Sindh to legislate to compensate civilian victims of terror attacks, says Wahab

Immediately after the budget session, the Sindh government will introduce legislation to compensate the civilian victims of terrorist attacks and their families.

Barrister Murtaza Wahab, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation administrator and adviser to the Sindh chief minister on law, said this on Friday while addressing a conference jointly organised by the Sindh Human Rights Commission (SHRC), Sindh government and Aurat Foundation.

Wahab said the planned legislation would be titled Sindh Civilian Victims of Terrorism (Relief and Rehabilitation) Bill 2022 and it had been carefully drafted by the home and law departments.

He told the conference that the bill would soon be taken up by the provincial cabinet and later tabled in the Sindh Assembly immediately after the budget session. The law adviser said that another law to constitute a commission for minorities would also be tabled in the Sindh Assembly and the government was consulting with the SHRC and Aurat Foundation to improve its draft. He said the law against child marriages should be uniform across the provinces.

MoU signed

The SHRC and Aurat Foundation also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the implementation of a seven-month project titled ‘Strengthening the SHRC for CVE Oversight and Peacebuilding’.

The project seeks to improve the ability of the SHRC to conduct oversight on countering violent extremism (CVE) in the context of rights-based legal frameworks through sensitising the commission leadership and staff on the CVE laws, policies and issues through training, research, engaging stakeholders and policy dialogue.

The project aims at producing an official report for the SHRC with CVE-focused policy recommendations for government and elected officials. The conference was also held in connection with the project. The SHRC stated that violent extremism was among major security issues that jeopardised human life, peaceful co-existence, cohesion, law and order as well as economic development of any country.

It added that it routinely highlighted and dealt with cases pertaining to violent extremism and countering violent extremism in Sindh and strived to contribute toward the vision of a society free of violence and having an environment of peace, interfaith harmony and justice.

The commission stated that after a study, it identified pathways that linked the CVE laws and policies with human rights in Sindh in order to understand how it could best engage with laws and mechanisms for the protection and promotion of human rights in the province.

By looking at protective CVE laws, their violations and state responses, and examining the attacks against them, the study analysed how the CVE laws resulted in the protection of the human rights of marginalised groups in society. It also suggested measures necessary for the implementation of the CVE policies to create an environment of peace, interfaith harmony, and justice.