Senate panel challenges bona fides of  HR body that praises Rangers

ISLAMABAD: The Human Rights Committee of the Senate Tuesday challenged the bonafides of Human Rights Commission South Asia whose report has been flaunted by the Rangers as ‘proof’ of their compliance with the human rights obligations during the Karachi operation.

During the Senate committee meeting late last month the Rangers representative flaunted a report by the Sweden-based Human Rights Committee South Asia endorsing that the paramilitary force’s operation complied with the human rights standards.

Senator Farhatullah Babar of PPP challenged the report and sought complete information about the committee. When the committee met on Tuesday, the Rangers gave the website of Human RightsCommittee of South Asia as www.hrcsa.org but its representative did not attend the meeting. Senator Babar said the Rangers had allowed themselves to be misled into taking refuge behind the report of an unknown human rights body that appeared to be a fake.

Babar said he had visited the site and found the names of journalist Rahimullah Yousafzai as its Afghanistan correspondent and one Hilal Usmani as its so-called Sindh correspondent. Babar said when he contacted Rahimullah he denied having any links with the committee let alone working as its Afghanistan correspondent.

He said several e-mails sent at the address of Hilal Usmani bounced back as undelivered. “This clearly seems to be a fake organisation which has taken upon itself the task to white-wash the human rights violations committed by the law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) on selective basis,” he said.

Senator Babar demanded that the mater be referred to the Ministry of IT and other investigation agencies to probe and expose the elements behind it. “The issue is not that the Senate committee has been misled by flaunting the report of a fake organization but the issue is that someone has misled the Rangers into a trap that has destroyed their credibility,” he added.

He said people will no longer believe in the Rangers tall claims about achievements nor in their protestations of innocence of human rights violations. “If for nothing else, at least for the sake of credibility of the military dominated Rangers the matter needs to be investigated,” he added.  The committee decided to refer the matter to the investigation agencies.