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Friday March 29, 2024

Senate panel on human rights calls for CII dissolution

By our correspondents
June 29, 2016

ISLAMABAD: The Senate’s Functional Committee on Human Rights on Tuesday held the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) responsible for an increase in incidents of violence against women and recommended its dissolution.

The panel met here at the Parliament House under the chairpersonship of Senator Nasreen Jalil of the MQM.Senators Mohsin Leghari (independent), Dr Jehanzeb Jamaldini of BNP-Mengal, Ms Sitara Ayaz of ANP and PPP’s Farhatullah Babar attended the meeting.    

The committee also urged the government to ban the use of Qisas and Diyat laws in honour killing cases. The committee expressed concern over the rising trend of violence against women, pushing the society backwards.

The forum called on the government to get the anti-honour killing bill through the legislature. The forum urged the government to become a party to honour killing cases by standing by the aggrieved party and expressed concern over some recent pronouncements of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), which it fearedtended to promote violence against women. The senators lamented that the perpetrators of honour killings often got scot-free. It was proposed that there should be a ban on pardoning those convicted in killings in the name of honour. It also wanted strict implementation of Islamic teachings with regard to violence against women.

They pointed out that it had been witnessed that almost each drama or movie would end up in honour killing and called for banning screening of such content on the media.

The committee questioned whether after having submitted its final report in 1997 to parliament the council was still required to give opinion and submit reports to parliament and referred the issue to the Law and Justice Division for advice.

Senior officers from the Ministry of Defence, Law, Justice and Human Rights, Ministry of Interior, field officers dealing with Okara Farmlands and other relevant departments also attended the meeting.

Representatives of Anjuman Mazareen Punjab were also present on the occasion to present their point of view on the farmlands.Senator Nasreen lamented that the silence of parliamentarians on the issue of honour killing was a matter of extreme concern and said ‘gherat’ (honour) should not be associated only with women. She wished that there should be a ban on having compromise with persons involved in honour killings.

The issue came up during discussion on an agenda item pertaining to violence against women, particularly the recent incidents of burning in the name of honour.The committee asked the government to pass the anti-honour killing bill passed unanimously by the Senate and referred it to the National Assembly.

Senator Babar pointed out that all the political parties in the Senate, including the ruling coalition and religious parties, had unanimously passed the bill and it was strange that now the government was backtracking on it in the joint session in the name of consensus and asked whether this change of heart had something to do with the PanamaLeaks.

The committee expressed dismay that the tenants of farmlands had been charged with terrorism merely for trying to hold a public meeting on the International Day of Peasants on April 17 and asked the administration to review its highhanded approach.

Babar said by turning a blind eye to militants in southern Punjab and trying and torturing tenants with terrorism charges had made a joke of the National Action Plan and anti-terror drive under it.

The issue of military farmlands was referred to the Human Rights Committee by the Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani on a motion moved by Senator Farhatullah Babar.The committee called upon the government to get passed from the National Assembly the anti-torture bill that was unanimously passed by the Senate in March 2015 and transmitted to it the very next day.

The committee took note of incidents of enforced disappearances, which it said was bringing a bad name to the country and its agencies. It asked the government to implement the recommendations of the Commission on Enforced Disappearances and the directions of superior courts from time to time to bring the state security agencies under some legislation.

The members also advised the government to sign the International Convention on Enforced Disappearances and asked for a comprehensive briefing on it and the government’s reservations about signing it.

Noting that the sunset clause in the constitutional amendment for trial of militants by military courts had forced a decision on the political parties to give a thought whether to extend it or not, the committee held that military courts militated against justice and asked the political parties to carefully weigh the consequences and not give blank cheques to security agencies.

Babar said the experience of the past two years of military courts had thrown up some very disturbing questions and some stark lessons had been learnt.

Announcing executions by tweets and in the absence of even minimal information about the defendants, the narratives of prosecution and defence, where and when the trial was held and the verdict there were real dangers of miscarriage of justice.

He said it was promised that only jet black terrorists will be executed but record showed that even ordinary criminals had also been executed since the lifting of the moratorium.He proposed that the representatives of the National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR), which was authorised under the law to become a party to court cases involving human rights violations, should sit through the proceedings of military courts as rapproteurs, if nothing else.

It was decided to examine the proposal in depth by seeking the views of relevant stakeholders, including the Ministry of Law and Justice and Human Rights and defence ministry. The NCHR also briefed the committee on the kidnapping of Mir Muhammad Zehri in Balochistan and asked the relevant authorities to expedite giving complete information about the incident in the background of the allegations leveled by the complainant in the petition.

Yet another case considered by the committee pertained to the mysterious disappearance of a Pakistani national in the UAE without trace over two years ago. The committee framed a set of questions and asked the Interior Ministry to seek replies to these questions from the relevant UAE authorities.