PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI: All political parties should be compelled to include a human rights chapter in their election manifestoes.
This was stated by former Senator Farhatullah Babar at the inaugural session of a two-day National Conference, 'Human Rights and Labour Rights: Towards an Enabling Environment for Compliance', organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler) in collaboration with the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) and Sindh Human Rights Commission (SHRC) on Tuesday.
Human rights and labour rights activists, politicians, trade union leaders, representatives of employers and civil society activists attended the conference from across the country.
Freedom of expression is the most important fundamental right, which is facing a challenge in Pakistan, he said, adding that the invisible actors are the main threat to the freedom of expression, which has paralised the democratic and governance system.
This threat should be faced with unity of the progressive forces, he added.
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He said the state is not persuading cases regarding crimes against women. There should be a national register for crimes against women and a special public prosecutor be appointed to take responsibility for ensuring provision of women's rights, he added.
Babar said due to lack of accountability, implementation of the laws is difficult to achieve.
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IA Rahman from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said labourer's right to fair trial, right to equal protection and equality are mentioned in the Constitution, but there are discrepancies in the laws.
In the existing laws, fair trial is impossible, he added.
Interment centres have been established under the Action in Aid of Civil Power Regulations, but there is no information about these centres working across the country.
Rahman said human rights must be honoured in Pakistan, for which he underlined the need for national unity.
Piler Executive Director Karamat Ali said labour rights have declined over the period. Our labour has fewer rights than the rights available at the time of independence, he said.
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He said workers had representation under the India Act before independence, but today there is no representation of workers in Parliament.
About 85% of the members in Parliament were landlords before the partition and the same percentage can be seen in today's Parliament, he said, adding that it was not a true representative body of the workers.
Dr Saba Gul Khattak from Open Society Foundation said fundamental freedoms are compromised in Pakistan. Now, the youth are demanding their constitutional rights with the help of social media, she said
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