THE year 2014 left Pakistan in a state of grief and sorrow. While many brutal acts of violence had taken place throughout the year, the year ended with the Army Public School Peshawar attack, in which about 150 people, mostly children, lost their lives.

The attack resulted in the lifting of the moratorium on the death penalty which had been in place since 2008. Incidentally, Pakistan has one of the largest populations of death-row prisoners in the world — more than 8,000 by the end of last year — of which 231 had been sentenced to death in 2014. Also, as part of the National Action Plan against terrorism, military courts were established through the 21st Constitutional Amendment Bill that was adopted by the parliament on Jan 6.

The anger in the aftermath of the school attack seemed to focus on why our criminal justice system was failing to convict terrorists and dispense justice. And where there is delay in the dispensation of justice there is an increase in human rights violations. This is what the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) focuses on in its annual report, State of Human Rights in 2014, and takes a sector-wide comprehensive look at the situation in the country.

While human rights organisations were protesting enforced disappearances, the Protection of Pakistan Act 2014 (PoPA) was passed in July 2014 which granted the armed forces immunity for arbitrary detention stating that the “Government may not in the interest of the security of Pakistan disclose the grounds for detention or divulge any information relating to the detainee”. The purpose of the PoPA is “to protect Pakistan against waging of war and insurrection, prevent acts threatening the security of Pakistan, and for the speedy trial of related offences”. The PoPA faced considerable criticism from civil society, as it stripped citizens of their most basic rights — under the act any person could be arrested even on suspicion of causing death or harm to property of armed forces.

During the year, acts of terrorism, sectarian killings and attacks on religious minorities took centre stage in the media. State of Human Rights in 2014 emphasises that a total of 144 cases of sectarian violence were reported across the country. In a number of incidents Shia pilgrim buses were attacked, due to which in June the government banned road trips to Iran for Shia pilgrims — obviously not a solution as every pilgrim cannot afford air travel. Among attacks on minorities, the most horrific was the mob lynching and burning of a Christian couple in Kot Radha Kishan in Punjab for allegedly desecrating a copy of the Holy Quran. Growing incidents of faith-based violence left the nation resigned to the idea that one can be killed for one’s religious following.

The year 2014 was not a good one for the media either: Pakistan was termed the most dangerous country for media in the world, with 14 journalists and media personnel losing their lives, many others being injured or threatened. Uncertain security conditions, risk of terrorism-related activities and overwhelming political influence forced media houses to practice self-censorship. Major media outlets were forced off air and fined for airing allegedly blasphemous content or politically incorrect statements, with one major media house remaining off air for months. During the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) sit-ins media personnel were attacked on a number of occasions, while on Sept 1, 2014 “protestors belonging to PTI and PAT attacked the offices of state-owned PTV” and “took over the control room as a result of which broadcasts … were disrupted for some time”.

Further, as a result of the armed conflict and army operation over two million people, most of them women and children, were forced to leave their homes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and North Waziristan, and find refuge in comparatively safer environs. They joined the multitudes of internally displaced people (IDP) from earlier conflicts and have been unable to go back home so far. As if displacement was not enough, female IDPs suffered further when some “tribal elders from Waziristan decreed that families fleeing military offensive” should not allow women to collect food aid. The HRCP report cites an incident where one tribal elder slapped several women queuing for food at the main Bannu stadium where most of the aid was being distributed. It further states: “After (apparently) a few violent incidents where men were seen beating women out of relief goods queues, the army issued a public notice that no women would be allowed to come into the main distribution point at the sports complex”. No one considered what widows and women unaccompanied by their husbands would have to do to secure aid.

Rallies and sit-ins by the PTI and PAT not only disrupted routine life, they also diverted people’s attention from more serious, but silent, issues as they occupied much of the channels’ air time. Prior to the protests, a violent clash between the PAT workers and police resulted in the death of at least 14 PAT workers as a result of allegedly excessive use of force by the police. International covenants and national laws say that “participation in peaceful public assemblies should be voluntary and not coerced”, but there were reports that some people had been promised payment for their participation in the protests.

Women and children continued being denied their right to health and education. Quoting the Global Gender Gap Report 2014, the HRCP report stated that Pakistan ranked second to last in gender equality in access to healthcare, education and work. Save the Children’s annual State of the World’s Mothers Report 2014 referred to Pakistan as the most perilous place for mothers in the world, ranking Pakistan at 147 out of 178 countries in terms of conditions of mothers. According to Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012-13 Pakistan’s maternity rate stands at 276 deaths for every 100,000 live births, with only 41 per cent of women having access to a skilled birth attendant while giving birth. Instances of so-called ‘honour’ killing, rape, acid attacks, domestic violence and assaults against women continued to make headlines.

The healthcare system, which is among the weakest in South Asia, showed no signs of improvement. A total of at least 306 polio cases were reported in 2014, and the country also faced WHO-recommended travel restrictions due to rising polio cases. Health workers administering polio drops and their security staff came under attack in many parts of the country. Pakistan also failed to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goal 4 target of reducing under-five mortality to 52 per 1,000 live births by 2015.

Despite being one of the major food-producing countries in the world, half of Pakistan’s population is said to be food insecure. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation 40 pc of the country’s children are malnourished and underweight due to lack of access to adequate food, while Save the Children reports that about 800,000 children die annually in Pakistan, 35pc of them due to malnutrition. Malnutrition of mothers and infants, coupled with diseases like pneumonia and diarrhoea, as a result of drought, poverty and poor health infrastructure resulted in the death of about 650 children in Tharparkar district of Sindh.

Despite the government’s repeated resolve to provide free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of five to 16, Pakistan has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, i.e. approximately 5.5 million children of school-going age are out of school. While education percentages remained dismally low, girls suffer more than boys. Factors that hindered girls’ education included poverty, difficulty in access in terms of distance, cultural constraints, early marriage, and lack of water and sanitation in schools. To make matters worse, threats to and attacks on schools and teachers were reported from many areas, especially in Balochistan and KP.

The year 2014 was not without its moments of hope, few though these may have been, such as Malala Yousafzai winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Women’s rights progressed a little, thanks to the adoption of laws such as the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act 2013, under which marriage of children under the age of 18 was outlawed, and the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2014 (Balochistan) that criminalised domestic violence. 

State of Human Rights in 2014

(REPORT)

By HRCP

HRCP, Lahore

ISBN 978-9698324773

418pp.