Over 12,000 murders across Pakistan in 2010

16 April, 2011 01:40:00 editor

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File Photo of Street Violence in Karachi

HRCP message is that Pakistan has truly become a lawless state which is descending into chaos. It is a call to the Pakistan State – its civilian leadership and military establishment in particular to wake up and put their ears to the ground.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan is not a statutory body. It is a NGO. In that sense it lacks teeth. Where it scores is in ability to strike at the system year after year with comprehensive reports that act as ‘eye openers’ on the state of affairs in the country. The report for 2010 released on Thursday April 14 is no exception.

It paints a bleak picture and holds militancy and political violence responsible in equal measure for the dismal track record in rights violations. Two other factors it brings out are no less disturbing. One there is no political will to check target killing. Two Pakistan is becoming increasingly unsafe for religious minorities because of religious intolerance.

Now some facts as HRCP presents

Faith based violence claimed the lives of 99 Ahmadis (86 of them on a single day in Lahore), and targeted attacks the lives of 20 journalists while 64 people were charged with blasphemy. 500 flood-displaced Ahmadi families in South Punjab were denied relief and shelter on account of their faith. Sectarian violence including attacks on Shia shrines resulted in over 400 deaths.

Violence against various Muslim sects claimed 418 lives and injured 963, the report said while putting the US drone toll at 957 and deaths in 67 suicide bomb blasts at 1, 159 people. Other statistics are no less chilling - 581 kidnappings for ransom and 16,977 cases of abduction, 338 deaths in police encounters, 110 deaths in Balochistan’s 117 target killings, over 750 lives in Karachi’s target killings, and 2542 deaths in terrorism related attacks. Over 5000 people were injured in terrorist attacks

At least 64 people were charged under the blasphemy law, including Aasia Bibi, a Christian farmhand. Three men, including two Christian brothers, accused of blasphemy were killed in police custody.

25 of the 102 Sikh families forced to flee Orakzai Agency returned to the area. 500 Hindu families from Balochistan migrated to India because of threats to their lives and security. 73 members of religious minority communities committed suicide and 21 attempted to take their own lives.

In most of the religious-based killings the federal and the provincial government concerned even failed to express sympathy with the victims, according to HRCP secretary-general I.A. Rehman. His concern doesn’t come as a surprise given the fact that insensitivity has become the hallmark of the system in Pakistan. The mainstream Urdu media promotes hate, intolerance and discrimination against Ahmedis. There were as many as 1,468 news articles and editorials that come under hate literature. No surprise that a student was denied admission to MSc in zoology in a government –run college in Lahore because of his faith.

OVERCROWDED JAILS: This sense of insensitivity is much in evidence in respect of jails, which are in urgent need of revamp. The country has 91 prisons, and their authorised capacity is 42,617 persons but 75,586 persons are detained there. At least 55 prisons are bursting at the seams. Rioting inside the barracks has become a norm rather than an exception.

Another sad feature of Pakistan jails is that nearly eighty percent of the detainees are undertrials (UTs). Of the 12,980 in the Sindh jails, 10,306 were under trial, while 33,809 of the 51,902 detainees in Punjab prisons were under trial. HRCP highlights another flipside of Pakistan’s legal system. ‘Continued award of death sentence pushed the death row population to around 8,000, with nearly 6,000 death penalty convicts in Punjab alone’.

Journalists and civil society activists are barred from visiting conflict-hit regions. The threat of abduction and target killing in parts of Balochistan, Sindh and FATA has made them virtual no-go areas.

Other details: 791 women killed in the name of honour. 2,903 women raped 2,581 of them in Punjab. 719 women committed suicide and 414 attempted suicide. 931 women detained in jails

Over one million child labourers (10 -14 years) are working for wages, a large percentage as bonded labourers. At least 2,294 labourers were freed from debt bondage in Sindh alone

One woman died every 30 minutes in Pakistan due to pre-, neo- or post-natal problems. Over one million people are suffering from tuberculosis. Another 18 million are hit by hepatitis patients and more than 7 million Pakistanis are suffering from diabetics. Polio is still to be eradicated. 143 cases of polio were reported in 2010. As many as 1.5 million people were blind. 34 per cent of the Pakistanis are suffering from psychological disorders.

HRCP estimates damage to environment cost nearly a billion rupees a day. Annual monetary loss the country suffered due to environmental degradation constitutes 6% of the GDP. Yet the government has imposed a 55% cut in the allocation for the Environment Ministry.

In short, HRCP message is that Pakistan has truly become a lawless state which is descending into chaos. It is a call to the Pakistan State – its civilian leadership and military establishment in particular to wake up and put their ears to the ground.

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