their families. Forced marriage was made a criminal offense in 2007; while many cases were filed, prosecution remained a problem. There were reports of citizens abroad bringing their daughters back to the country, taking away their legal documents, and forcing them into marriage against their will.
The practice of buying and selling brides also continued in rural areas, although prohibited by law. Many tribes, communities, or families continued the practice of sequestering women from all contact with men other than their relatives. Despite prohibitions on handing over women as compensation for crimes or as a resolution of a dispute (also known as "vani" or "swara"), the practice continued in Punjab and the KP. In rural Sindh landowning families continued the practice of "marriage to the Qur'an" to avoid division of property. Property of women married to the Qur'an remains under the legal control of their father or eldest brother, and such women are prohibited from contact with any man older than 14. These women are expected to stay in the home and not contact anyone outside their family.
The 18th Amendment to the constitution mandates that the government provide free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of five and 16. In practice government schools often charged parents for the cost of books, uniforms, and other materials. Parents of lower socioeconomic means sometimes chose to send children to madrassas, where they received free room and board, or to NGO-operated schools. Studies showed that one-third of the children who attended school attended nongovernmental schools.
Slightly more than 50 percent of the population over the age of 10 is literate. More than 40 percent of girls never enroll in school. This was often perceived as parental lack of desire to send girls to school; however, a 2009 survey indicated that only 6 percent of the population was in favor of banning girls' education. The biggest barrier to girls' education is the lack of access. Public schools, particularly beyond the primary grades, were not available in many rural areas, and those that existed were often too far away for a girl to travel unaccompanied. In addition, despite cultural beliefs that boys and girls should be separate after primary school, the government often failed to take measures to provide separate restroom facilities or separate classrooms, and there were more government schools for boys than for girls. The attendance rates for girls in primary, secondary, and postsecondary schools were lower than boys across the board.
Child abuse was widespread. Young girls and boys used as domestic servants were abused, beaten, and made to work long hours by employers, who in some cases were relatives. Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA) reported that, of 5,120 cases of reported violence and abuse against children, 2,209 cases were reported from the Punjab, 1,529 from Sindh, 929 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and 453 from Balochistan. According to the data from the LHRLA, 1,062 children were killed and 916 others were injured. In addition, there were reports of 288 children being raped, 149 sodomized, and 211 otherwise sexually assaulted. Similarly, there were reports of 648 children molested, 572 tortured, 200 trafficked, and 364 missing, while 202 children committed suicide. One hundred and twenty-one children were killed on the pretext of karo-kari, 799 were kidnapped, and 167 were forced to marry. Despite the Child Marriage Restraint Act, which prohibits child marriage, child marriages occurred. The act sets the legal age of marriage at 18 for men and 16 for women and prescribes punishment and fines, ranging from imprisonment up to a month, 1,000 rupees (approximately $12), or both. In practice the penalties were too low to have any deterrent effect. Also, the lower minimum age for girls was discriminatory. During the year the LHRLA reported 70 cases of forced and "vani" marriages (handing over women as compensation for crimes or for resolution of a dispute), some of which may have been child marriages.
A World Population Foundation survey in 2009 found that 49 percent of women between the ages of 20 and 24 were married before the age of 18. In 2008 the Family Planning Association of Pakistan estimated that child marriages made up 32 percent of marriages in the country. In rural areas poor parents sometimes sold their daughters into marriage, in some cases to settle debts or disputes.
