Two official HR bodies in a tug of war on authority

ISLAMABAD: The world judges the countries by the status of human rights being ensured in them but in Pakistan, instead of curbing the human rights violation to show a positive image of the country to the world, two top institutions mandated to look after human rights are busy in tug of war as one wants to make the other answerable to it while the other claims its autonomy and independence.

The National Commission for Human Rights is made to report to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights, not regarding the human rights issues but for recruitment policy, TA/DA of the chairman, salary of the head of NCHR, expenditure on his air travel and allowances being drawn by the NCHR chief and other internal affairs being managed by the commission.

The commission claims it financial autonomy and to spend without any influence while the NA Standing Committee claims that when it involves the tax payers’ money may, the committee is competent to make the commission answerable to the Parliament. 

NCHR is headed by Justice (R) Ali Nawaz Chohan, who has remained former judge of Lahore High Court, Alternate Chairman UNESCO Appeal (Judicial) Board, Paris; Elected International Judge of the United Nations (by the General Assembly 2006-2009 with Diplomatic Status of Under Secretary General of the UN; he has also remained Chief Justice of the Republic of Gambia; he has also served as Consultant to the President of Pakistan on Administrative Law and International law. Justice Chohan’s CV runs into dozens of pages with over a decade of UN’s judicial and diplomatic assignments. 

The chairman NCHR says that human rights institutions work independently worldwide and are never influenced either politically or financially by the governments or other institutions and it is because of such independence, the international organizations value their reports. He said that NCHR was established on the basis of Paris principles and the law formulated to establish this commission also ensures that financial and other independence is protected so that the commission may work in accordance with the Paris principles. 

Justice Chohan while talking to The News said that when assumed the charge of the commission there was no office and staff but now he has got an office and staff as well while the regulations and rules regarding running the affairs of the commission have not been approved yet because the rules are lying with the Finance Ministry.

He said that despite shortage of the funds, the commission has finalised human rights reports on many issues. He mentioned that NCHR claimsits independence and he has been advocating for the same before the NA Standing Committee that the commission cannot be made answerable for the independence ensured to it by the law and the Paris Principles. 

He said the committee asks about internal matters of the commission while its rules have still not been approved. He said the commission is writing a detailed report on its recruitment policy, TA/DA and travelling of the chairman, salary package of the chairman etc because it does not want to indulge in tug of war with the NA committee but “this is not our job as we have to prepare reports on human rights violations and not of recruitment policy”. 

He elaborated that the NA committee considers NCHR as a subsidiary of Human Rights Ministry while the fact is that the commission is totally independent and does not report to the ministry. “We have been formed as a result of an international convention and we try to explain this to the committee but they think their privilege is being breached”, said the retired judge. He held that he was willing to work in collaboration with the NA committee on Human Rights as he is doing with a similar committee of the Senate, but unnecessary things hamper the functioning of an important human rights institution. 

The Chairman NA Standing Committee on Human Rights Babar Nawaz Khan when contacted said that he has no personal issues with the chairman NCHR but he does not accept that the commission was not answerable to anyone including the Parliament. He added that the committee only wants to oversee the financial issues of the commission because tax payers’ money is involved and the committee has the right to do so. 

He added that the commission has told the committee that salaries for seven months have not been issued by the government and the committee in return has questioned that if such are the financial issues of the commission then how come it hire seventy plus staff and that also with the difference of salary packages of people working in the same scale. The Chairman of the HR committee said that he has no personal enmity with the retired justice but he wants the commission to go for external audit and declare the salary packages of the officials including the chairman himself. 

Babar Nawaz added that he was looking forward to working with the chairman NCHR to ensure human rights of Pakistanis.