NCHR all set to launch strategic plan for next 3 years

Islamabad

Though limited to only one room office at this stage without required funds and resources, the team at National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) has started working around its mandate and is all set to launch its strategic plan for next three years within this month.

“The work is tremendous and the mandate is huge raging from hearing and investigation of human rights violations to review of policies, monitoring of the implementation of international commitments, research and awareness raising,” said Chairman Justice (r) Ali Nawaz Chowhan in an interview with ‘The News’.

The Commission members and staff have not received their salaries since the inception of NCHR in May 2015 and there is only one director level post filled by the government to look after the affairs of the commission. The actual number of staff members demanded by the Commission is 180.

“I agree that a lot of time is wasted but we are now hopeful as the Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights Zahid Hamid is pursuing the case of NCHR very seriously. The issue has been taken up by Senator Farhat Ullah Babur in the Senate and would be discussed in the Law and Justice Standing Committee in the next session. We hope that financial issues will be settled down in another month,” said the chairperson.

As the Commission is in its infancy stage, the chairperson is in the process of making rules and regulations for transparent and efficient functioning of the Commission in future. “The aim is to put foundation of a strong Commission for the protection and promotion human rights in the country.”

Interestingly, after suffering the bureaucratic hurdles, the Commission has decided to research on the factors that brought lethargy in the bureaucratic system. “The salaries along with the working conditions have improved with time but unfortunately the fervour to work hard has mellowed down. We would like to explore the reasons behind this lethargy in one of our initial researches,” he said.

He said that there are many issues on the priority list of the Commission. “We have all required mechanisms and institutions to address human right issues but these institutions fail to serve the purpose. There are negative forces in every institution that are not sensitive to human rights. The commission will identify all these forces and would push for overall change in the culture of courts, public offices, police stations and all such departments that deal with human rights.”

He was of the view that no file should be kept in any government office for more than two days. He also stressed for public hour in all ministries and called for fair distribution of staff. “There are offices which are over staffed whereas there are offices which lack basic staff.”

Besides that, he said that the Commission has immediate human right issues to deal with such as child abuse, child labour, torture, violence, protection of environment, women empowerment and discrimination on the basis of gender, class, religion, sects etc. “The Commission will work for the legislation on protection of human rights and for the approval of pending laws. I believe that the Parliament is the supreme body and if they make progressive laws, we can change the culture.”

Chowhan said that another priority of the Commission would be to review the curriculum of both schools and madrassas and push for similar curriculum in all educational institutions. For creating awareness on human rights, Ali Nawaz Chowhan said that the Commission plans to work with the Higher Education Commission. “Pakistan has one of the highest numbers of young population. To bring sustainable change in the mindset, there is a need to generate discussion among the young people,” said the Chairperson.

He said that only NCHR has the mandate to deal with complaints. “The Commission has developed rules for complaint mechanism and is in negotiations with donors to establish the system. After the system is developed, the victims would be able to submit application through snail mail, fax, internet etc. The regional teams will be trained to receive applications in their respective areas and the centre will be attached with the region for prompt response.”

He said that people are free to send formal complaints but these need to be verified. “According to rules, the complaint shall be supported by an affidavit about truthfulness of the complaint and must be about violation of human rights and negligence by a public servant in the prevention of that violation and must be made to the Commission within three months from the date the cause of action arose.”

Chowhan said currently the Commission is conducting hearing of seven cases relating to Minnah stampede, efforts of Ministry of Religious Affairs in bringing religious harmony in the country, child sexual abuse case in Qasur, teachers working on daily wages, disappearance, environment and Drug Regulation Authority.

Talking about the progress in Qasur child abuse case, he said that the provincial government has responded to the queries and recommendation of the Commission. “We recommended them to form Joint Action Committee (JAC) and appoint prosecutors that are child rights sensitive. Now JAC has confirmed that the abuses happened and 18 to 21 suspects identified by the Committee are in police custody.” He said that the Commission will soon send a two-member delegation to Thaar for the investigation of the death of children due to starvation.

About Mina stampede case, he said that hearings are in the process and in the next hearing, the Ministry of Religious Affairs has been asked to inform the Commission about their contracts with the Saudi Government and the implementation of these contracts. They would also be asked about their basic responsibility of bringing religious harmony in the country and issues relating to Hajj rates and process of selecting Khuam-ul-Hajj.”

While talking about the development in the case of daily wages teachers, he said the Rs140 million has been released for the salaries of teachers and the case of regularization these teachers is has been forwarded to the committee.

He said that human rights are a cross cutting agenda and even the foreign policy has human rights dimension. “We have ratified 27 conventions. The NCHR has the responsibility to review state reports on these conventions besides submitting the shadow reports.” Till now, he said that the commission has received two reports for review including Pakistan’s initial report on International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Pakistan’s initial report on International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. “We have identified certain gaps and have informed Ministry of Human Rights about our observations,” he said.