This Monday (30 January 2023), the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review of Pakistan’s human rights record will take place in Geneva. This article is a timely reminder to the UN body to hold this rogue state accountable for the worst human rights violations against women, and religious and ethnic minorities. It will also expose the false claims made by this rights abuser state in its submissions to Human Rights Council.
Rampant violations of the rights of religious and other minorities are reported from Islamic countries on a daily basis. In this context, Pakistan is a living hell for women, and religious and ethnic minorities. In this context, regarding its submissions to the UN body, Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch rightly points out that, “Pakistan’s submission to the UN about its human rights record is filled with lies”.
Some of the false claims made by Pakistan in its submissions to the UN body are being exposed here.
On Protection for Minorities
Pakistan’s Claim: “In order to protect minorities and promote their public participation, the Government has taken several legislative, policy and administrative measures”.
Reality: Minorities constituting around four per cent of Pakistan’s population are subjected to the worst rights violations by both state and non-state actors. The 2017 census data shows that Muslims have become 96.47% of the total population and on the other hand, religious minorities have shrunk. Hindus, for example, are at their all-time low at 1.73% of the population. Religious minorities are not treated as equal citizens and this fact is even boasted by the constitutional heads of the country. For example, Khawaja Nazimuddin, the 2nd Prime Minister of Pakistan, had said, “I do not agree that religion is a private affair of the individual nor do I agree that in an Islamic State, every citizen has identical rights, no matter what his caste, creed or faith be”.
In Pakistan, there lies religious merit in converting non-Muslims to Islam and the whole state machinery is found complicit in such activities against minorities. According to their own human rights commission report, around one thousand young Hindus and Christians are forced to convert to Islam every year. Atrocities on Hindu minorities, particularly on Scheduled Caste Hindus and women are worse.
In recent times, according to many media reports, religious minorities have come under severe violent attacks from fundamentalists and other state and non-state actors. Recently, an increased instance of killings, abduction attempts and forced conversion of Hindus and Sikh girls summarize the constant fear under which non-Muslims, particularly Hindus and Sikhs are forced to live in Pakistan. Sindhi Women are the worst victims of this cycle of violence directed at minority women.
In a country infested with Sunni Islamic radicalization, there is no security for even ethnic and linguistic minorities. Punjab-dominated military-politician complex violates the human rights of Balochs, Hazaras, Sindhis, Ahmadis and people of Gilgit-Baltistan. Violent attacks on their social gatherings or religious places by Sunni extremist groups and people are very common. Shias, Ahmadi Muslims, Christians, and Hazaras are particular targets of these attacks. In 1974 Ahmadis were officially denied even the legal right to be considered Muslims.
The Gojra riots were particularly harrowing in which several Christians, including women, were killed. Baluchistan’s independence movement is violently suppressed by the Punjabi-dominated military here. Forceful abductions, rape, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings of detainees by the military are frequent in the case of the Baloch and Pashtun minorities. Though Pakistan adheres to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is a signatory to several international human rights treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). However, these ethnic and linguistic minorities along with religious minorities remain disenfranchised in society and are not fully included in the political life of the country.
On Violence against Women and Children
Pakistan’s Claim: “In addition to policy measures, Pakistan has also enacted various legislations to address VAW including harassment, deprivation from an inheritance, domestic violence, acid throwing, and rape”.
Reality: Though Pakistan is a signatory to the Convention on the elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) yet crime against women continues unabated. UN Women clearly points out that laws for the protection of women are poorly implemented and stated that Women belonging to religious and ethnic minorities face double marginalization. Similarly, In March 2020, the UN Committee on Elimination of Violence Against Women expressed concern about “the high prevalence of gender-based violence against women and the social acceptance of domestic violence, underreporting of gender-based violence against women and impunity for perpetrators.”
Also, UN experts have pointed out the rampant violations of Children’s rights. Regarding child brides, they point out, “We are deeply troubled to hear that girls as young as 13 are being kidnapped from their families, trafficked to locations far from their homes, made to marry men sometimes twice their age, and coerced to convert to Islam, all in violation of international human rights law”. Pakistan courts influenced by Sunni radicalization have been accused of enabling Child marriages.
On Blasphemy Laws
Pakistan’s Claim: “The Government of Pakistan is committed to curb the misuse of blasphemy laws”.
Reality: Since 1990, scores of Pakistanis particularly those hailing from religious and linguistic minorities in Pakistan have been killed over claims of blasphemy. Even Muslims who speak against these inhuman laws are killed. The Minorities’ Minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, was assassinated in 2011 for speaking against the blasphemy laws. Also, Asia Bibi languished in jail for many years. After calling the blasphemy law a ‘black’ law, Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, was shot dead by Mumtaz Qadri, his bodyguard, in 2011. As recently as in 2020, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called out this draconian law and stated, “Religious minorities in Pakistan continue to face violence and repeated attacks on their religious places of worship and government’s failure to amend the blasphemy law led to violence against them”.
According to a Pakistani NGO named the Center for Social Justice, in the year 2021 alone, at least 84 people were accused of blasphemy in Pakistan and three people were extra-judicially killed. Pakistan courts aggravate the situation by harshly punishing the accused persons. For instance, at the start of 2022, a Pakistani court sentenced a woman to death for sharing images on WhatsApp that were considered insulting to the Prophet Muhammad. Thus Blasphemy laws perpetuate dehumanizing discrimination against minorities. They live under a constant threat of Islamic vigilantism.
On Enforced Disappearances
Pakistan Claim: “The alleged cases of missing persons are being expeditiously and efficiently dealt by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances”.
Reality: This claim was contradicted by their own Islamabad High Court in June 2022. Chief Justice Athar Minallah commented that the Commission had failed to fulfil its responsibility and called the Commission “a burden” which must “justify its continued existence.” The Court also lambasted the government for its involvement in disappearances, stating “you are proving that [forcibly] disappearing people has been the policy of the State since the days of General Musharraf…” However, the Pakistan army is the main culprit in these forced disappearances and its role in these crimes gets ignored by the courts.
On Democracy, Constitution and Legal Architecture
Pakistan’s Claim: “As a vibrant democracy, Pakistan will continue to uphold fundamental freedoms including meeting people’s needs and providing an enabling environment for the continued exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association”.
Reality: According to Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui, “Pakistan’s purported democracy is “a facade” and in reality, Pakistan is a hybrid regime where the military controls the government behind the scenes”.
Constitutionally, Pakistan being an Islamic state, its present constitution has many repugnancy clauses which discriminate against religious minorities. For example, sections 298-B and 298-C of the Pakistan Penal Code restrict religious groups from freely practising their faith and Clauses 295-B and 295-C on blasphemy can endanger the very life of the accused individual.
Legally also, Pakistan State discriminates against religious minorities in many ways. Take the example of the “Hindu Marriage Act, 2017” for the constitutional recognition of Hindu Marriages. However, a major loophole in it is used in the forceful conversion of Hindu women. It is section 12 (iii) which stipulates “…the marriage may be terminated on the basis of either the husband or the wife converting to some other religion”. This section annulled any imaginary protection provided to women. Abduct a married woman, force her to convert, force her to say it is voluntary and her marriage is annulled. Similarly, Ahmadis live in constant fear of harassment or assault either to themselves or their homes, workplaces and places of worship. For instance, under Section 298-B of the Pakistan Penal Code, Ahmadis are prevented from using any Islamic epithets that might result in them being mistaken as Muslims. In addition to this, Section 298-B (2) criminalises the use of the word “Azan” for the call to prayers by Ahmadis.
Thus, every basic norm of human rights is being grossly violated in Pakistan by legal institutions, society and non-state actors. Hence, it’s a mandate for the international community concerned with the protection of human rights to take necessary measures and impose severe legal and financial costs on Pakistan. This is high time that the UN Human Rights Council in its upcoming Universal Periodic Review of Pakistan’s human rights record takes Pakistan state to task for the worst crimes against humanity.
