ISLAMABAD: President of the Human Rights Cell of the Pakistan People’s Party and former Senator Farhatullah Babar has expressed concern over the situation in Balochistan, urging the government to take note of the recent fact-finding report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
“The voices of the Baloch women and children camping near the supermarket market in Islamabad for the last three weeks against the enforced disappearances of their near and dear ones must be heard,” he said while addressing a press conference on Friday here at the Central Secretariat of the party.
PPP HR cell’s General Secretary Malika Raza, Natasha Daultana MNA, and other office bearers of the cell were also present.
Farhatullah Babar said enforced disappearances are a crime against humanity under international law. He lamented that the commission on enforced disappearances has failed to prosecute anyone.
He said “electoral manipulation” has undermined democratic credibility in the province. “This has marginalised nationalist parties that believe in federal parliamentary democracy and play into the hands of extremists and insurgents,” he added.
He said provincial autonomy, particularly in natural resource governance, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan must be honoured. He urged the government to adopt a rights-based, inclusive political solution to the problems in the province if further instability is to be avoided.
Expressing concern over internment centres in KP, Farhatullah Babar said these centres violated the principle of due process, separation of powers, and fundamental rights of citizens.
He said it has been under challenge in the Supreme Court since December 2019, but no hearing has been held during the past more than five years. He called for an early listing of appeal in this human rights issue. “I was also petitioner in the case,” he said.
He said the human rights cell places on record its deep appreciation of the verdict of the single bench of IHC Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan last month asking the government to constitute a commission within 30 days to investigate misuse of blasphemy law and complete its work within four months.
“The court had cited widespread concerns over alleged entrapment, custodial deaths, and serious investigative lapses,” he said.
The PPP HR cell has noted that the verdict of the single bench was subsequently suspended by a division bench of the same court for one month. It expressed the hope that after the one-month stay granted against its implementation by a double bench is over the government will set up the commission in accordance with the order of Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan.