Senate panel alarmed at bill on public executions

Standing Committee on HR urges accountability of Punjab govt over Jaranwala incident

ISLAMABAD:

The Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights on Friday took exception to a bill passed by the Standing Committee on Interior regarding public executions, saying that the legislation was green-lighted without appreciating the seriousness of the matter from a human rights perspective.

The committee met with its Chairman Walid Iqbal in the chair. He told the committee that in the last few days, he had been flooded with written and verbal communications, regarding the bill, which had been approved by the Senate Standing Committee on Interior.

Iqbal claimed that the interior committee approved the private member’s bill that called for public execution of certain capital offenses, without proper deliberation. He announced that his committee would examine the bill its next meeting.

“Though one standing committee cannot interfere in the legislative business referred to another committee, the Standing Committee on Human Rights will be taking up and thoroughly examining in its next meeting, with proper expert advice, the subject of public executions,” he said.

During the meeting, National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) Chairperson Rabiya Javeri Agha informed the committee that a total of 179 people were currently under trial on blasphemy charges and being held in jails across the country.

She added that 17 convicts were serving jail sentences in this regard, including 11 from Islamabad, four from Sindh and two from Balochistan. She said that Senator Sherry Rehman had presented a bill on the blasphemy laws, 10 to 12 years ago, but the proposed legislation had yet to be enacted.

In 2010, Rehman, the then information minister, had sought an end to death penalty under the existing blasphemy laws through a private member’s bill. According to the bill, the blasphemy laws, in their present form, had become a source of victimisation and persecution of the minorities in the country.

The bill sought to amend both the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the two main sources of criminal law, with a view to ensure protection of Pakistan’s minorities and vulnerable citizens.

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The committee was thus unanimous that Senator Rehman should be asked to attend an upcoming committee meeting as a special invitee to share her input and experience in relation to the current matter, along with suggesting an effective way forward.

The Senate committee also took up the matter of the attacks and acts of vandalism at churches and homes in Jaranwala, in Faisalabad district, on August 16, 2023, as well as the steps taken so far for their rehabilitation of the affected community members.

Faisalabad City Police Officer Capt (retd) Ali Zia told the committee that the incident on August 16 resulted from the deliberate placement of blasphemous materials near the home of a particular person for reason of personal enmity.

Describing the incident as a classic case of misuse of the blasphemy laws to settle personal scores, Zia informed the committee that purpose of the culprits was that the person concerned would be wrongfully prosecuted or fallen victim to vigilante justice.

Zia also said that the ensuing violent mob action resulted in damage to more than 20 churches and almost 90 houses of the Christian community. “Although loss of life was prevent with a hastily planned evacuation process employed by the district administration and the police.”

Responding to a query, the CPO said that the police arrived approximately three hours after the incident. The committee held the view that a timely police response in proper numbers could have prevented the loss of property as well, but the Punjab government seemed indifferent.

The Faisalabad CPO told the committee that around 57 ‘Meesaq’ centres had been established across all districts of Punjab to protect minority rights, promote interfaith harmony among various religions, and to prevent any repeat of such incidents in future.

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Moreover, he added, the police were working with the local chamber of commerce to find suitable jobs for Christians and had successfully secured a one-month fee exemption for the Christian children in the affected area, in private schools.

The minority member of the NCHR said that Jaranwala was the 11th major incident since 1997, involving persecution of the Christian community, but only now the standard operating procedures (SOPs) were being formulated by police and district administrations for the prevention of these incidents.

The committee lamented that the Punjab government had still not been able to hold anyone accountable for lapses or negligence in preventing the loss of property. It recommended that a joint investigation team should be formed to take the government of Punjab to task.

Domestic violence

The committee also took up the motion moved by Senator Prof Dr Mehr Taj Roghani, about the rising trend of domestic violence in the country, with particular reference to the case of a minor girl, Rizwana, in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

Roghani applauded the National Commission for Rights of the Child (NCRC), as well as law-enforcement agencies for their effective response to the incident. Roghani underscored the dire need for legislation to criminalise the domestic child labour in the country.

NCRC Chairperson Ayesha Raza Farooq apprised the committee that hazardous child labour had already been criminalised in the ICT, but “our provinces have failed to legislate effectively towards the prevention of child labour”.

The committee was of the view that the Article 25A of the Constitution should also be implemented in letter and spirit for preventing the domestic child labour. The Article 25A makes it obligatory for every citizen to acquire the necessary education.

Senator Dr Humayun Mohmand pointed out that the current economic conditions made it difficult for many parents to feed their children, let alone educating them. Farooq said that the NCRC was working for an effective legislation and a bill on child labour would be tabled in the Senate soon.

The committee unanimously passed a resolution condemning Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment and killing of innocent Palestinians, along with the deprivation of their basic human rights. It called upon the international community and the United Nations to put an end to Israeli aggression.