report also highlighted the plight of around 157 families from minority communities who are among those displaced from FATA due to Pakistan Army’s Zarb-e-Azb operation against militants in the region. It cited a few accounts of the families who faced religious discrimination at IDP camps.
Political participation
However, according to the report, the year 2014 also saw people’s active participation in politics in the form of protests, sit-ins, social media campaigns, civil disobedience, subsequently followed by countrywide shutdowns.
The protests by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and PAT demonstrations highlighted the need to rethink a balance between the people’s right to protest and the state’s obligation to protect the rights and interests of the public.
But because of it, states the report, the year 2014 also saw the space for marginalised groups in politics shrink even further.
It said the year also saw the extension of “kill and dump” policy, previously used against dissidents in Balochistan, to the Sindhi nationalists. Moreover, unprecedented participation of women in political movements was attacked as immoral by some conservatives and retrogressive elements.
Meanwhile, violent attacks against religious minorities continued to hinder every aspect of their lives, including political participation.
Except for Balochistan, said the report, all provincial governments dragged their feet in fulfilling the legal and administrative requirements to hold local government elections while the new system in Gilgit-Baltistan failed to offer a sense of empowerment to the local population.
Freedom of assembly
Fourteen persons were killed and several hundred injured when clashes erupted between the police and Pakistan Awami Thereek (PAT) workers on June 16. The PAT rallies were held to demand the removal of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and revamping of the political system of the country.
The PAT rallies started on August 14 to protest against alleged rigging in 64 constituencies in the 2013 election held in May and ended on December 16 after an attack on a school in Peshawar.
Meanwhile, thousands of people, predominantly women and children, took to the streets in Panjgur, Balochistan, to protest against the closure of private schools due to threats by militants.
Freedom of association
According to HRCP’s own monitoring of 48 volatile districts in Pakistan, journalists and human rights defenders suffered 19 attacks in the year 2014.
Its coordinator for South Punjab and human rights activist Rashid Rehman was shot dead on May 7 in Multan for defending a blasphemy accused.
According to the National Internal Security Policy, a document published by the government, about 60 banned organisations were operating in Pakistan.
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