KARACHI, Jan 19: Politicians, media personnel, experts and retired judges and lawyers in a workshop on Thursday expressed concern over the growing numbers of human rights violations in the country. They, however, hailed the media for highlighting human rights issues and playing an effective role in the dissemination of information in this regard.

The workshop on “Human Rights and Media” organized by the Fazaldad Human Rights Institute (FHRI) was held at a local hotel and is part of five workshops on the topic being held in the four provincial capitals and the federal capital.

Speaking on “Human Rights Agendas and Parliament”, Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Sherry Rahman deplored that a vast majority in Pakistan comprised moderate Muslims but religion was often used for human rights violations.

“An excellent example of this is the Hudood Ordinance, promulgated in the era of Gen Ziaul Haq,” she said, adding that the ordinance was used for discrimination against women.

She maintained that access to justice for most Pakistanis was another issue as hardly a few cases reached the higher courts where decisions were made in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution.

Ms Rahman lauded the media, especially electronic media channels for highlighting human rights violations, issues of honour killings and sexual harassment, adding that her party was against curbing freedom of expression at any cost.

According to her, there was confusion in the government’s mind regarding enlightened moderation as a single person was holding two offices, both of the president’s and the chief of army staff and was taking unilateral decisions, which was against the spirit of democracy.

She also expressed her concerns over the reported move of the government about constituting a Human Rights Commission of Pakistan through legislation as an organ of the state, saying it would be used to validate government accesses and HR violations.

Former federal information minister and media expert Javed Jabbar in his speech on “Citizens Media Rights and Responsibilities” said human rights was a constantly evolving issue as the concept of HR had existed even prior to Islam.

“Actually, it was Islam that articulated human rights and the process of articulation has been continuing since then. Every new technology creates new human rights and there are courts, which exactly define HR,” he added.

He suggested the establishment of citizens or community-based media organizations, to be run on no-profit-no-loss basis, and added that society should raise its voice for rights of media persons and their struggle for freedom for expression, as it was in their own favour.

He said that Pakistan was 10 years ahead of the UK in access to archival information, adding that it took only 20 years in Pakistan as compared to 30 years in the UK for access to documents.

Dispelling the impression that only military rulers were “dictators and autocrats”, Jabbar said that even democratically elected prime ministers of Pakistan had taken decisions, which were autocratic and against the spirit of the Constitution.

To a query regarding the ban on Indian TV channels by the Pemra, he said although Pemra took the plea that cable operators did not have lending rights of those TV channels, it was right to say that it was the advertisement money issue behind the banning of Indian channels.

Jurisconsultant to the Federal Shariat Court Dr Aslam Khaki in his presentation on “Human Rights in Islam” spoke about Islam’s and the universal declaration of human rights adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948.

According to him, it was wrong to say that Islam allowed keeping slaves. Instead, it discouraged the tradition of slavery as Muslims have been asked to release slaves to seek the consent of Almighty Allah.

He claimed that Islam did not ask for killing any person who converted from Islam to any other religion. Instead, it was a decision of the state, as traitors and spies are not spared in any country of the world, he added.

Ms Shaheen Salahuddin, representative of a local TV channel speaking on “Growing Impact of Electronic Media” said nowadays, both government and the opposition were satisfied with the role being played by the electronic media, which indicated that truth was being presented on electronic media.

She, however, did admit that mistakes were often made by the electronic media, but said it was because there was no institute for the training of young journalists.

The speeches of experts were followed by two interactive discussions of participants with panellists in which questions raised by participants were answered by the panellists.

Chairman FHRI Islamabad Naeem Sarfraz, Secretary General HRCP Iqbal Haider, President Karachi Press Club Ghazi Salahuddin and Justice (Retd) Shaiq Usmani also spoke.—PPI