HRCP pays tribute to Asma Jahangir

Lahore:At a reference held at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Thursday, rights activists gathered to pay tribute to HRCP’s co-founder and iconic human rights defender, Asma Jahangir.

Veteran journalist and former Secretary-General I.A. Rehman said that Asma Jahangir ‘defined courage.’ She did not shy away from the possible consequences of a principled action or stance, he added. When sections of civil society termed Gen Pervez Musharraf’s seemingly liberal military regime, a ‘window of opportunity’ for human rights in 1999, recalled I.A. Rehman, Asma Jahangir was quick to retort, ‘But there is no need to take a flying leap straight through that window.’

Labour rights activist Farooq Tariq recalled that Asma Jahangir was always ready to take part in demonstrations for workers’ rights at short notice and had played an instrumental role in helping mobilise the Anjuman-e-Mazareen Punjab in Okara. Civil society activist M Tahseen said that it was important to take Asma Jahangir’s vision forward rather than dwell on her loss. Lawyer Alia Malik, who worked with Asma Jahangir for over 25 years at the AGHS Legal Aid Cell, said that she had always encouraged her younger associates to remain persistent: if the courts refused to listen to them, Asma Jahangir would say, then they should return with stronger evidence and ask on what basis the courts had refused to listen. Former Chairperson Dr Mehdi Hasan recalled that when a young Christian, an accused of blasphemy, was shot dead outside the Lahore High Court, his last words had been: ‘Tell Asma Jahangir what has happened.’