Ifti under Gen. Musharaf took the oath and after few months decided to rebel, why.
There are more pressing problems than Lawyers demands of free judiciary. They are suppose to be the back bone of a judicial systems in Pakistan and they been there ever since the inception of Pakistan, during the past 60 years there has been numerous time that lawyers and judges took the easy road by taking sides of rich and abandoning the right way and took the selfish and greedy road.
Here is a report by Human right Hong kong for Pakistan judiciary, it is quite critical of the judiciary, Read on.
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Pakistan 2008: Defeat of a dictator and the movement for judicial independence
Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong
The year started violently under General Musharraf¡¯s military regime, particularly for lawyers, political workers and civil society activists. Musharraf was sworn in for a second presidential term on 29 November 2007 under emergency rule, which he then lifted on 15 December 2007. Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister and the chairperson of the then-running Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was assassinated on December 27. General elections of the legislative assembly were then postponed (from January 8 until February 18) by the military regime, on the pretext of a crisis in law and order. About 80 persons were killed in riots following the assassination, mostly in crossfire between the police and citizens.
The year started with widespread confusion about whether elections would be held, due to a series of delays from the Musharraf government. A wave of bomb blasts at that time also slowed political mechanisms. However, the general elections were eventually held and a good turnout was recorded. The elections were also relatively free and fair thanks to pressure from political parties, civil society and from forces outside of the country.
In the run up to the elections, assertive action by the people and party members prevented much engineering of the vote, despite the administration¡¯s refusal to replace the long-serving chief election commissioner, who had tried and failed to deny the vote to about 380 million people. Finding results of the election very much against him, Musharraf handed power to the elected representatives months later, after considerable bargaining with individual party members.
Under the new civilian coalition government, largely built from Bhutto¡¯s Pakistan People¡¯s Party and Nawaz Sharif¡¯s Pakistan Muslim League, there has been much more focus on the democratic functioning of the parliament by the representatives of the people. The new government started proceedings by including all the parties in the political process, showing tolerance and restraint. Unfortunately Sharif pulled out of the coalition in August in disagreement over the issue of Pakistan¡¯s deposed judges, whom the PPP have not sufficiently reinstated.
Dismissal of General Musharraf
General Musharraf, who had awarded himself with another term after declaring a state of emergency (3 November 2007), was democratically dismissed by the new government according to the constitution. Finding that his options were few¡ªpressure from his allies in the army and overseas yielded little success¡ªMusharraf resigned before being officially impeached.
The people of Pakistan have shown that resilient and determined struggle to oust the dictator from the post of president could be a success. This completely non-violent struggle of various sections of society, which included lawyers, judges, the ordinary folk, the media, as well as the legislators, is a clear example of the development of democracies on the basis of consensus. In the recent years there was clear consensus that the people did not want a military regime but instead a democratic government. Even the support that the military dictator received from the superpowers did not deter the people of Pakistan from pursuing their desire to see the end of militarism. It is a sad reflection on some democracies in developed countries that they failed to support the people in their struggle for democracy and instead supported a military general. Notwithstanding, the people have been able to push back the military agenda.
The lawyers¡¯ movement
The lawyers¡¯ movement for the independence of the judiciary has continued in spite of the new government¡¯s illegal, unconstitutional handling of the situation. Many judges, including Chief Justice Iftekhar Choudhry, were removed from their positions under emergency rule and have yet to be reinstated. On the first anniversary of emergency rule lawyers held countrywide protests against the suspension of the constitution. The government took the law into its own hands, charging more than 100 lawyers with agitation and suspending the licenses of more than five office bearers in various high court bar associations, including the presidents of the Peshawar and Multan high court bar associations.
The new government is resisting its duty to reinstate Chief Justice Choudhry, claiming that the lawyers¡¯ movement has started to take violent shape. Lawyers in various cities have locked judges inside the courtrooms. The new government had pledged verbally and in writing to restore the judiciary when it came into power. It has been dragging its feet on the issue ever since, and at times has appeared to be backtracking. This response brings it closer to the country¡¯s previous dictatorial government, showing a similar lack of interest in building an independent judiciary.
The coalition government had first promised to restore the judiciary within 30 days of its formation, through a resolution in the national assembly, which did not happen. It then claimed that the deposed judiciary would be restored through a constitutional package; however it is now using a form of backdoor diplomacy, bargaining with the deposed judges to guarantee their ¡®loyalty¡¯. After being coerced and intimidated most judges have been ¡®reappointed¡¯ with a new oath, rather than restored to their original constitutional position. There are five judges, including deposed Chief Justice Choudhry, who have refused to bow to pressure from the new government.
The lawyers¡¯ movement has been running since March 2007. They observe weekly protests by marching (one march was several hundred miles long), boycotting the courts, and picketing outside parliament and Supreme Court buildings. In a number of cases the people have joined them, showing a growing awareness and respect for the rule of law and the supremacy of the judiciary in the country. The government has faced defeats in the elections of different bar associations, including the Supreme Court bar association, which has put the government in a difficult position to get support from lawyers. In retaliation, government started squeezing lawyers through the Pakistan Bar Council and offices of the law ministry and attorney general.
The human rights situation
Overview
Since coming to power the government of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has started to sift through the backlog of cases involving human rights violations, and it had released those arrested by Musharraf¡¯s government during emergency rule. This includes the deposed judges, all the lawyers, their leaders, civil society activists and political workers. It is in the process of commuting over 7000 current death sentences and has halted executions, working against popular conservative Islamic principles. The efforts should be applauded and the government is working hard to rally support from the political parties in parliament.
People are beginning to feel a kind of security in the military operation-ridden southern province of Balochistan, but air strikes and other forms of military activity continue in some parts, particularly Dera Bugti, Kohlo, Sui and Khuzdar. Many political workers from the area, some prominent, have been released from prison. A dialogue has been started between Baloch nationalist militant groups and the government and an atmosphere of reconciliation is starting to form.
The issue of missing persons is yet to be addressed by the government. State intelligence agencies are independent in their working, though it is declared that they are working under the prime minister. The ISI and military intelligence agencies are largely responsible for the arrest and disappearance of more than 4000 persons since the start of the ¡®war on terror¡¯, as reported by various nationalist groups and fundamentalist parties. In the nine months since the new government took power not more than a dozen people have resurfaced from intelligence agency custody. The interior minister has admitted that about 1000 people are missing from Balochistan province alone.
The issue of torture in custody is not being properly handled by the government. Torture is still considered the best way of taking confessional statements by the police and making money through bribery, and this view is not being discouraged. During the last nine months at least fifteen people have died under police interrogation. There are currently no independent procedures for looking into such cases. There is also an alarming lack of sensitivity among legal professionals, particularly the lower judiciary, regarding the use of torture. The cost of using torture as a tool of law in Pakistan is underestimated and there has been a significant lack of development in criminal law jurisprudence in the country. There are 52 torture centres in Pakistan, all under the control of the army.
Religious minority people remain under threat from Muslim religious groups and law enforcement agencies. The blasphemy law is being increasingly used against them in ordinary feuds, and the charge carries an obligatory death sentence (though this can often be lifted with blood money). Though Muslims do fall foul of this law, Christians, Hindus and particularly the Ahmadis, a minority sect of Islam, are the main victims, and also suffer from attacks during worship, and from their daughters being abducted, forcibly married to Muslims and thus ¡®converted¡¯, often never to be seen again.
Right to life
On 2 July 2008, in a heartening step, the federal cabinet of Pakistan announced that it would commute current death sentences into life imprisonment, suggesting that debates on abolition may be possible in the coming year. However, the party has been very slow to start implementing the decision through legislation; at least four inmates have been hanged in the period since and black warrants continue to be served.
Pakistan executes the most people in the world each year after China, Iran and Saudi Arabia. There are more than 7200 people on death row, including 41 women and two children, and many have not received a fair trial. Although the Pakistan Juvenile Justice System Ordinance was extended to apply nationwide in 2004, implementation remains limited. Pakistan is one of just five countries in the world that have executed minor/juvenile offenders in the last couple of years; in one known case Mutabar Khan was hanged on 13 June 2006 for a crime committed when he was 16, and authorities of another jail, Mach Central Jail, have acknowledged holding two juvenile offenders on death row. Often, after years of trial a defendant will have trouble convincing the judge that he or she was actually underage when he or she broke the law.
Many among the 7200 on death row are also there as a result of the blasphemy law. This is a crime that carries an obligatory death sentence but for which evidence is often tenuous and the law is often used in disputes over property or for political or personal vengeance.
Corruption throughout the legal system along with the widespread use of torture in police custody means that many innocent people are on Pakistan¡¯s death row. And whether innocent or not, many of the accused do not receive a fair trial. Zulfiqar Ali, 38, has been on death row for more than a decade and was scheduled to be hanged in October, despite the commutation announcement. Ali comes from a poor family and was unable to afford legal representation so he tried to mount his own defense, even though he can¡¯t speak English. Requests for clemency were denied by the president, but at the eleventh hour, Ali was given a fifteen-day stay. The stay has so far been extended, but no legal solution has been looked into regarding his unfair trial.
Under Islamic Sharia Law, a murderer can be pardoned by the victim¡¯s relatives, usually after a blood money payment called diyat, and the courts will often urge family members to resolve matters on the side; it¡¯s what many human rights NGOs call the ¡®privatisation of justice¡¯ and tends to give the wealthy a certain impunity. Because of diyat it is suspected that death penalties are dealt out more freely because judges assume a settlement will be found. However, in the case of 23-year-old inmate Umer Khan, a black warrant was issued in October 2008, even though the victim¡¯s family had pardoned him in writing before the court on 9 May 2007, after the payment of blood money. Fortunately, Khan received a stay on the final day.
In October 2008 President Zardari instructed that approximately 400 condemned prisoners in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, Punjab province be shifted from death cells to ordinary barracks, and some 250 condemned prisoners to be similarly relocated in Hyderabad, Sindh province. This suggests that further positive action is imminent and the government, in its political expediency, is taking time to commute death sentences into life imprisonment under tremendous pressure from religious parties and Chief Justice Dogar, appointed by Musharraf during emergency rule.
Pakistan recently signed the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of the UN. In article 6(1) the ICCPR states that ¡°every human being has the inherent right to life¡±. However life in Pakistan can be taken by the government for a wide array of offences, from extramarital sex to drug trafficking, many of them introduced during military dictator Zia-ul-Haq¡¯s ¡®Islamisation¡¯ drive. According to article 6 (1) Pakistan should abolish the death penalty; at the very least those in power must revise the list of crimes met with death.
In order to prevent the execution of innocent Pakistanis an extensive overhaul of Pakistan¡¯s judicial system is necessary, plus the strategic abolition of custodial torture. People are still being executed despite the current government¡¯s stance, suggesting that the real decision-making machinery does not lie with the elected government. Those that were elected must take a strong position against the religious right, and move to join Pakistan with the majority of the world in abolishing the death penalty.
Religious freedom and minorities
Religious freedom in Pakistan remains tremendously restricted. Those that belong to religious minorities are second-class citizens and struggle to enjoy the rights of mainstream or orthodox Muslims. Local governments also tend to court popularity by cracking down on minorities in their areas, often referring to an old blasphemy law created in colonial times. The law originally banned insults directed against any religion, but in 1986 General Zia-Ul-Haq altered it to apply only to Islam. The Federal Sharia Court then made execution a mandatory sentence for blasphemy during Nawaz Sharif¡¯s term as prime minister. The law is most often activated to discriminate against Christians and those of the Islam-based Ahmadi sect (which was declared non-Muslim in 1974 under the Pakistan constitution).
Despite calls for the abolition of blasphemy law from inside and outside of the country, the government has yet to take any genuine steps to do so. Meanwhile, many citizens are being arrested, prosecuted and even killed under the law. In many cases it is used to settle personal vendettas or to grab land. Just as it continues to cause destructive tension between the country¡¯s mainstream Muslims and Pakistanis of other faiths, the law is also being used to stoke the power of religious conservatives, who can wield it against liberals.
While in power, President General Musharraf issued an order calling for Ahmadi sect members to be listed separately in the electoral system, a discriminatory action that singled them out for further attacks. In 2004 a Pakistan political party, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), filed a motion to demand a debate on the government¡¯s deletion of religious information from electronic passports, claiming that the removal was an Ahmadi conspiracy to get around a ban on non-Muslims entering Mecca. Since 1984 (when statistics were first compiled) around 93 Ahmadis have been killed for their allegiance to their sect, which is based on the tenets of Islam. Four have been killed so far this year.
In its pledge to be reelected to the Human Rights Commission in 2006 Pakistan noted that it is a part of all major global initiatives in promoting intercultural dialogue and harmony to facilitate universal respect of all human rights in all societies and cultures. It observed that, according to its constitution, minorities should enjoy equal rights and participate in mainstream politics both through joint electorates, and through the five per cent of seats reserved for them in the parliament and other elected bodies. Articles 9 to 29 of its constitution enshrine the promotion of human dignity, fundamental freedoms and human rights and the equal status of the followers of all religions. They prohibit discrimination on account of religion, race, caste or creed. However, it is clear that much of this is mere posturing. Those who commit crimes motivated by religious hate must be clearly and justly punished, and minority peoples in Pakistan must be assured of their right to a free, fair investigation of rights violations. Government workers need to set a strong example themselves; an investigation must be set up to gauge and combat the extreme religious prejudice found throughout the police, political parties and the judiciary. The blasphemy law can no longer be used as a tool of the orthodox and it must be withdrawn.
Some Muslim seminaries are encouraging young men to convert non-Muslim minorities to Islam. The young people generally kidnap young girls of non-Muslims and rape them. In cases where they are later arrested, they produce a certificate issued by any Muslim seminary that the kidnapped girls have adopted Islam and that they married the girls. Many of these girls are minors. However, the courts generally do not consider this fact and simply accept the certificates as legitimate. In some cases, such as that of Saba and Aneela, which went through the Lahore High Court from July 2008, young girls are kidnapped and forcibly converted for marriage. In this case custody was granted to the kidnapper of the older girl (aged 13), and the forced marriage was upheld.
Rights of women
The stance of the newly elected government bodes a little better for the future of women in Pakistan, with President Zardari posturing as pro-woman. He himself was married to a former president, Benazir Bhutto. There are 72 women in the National Assembly and more prominent positions are being held now by women than ever before, including the post of speaker of the National Assembly, federal minister for information and a number of deputy and provincial positions. None of these women wear hijab, suggesting progressiveness in the parties who have elected them.
Certain pro-women policies are also being implemented, for example, in the case of land distribution in the Lower Sindh, plots will be registered in the name of the woman in each family unit. The current government has spoken of creating more employment opportunities and of loan programs for women, but has not yet acted in this respect, and in terms of what still needs to be done the proposals are minor. As a legacy of the last president, there is a 33 per cent quota in all electorate forums for women at local body level, but too few are being permitted to fill this as a result of social pressure. The number stands at 17.5 per cent in the National Assembly. However these women are not directly elected, they are merely placed into the positions by their parties, which limits their value as political figures.
Middle-class women generally have more social and economic freedom in Pakistan, but in rural and tribal areas an estimated 12.5 million women are still denied the right to vote. Many have little or no independence on any level. The advances at the top need to be taken into the villages and onto the street and practically enforced. Businesses and local authorities such as the police and judiciary remain profoundly male-oriented.
Incidents of violence against women remain very high, and not enough is done to discourage them. One recent report, ¡®Policy and data monitor on violence against women¡¯ from the Aurat Foundation, shows a sharp increase in acts of aggression against women in the second quarter of 2008. The report announced cases of violence to be up to 1705, compared with 1321 between January and March. Of these cases, the largest portion (20.9 per cent) was for the murder of women, the second largest was bodily assault (11.4 per cent) and so-called honour killings were at 7.9 per cent. Suicide and sexual assault statistics are also high. There were 107 cases of rape reported in this period, 66 of which were gang rape (up from 19). However statistics vary. Pakistan¡¯s Additional Police Surgeon (APS) Dr Zulfiqar Siyal recently announced that on average 100 women are raped every 24 hours in Karachi city alone, but tedious, inefficient medical and judicial systems, with few women working in either, discourage most women (up to 99.5 per cent, says Siyal) from reporting abuse and subjecting themselves to more unwelcome male attention and further potential assault.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, (¡®Double jeopardy, police abuse of women¡¯)
More than 70 percent of women in police custody experience physical or sexual abuse at the hands of their jailers. Reported abuses include beating and slapping; suspension in mid©\air by hands tied behind the victim¡¯s back; the insertion of foreign objects, including police batons and chilli peppers, into the vagina and rectum; and gang rape. Yet despite these alarming reports, to our knowledge not a single officer has suffered criminal penalties for such abuse, even in cases in which incontrovertible evidence of custodial rape exists.
According to the same report, a senior police officer claimed that ¡°in 95 percent of the cases the women themselves are at fault¡±. If the mindset among the authorities is not challenged, little change can be expected in the general public.
Cases of domestic violence are so commonplace that most go unreported; there are still no laws to protect women from it. However in the last quarter of 2008 a domestic violence bill was given to legislators, in the expectation that it will be passed. A harassment bill has been passed by the cabinet and waits with a committee. Similar bills were drafted by Musharraf¡¯s government, but polarisation and infighting among parties prevented many practical bills being passed.
Men in rural or tribal areas continue to abuse the rights of women to the extreme, especially in the north of the country. For instance, on 14 March 2008, a 17-year-old girl was abducted by police officials and kept for almost 16 days in private custody where she was raped and tortured to make her confess to involvement in the murder of her fianc¨¦e. Her elder sister was also brought in and held naked for three days to increase the pressure. The perpetrator was a sub inspector, who detained the girl outside of the police station until March 29 before she was produced before the first-class magistrate for judicial remand. In January 2007, a 15-year-old girl, Asma Shah of Layyah, Punjab province, was gang-raped by more than a dozen attackers, yet after she filed a complaint politicians and police continually coerced her to withdraw it. The persons who helped her file the case were allegedly attacked by the relatives of the perpetrators. Although the court ordered inquiries into the case twice, police were resistant; they claimed that the alleged perpetrators were innocent before any move was made to collect statements from the victim and witnesses. In one case in April 2007 it was reported that female opposition council members of the Karachi City government were attacked and threatened with rape by council members of the Muttehda Qoumi Movement (MQM), a member of the ruling alliance in General Musharraf¡¯s government and the ruling party of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK). Sindh police refused to register case against the ruling party council members and instead registered cases of hooliganism.
In the workplace women must still contend with lower salaries, and sexual misconduct is common. They are generally not paid according to the law and receive few benefits. The majority are not officially registered so are vulnerable to occupational abuse. It is mostly women that work in government factories and other informal sectors (unregistered under government laws), and here they have no labour law benefits, such as medical allowances, pregnancy allowances, or transport or childcare services from the factory management. Through a finance bill passed during the Musharraf government, most are now expected to work 12 hours rather than the original eight. In rural areas women are often required by employers or landlords to work all day alongside their husbands for little extra remuneration, often as bonded labour, to pay off loans.
'Honour killings' and the jirga
In the last six years over 4000 people have died in murders sanctified by illegal jirgas, or tribal courts, two thirds of them women. Their deaths have often occurred under barbaric circumstances. Many are considered ¡®black women¡¯, charged with having relationships out of marriage (which are often fabricated claims) while others are victims of rape or are suspected of planning marriages contrary to those arranged for them by their families. This type of murder has become known as ¡®honour killing¡¯, and due to the ease by which an unjust sentence is passed, they have become a way of resolving property disputes, particularly by male family members who resent losing property to another family through marriage. In rural, strictly patriarchal areas women¡¯s lives are worth little. It is a matter of prestige to have more than one wife and young girls are often sold in to marriage to settle disputes.
In March 2008 a 17-year-old girl in Sindh province was pressured by her uncle to convince her parents to hand over acres of farmland. On her refusal, the uncle and his accomplices brought in her father and made him watch as the girl was mauled by a pack of dogs and then shot. In May a jirga was arranged in which the dead girl was posthumously declared ¡®kari¡¯ (involved in an illicit relationship). The murderers were vindicated and a local man was forced to confess to being the illicit lover of the girl, and to pay Rs 400,000 as compensation. A government probe has done little to bring the perpetrators to justice.
In August 2008, eight women, three of them minors, were buried alive in Balochistan, reportedly by the same men. In the first case the three girls were allegedly on their way to another town with two aunts, for their weddings. The girls were reported to have been non-fatally shot and buried, and the aunts, on protesting, were buried alive with them. Days later, three local women who had protested against the incident met the same fate. Those responsible have close ties to the provincial government and to the police, and investigations into the case have gone through an array of delays and setbacks.
In October 2008 in Sindh province, under the orders of a jirga and with the knowledge and apparent acquiescence of the police, the daughter and nieces of a man (aged 10, 12 and 13) were handed over as compensation to a man who had openly killed his last two wives. The complainant had accused the father/uncle of having an affair with his last wife.
To conquer these practices, which go against the nation¡¯s constitution, Pakistan needs to look deep into its own system and make strong, confident changes. Creating new laws will not do much good, since they are not implemented. Instead there must be a bigger crackdown on illegal jirgas and those conducting them must be punished and brought before the law, without exception and with no leniency awarded as a result of blood money transactions. Those who have killed through jirgas must be tried for murder; a country should have only one law for murder, without distinctions or impunity. Furthermore, those who have conducted jirgas should be banned from holding public office, and those already in office must be ejected. Political will is required for curbing this practice. A clear signal should be sent that the constitutional law of Pakistan needs to be respected.
During the 2008 Universal Periodic Review Pakistan pledged to put an end to honour killings through the faithful and effective application of the 2004 Criminal Law Act; to remove abuses of the Hudood laws that violate women¡¯s rights (noting that the 2006 Prevention of Anti-Women practices [Criminal Law] Act was designed to end these practices, and the 2006 Amendments, which bring the laws relating to Zina and Qazf in line with the objectives of the Constitution and the injunctions of Islam) and to take legal and administrative measures to attack domestic violence.
The legal rights of the relatives of murder victims must be recognized and acted on. This includes the right to an investigation and trial. Under article 2 of the ICCPR, the state is obliged to take measures to protect rights and provide remedy for victims of rights violations. Those who carry out extrajudicial violence must see that it will no longer be tolerated. Victims must understand that there is a process by which they can seek justice. To make sure that these steps are taken an independent monitoring body needs to be established, funded and given free reign. Finally, it is the government¡¯s responsibility to educate, and a strong educational network must be created that can work against what has become an entrenched practice, particularly in tribal northern areas, which remain isolated, ideologically, from the rest of the country. If the government is genuinely serious about tackling honour killings and modernizing its legal system, this is the least it can do.
Arbitrary arrest and disappearances
The forced ¡®disappearance¡¯ of political opponents by state intelligence services continues in spite of the newly elected government¡¯s claims that it will swiftly clean up the issue. In the nine months since the PPP came to power no serious moves have been made to address it. On the contrary, the state intelligence agencies are operating freely with the knowledge of the government. In the past nine months about 52 persons have gone missing after their arrests, mostly in the southern province of Balochistan where military operations continue. Some religious organisations claim that more than 23 persons belonging to various religious groups, mostly young students, are still missing after their arrest.
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has issued a report mentioning that at least 52 illegal detention and torture centres are being run by the Pakistan army. In one example, Dr Safdar Sarki, the nationalist leader of Sindh province and Muneer Mengal, managing editor of a television channel, were released during the first quarter of this year after they had been missing for more than a year. They were dumped by the intelligence agencies on the roadside with torture juries. Moments later, the police arrived and arrested them on several criminal charges.
The government has never made a serious attempt to stop the arbitrary arrests and disappearances, and has often hampered the judiciary in its efforts to clear the backlog of such human rights abuse cases. The state of emergency was called and the former chief justice was removed largely over this issue, meaning that more than 350 cases of missing persons were filed in the Supreme Court of Pakistan and have never been addressed. Those who have testified after being held incommunicado for months and then released have told the courts and the media that they were arrested by police and were handed over to intelligence agencies, who kept them in military interrogation cells and used torture to obtain confessional statements about alleged anti-state activities.
In the North Western Frontier province, where the Pakistani military and foreign forces are carrying out operations against militants, the media and political parties are claiming that more than 1000 persons are missing. The nationalist forces of Sindh province claim that about 100 persons have been disappeared, but that some of them were released after the intervention of the Supreme Court and the Sindh High Court. In Punjab province most of those arrested, around 100 persons, were from religious groups working in its southern and northwestern areas.
The government has shifted from a position of creating a committee for missing persons to suddenly shifting responsibility for this committee to a political party. By doing this, the government is distancing itself from one of the most important issues the country faces. For the newly formed government to now start back peddling on this issue rings warning bells for the future of human rights in the country. There have been no terms of reference described by the government and the committee does not have any constitutional or legal coverage.
There has also been little clarification about the terms of reference of the committee, such as whether it will be independent of its party affiliations; what its jurisdictions are; whether it can visit places where missing people were generally kept (some of those released through the sou moto actions of Chief Justice Iftekhar Choudry later testified that they were kept in army torture camps and they themselves saw several persons in the camps); whether this committee has the authority to ask suspect military or police officers to report before the committee; and, what the legal and constitutional status of the committee for recovery of missing persons is.
Without the proper terms of reference, the formation of the committee is meaningless and will only serve as eyewash, rather than as a purposeful exercise for missing persons and their families. It is vital for the newly elected government to maintain the confidence of the people of Pakistan by forming a high-powered tribunal with all the independence, authority and material and financial resources necessary for the recovery of disappeared people. The jurisdiction of the tribunal should cover the whole country.
Police and custodial torture
Torture in custody in Pakistan is a continuous, commonplace phenomenon. It is still widely considered the best means by which to obtain confessional statements. As yet, there have been no serious efforts by the government to make torture a crime in the domestic laws of the country.
The most common methods of police torture in interrogation situations include beating with batons or whips, suspension by the ankles, burning with cigarettes and punches to the abdomen. Women are likely to be raped in custody. Torture is also carried out to extort bribes or to show efficiency in an investigation.
Currently there are no independent investigation procedures in Pakistan to investigate cases of torture. To report cases, victims need to go through the authority responsible: the police. They must then contend with the lower judiciary, which is known to side with the prosecution in such cases. An extreme lack of sensitivity is commonly shown by prosecutors, law enforcement agencies like the police and also the judiciary, particularly the lower judiciary. The damage such practices cause the country and its ability to maintain the rule of law is understated. The development of criminal law jurisprudence has been effectively stunted.
It is in the day-to-day work of the lower judiciary that this underdevelopment is most visible. One example is the practice of the lower court judges of allowing detainees to be remanded in custody with ease, despite clear indication that torture has been used. This practice even fails to make use of the little space available to it in the current criminal law, in which a judge can demand a reason from the investigating agency for handing over the accused to such agencies, rather than keeping them in judicial custody.
Put simply, the practice of torture continues because there is no prohibition against it the domestic law of Pakistan. Police records and procedures are rarely followed, making cases difficult to monitor or legislate. Civil and political parties are not pushing hard enough for the proper implementation of police ordinance and the government has taken few steps, despite promising to reform the police and make it 'people friendly'. Without an honest police system a country has no hope of developing a free and fair rule of law.
Several lawyers, including the office-bearers of different bar associations were also tortured physically and psychologically during their detentions under emergency rule, including Munir A Malik, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, who was arrested on 3 November 2007 and provided with unknown medicine during his detainment, which served to poison him. Both his kidneys shut down and he suffered chronic renal failure. Imdad Awan, president of the Sukkur high court bar association, was arrested on November 4 after having a protest meeting with the lawyers and was beaten, denied sleep and denied medicine for his diabetes and high blood pressure. Two female lawyers, Noor Naz Agha and Jameela Manzoor, were also arrested on November 3 and 5 respectively and were beaten and mishandled. A prominent human rights lawyer, Syed Hassan Tariq, was brutally tortured by the police upon instructions (allegedly from the provincial chief minister in Nawabshah, Sindh Province) after he was arrested on 8 November 2007. He emerged from custody with internal bleeding to his lungs, marks on his back and two ribs fractured.
Children¡¯s rights
The biggest threats facing children in Pakistan today come from poverty and the risk of abduction. Pakistan has a very high population of street children, and despite the country¡¯s posture as an Islamic welfare state and provisions in the constitution that call for the care of vulnerable minors, there is little done for them. Care facilities such as orphanages are poorly regulated and under funded. Street children often come under the control of the mafia.
Cases of abuse and abduction remain high, particularly those resulting in sex slavery or conversion through forced marriage. Reported abduction cases totalled 418 in the first half of 2008, according to Sahil, a domestic NGO for the protection of children from sexual exploitation, which gathered statistics from 15 newspapers; 339 of those kidnapped were female. A high proportion of abducted children are raped and there were 177 cases reported of the gang rape of minors during this period. Figures were highest for sexual abuse in Punjab province, followed by Sindh.
Female children are still less valued than male children, and many are abandoned and left to die. Under Pakistan law such cases should be reported and investigated as murders, with post mortems conducted, but hospitals and police surgeons report few such requests, and the law allows doctors some room to issue a certificate based on observation rather than an autopsy.
Despite a ruling obliging juvenile prisoners to be kept separately from adults due to the high rate of abuse in prison, there are few facilities for juvenile offenders. There are two in Sindh province (Karachi, Hyderabad) and two in Punjab (Multan and Faisalbad). Minors should at least be kept in separate barracks, but in many places this is not the case. Some children are incarcerated with a guilty parent, but under the law this should only be able to apply to children under the age of six.
In some rural areas the practice of awarding children as compensation through tribal courts has become commonplace. The children will often be used for labour and sexually abused by their new owners, until old enough to be married or sold on, whether into marriage or sex slavery. The new minister of education, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, was himself ordered under arrest by former Chief Justice Choudhry in 2004 for his role in a tribal court that tried to use a number of children as compensation in an honour killing dispute.
The movement for judicial independence
Pakistan¡¯s judiciary was deposed on 3 November 2007 by the then-chief-of-army staff, through the imposition of a state of emergency. Since coming to power the new civil and elected government has gone back on its written and verbal promises to restore it. Rather than follow through with a constitutional package and a legal restoration process, it has embarked down a road of intimidation and coercion, with the aim of dividing the movement. Willing judges have been ¡®reappointed¡¯ under new oaths, a procedure little different to that initiated by General Musharraf in the first place. A number of judges have refused to comply and remain deposed, including the former chief justice, Iftekhar Choudhry.
Meanwhile, judges who bent to the will of the government back in November and were awarded senior positions remain in those positions. Abdul Hameed Dogar, who was put in place by General Musharraf, is still working as the chief justice. At one point the government of Yousaf Gillani considered reducing his tenure as chief justice to 2009; however, Choudhry should remain in that seat until 2013, according to the constitution. The constitutional amendments made during the state of emergency remain part of the government. The ruling party displays no political will to restore the judiciary to its original formation (of 2 November 2007), before it was tampered with by Musharraf. In protest on this issue, the party of Nawaz Sharif left the coalition in August.
The 19-month struggle of the lawyers has done much to raise the awareness of Pakistan¡¯s citizens regarding the rule of law, and has reinvigorated people power. It is a struggle unprecedented in the history of the country. Citizens have witnessed and rallied behind the protests, in which lawyers have been beaten, fired upon, arrested and barred from their profession. Many lawyers have lost their livelihoods and the campaign is now escalating into aggression, as those fighting begin to realise that rule of law is still being used as a political tool, despite the change in governance. Those campaigning continue to be persecuted, and the present government¡¯s current agenda suggests that there is little hope that Chief Justice Iftekhar will be restored in the near future.
The lawyers¡¯ movement had long been under threat by the government of General Musharraf, whose coalition partners have been able to freely use violence against lawyers, particularly in Karachi, Sindh province, which is mainly ruled by the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), a political ethnic party. Brutal attacks during street protests on 9 April 2008 in Karachi claimed the lives of 14 persons, including a child. Six persons were burned alive, of which at least two were lawyers and two others their female clients. Nineteen lawyers went missing for days, before reappearing abused and in bad shape. More than 70 offices were ransacked and burned, including the office, house and vehicle of the general secretary of the Karachi Bar Association. The offices of the Malir Bar Association, 20km away from the Karachi city courts, were burned to ashes. More than 50 vehicles were burned and smashed, most owned by lawyers. The media and sources close to the bar associations alleged that these attacks on the lawyers, looting, killing, burning and abductions were carried out by the members of the MQM. Prior to this on 12 May 2007 more than 40 persons were killed. The lawyers reported to the media that the attackers were in possession of incendiary weapons that exploded when thrown at a target.
The new government has fostered a relationship with the MQM, now part of the new coalition, with seeming impunity. The governments at federal and Sindh provincial levels have promised to investigate the attack several times, but have not followed through.
Freedom of the press
Pakistan claims that it has a free press. Before the latest government, there were greater restrictions like the PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) Ordinance, through which several electronic channels were attacked and shut down by the authorities due to their coverage of the lawyers¡¯ movement. Many newspapers were prevented from publishing, and journalists covering protests were arrested and manhandled by the police. The new government has withdrawn the PEMRA Ordinance and thus its authority over the press, and the situation has greatly improved. However the government has yet to abolish the press and publication ordinance, 1963, which allows the government a variety of chances to intervene in the publication of news.
Powerful religious and ethnic groups currently attack media houses, bully their staff and dictate their coverage unhindered due to political ties. Since journalists feel at risk they tend to avoid coverage of certain topics, and submit to orders from these groups. For example, when one powerful ethnic group attacked lawyers and burned a number alive on two occasions, the name of the ethnic group was omitted from the media coverage. Those attacked and cowed include GEO TV, ARY ONE, AAJ TV, FM103 and almost all of the national newspapers.
There is still self-censorship in the media. Little news is broadcast of trade union activity, or about those who regularly speak against the army or the security forces, particularly about the military operations in Balochistan and the suppression of separatists and nationalist groups. This is in part because of intimidation, but is also due to a narrow patriotic mindset, and a wish to secure the ideological boundaries of the country; for example, editors tend not to cover cases of religious groups attacked by majority groups. Self-censorship is most commonly activated for events that might be seen as against the Pakistani nationalism, Islamic ideology and commercial interests.
During the year 2008 at least eight journalists were killed in Pakistan, including Qari Shoaib Mohammad on November 8 (killed by ¡®mistake¡¯ say security forces); Mohammad Ibrahim on May 21 after a high profile interview of Maulvi Umar, by unidentified gunmen, and Khadim Hussain Sheikh on April 14, by unidentified gunmen. According to the report issued by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists, 33 journalists were killed during the nine-year rule of General Pervez Musharraf.
Military operations
Balochistan had been subject to large-scale military operations since 2000. During this period the Pakistan Army had used gunship helicopters and armoured cars against the civilian population, and the Pakistan Air Force used F-16 jet planes to bombard them. After the formation of the newly elected government in April an announcement was made to halt the operation. The prime minister and parties in the government apologised openly to the people of Balochistan. It has been alleged that more than 3000 persons were killed due to this operation in Balochistan province.
According to local newspaper reports, the military started to use heavy force in Dera Bugti, Bairoon Pat and the border areas of Jafferabad district again, and searched the houses without warrants from the court. During this operation, army officers killed 12 persons on July 19, 23 persons on July 20 and 36 persons on July 24. It is also reported that 30 persons were killed and seventy were injured on July 27 and 28. Villagers claim that the military used chemical gas against the villagers and when they fainted, they were taken to unknown places where they were shot dead.
The Daily Jang, the largest circulated newspaper of Pakistan, reported on August 21 that early that morning the army had deployed fresh contingents of troops in the areas of Bareli, Tukhmarh, Jhabro, Sano Gari, Andhari and Nisao Cheera. Seven innocent persons were killed and 18 persons were injured due to a whole day of aerial bombardments in the said areas. After a lapse of one day the military again started bombardments, which killed several, including 13 women and children. The federal minister of interior visited the area on August 20 and announced that the military operation would continue if separatists were protected by the people. The newspaper also reported on August 24 that the military operation began again in the areas of Balochistan and Kohistan-e-Marri.
The North West Frontier Province has been badly affected by the military operations since 9/11 on the pretext of the ¡®war against terror¡¯ and militancy from the Muslim militant groups, particularly by the local Taleban members, who are responsible for the worst of the violence, including hanging, stoning to death and killing of people through suicide bomb attacks. The civilian population is sandwiched between them, and there are reports of heavy casualties. The military operation in Swat valley will have be a year old in November, during the year the government claims that more than 700 militants were killed. According to the official news agency, the Associated Press of Pakistan, over the period of one year, 1200 civilians were killed and more than 2000 injured. More than 700,000 persons have been displaced by the attacks from both sides: the military and Muslim fundamentalists.
Footnote: This article consists of extracts from the Asian Human Rights Commission¡¯s State of Human Rights in Asia 2008 report. Contents of the report are available in PDF format by country online at the AHRC website,
AHRC - Asian Human Rights Commission. Interested persons may contact the AHRC to obtain printed copies of the full report.
Posted on 2008-12-17
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.V R PK DWELLERS N V GET JUSTICE.........
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