KARACHI: Former chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Zohra Yusuf in an online talk on Thursday evening shed light on eminent journalist and human rights activist I.A. Rehman’s association with the commission at an event titled ‘HRCP’s journey with I.A. Rehman’.

Ms Yusuf, who was responding to questions put to her by Kaleem Durrani, said she knew Rehman sahib before the commission came into being. She met him for the first time in the office of Viewpoint (magazine) in Lahore because she at the time herself was a journalist working for the Dawn Media Group. She had heard about him and had read his columns. Viewpoint at the time was an anti-establishment publication. After that whenever she visited Lahore, her first stop would be that office where she’d spend time with him.

Ms Yusuf said her own association with the HRCP began in 1988 when she took part in a fact-finding mission in Mirpurkhas for the commission. Two years later, in 1990, she was elected a council member of the HRCP. The same year, Rehman sahib and Aziz Siddiqui were, in a way, removed from the Pakistan Times which provided an opportunity to the HRCP to ask both of them to work for it. Their joining gave strength to the HRCP. “We would all depend on him and sought his opinion. His association with the HRCP remained right till the end.”

On why she joined the HRCP, Ms Yusuf said, “When you see injustice taking place in society and look at the plight of its vulnerable segments you feel like doing something in order to bring justice to them.” Prior to that she worked with the Women Action Forum; and since 1990 she has remained with the HRCP in one capacity or another.

I.A. Rehman’s association with HRCP recalled

She said whenever Rehman sahib came to Karachi he’d first visit her house saying [in lighter vein], “Mujhe pehley thaaney mein report kerna hai” (I need to lodge a report with the police station.) Their conversations, though, would focus on the HRCP.

Ms Yusuf said she was reluctant to accept the post of the commission’s chairperson. She didn’t have the courage or ability that Asma Jahangir had. But Ms Jahangir insisted that she accept the position. When she [Ms Yusuf] told her that she had a back problem, the late activist replied that she didn’t have to do bhangra dance for the HRCP. Upon knowing this, Rehman sahib agreed with Ms Jahangir’s opinion. Therefore on their insistence she became chairperson of the commission. “Without the support and guidance of Rehman sahib and Asma it would have been a difficult job for me. Their wisdom and guidance helped me.”

Ms Yusuf said Rehman sahib had clarity of mind. He was sure that if society were to change, you needed a strategy for it; and was certain that if the human rights movement in Pakistan was to work, it had to spread to grass-roots level. He with Husain Naqi created a network in which correspondents from different smaller parts of the country used to send their reports to the HRCP on the basis of which the commission used to decide whether fact-finding should be undertaken or not.

Today, she said, people in smaller cities are aware of their rights which is why one sees them arranging protest demonstrations, raising their voice, pressing for their rights. “This is a success for the HRCP which is to do with Rehman’s sahib teaching that people should raise their voice.”

Giving an example, Ms Yusuf said, the bonded labour issue was raised in the early 1990s when some of their members came to the HRCP office and said they had run away and their lives needed to be saved. That’s how work on the issue began.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2021