Critics of the HRCP allege that the organisation is relentlessly anti-military, with some even going so far as to call it unpatriotic.
Critics of the HRCP allege that the organisation is relentlessly anti-military, with some even going so far as to call it unpatriotic. This charge, as anyone who reads the report will find out, is hogwash, Yes, the HRCP catalogues what it sees as the many abuses carried out by the military but it is undeniably, an equal critic of serial human rights violators. In this report alone, it is critical of the Taliban for their unending war on the country, doesn’t spare the political parties for the violence in Karachi and is equally harsh on the US for its drone campaign in the tribal areas.
The HRCP report is necessary reading for those who are in denial about the state of the country today. In the endless debate over whether Pakistan is a failed state, there is one point that is never made. We may or may not be a failed state but this is a state that has failed its citizens. Were it not for organisations like the HRCP,
the suffering of our fellow countrymen may never have been heard.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 8th, 2013.
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100, 1000 Shia Hazaras were killed in Balochistan. It needs to be corrected. Thank you
I agree things are not that rosy, but we should not exaggerate. For example, the report includes the status of journalists in Pakistan. I think journalists are freer here than in many other parts of the world. According to Economist, Turkey is now the world’s leading jailer of journalists. Estimates vary, but at least 49 are behind bars. The World Press Freedom Index 2013, recently published by Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based lobby group, ranked Turkey 154th among 179 countries, behind such places as Mali and Afghanistan. The biggest problem, however relates to one sided religious education in Pakistan, which encourages fanatics to attack and even kill those who think differently. Freedom means pointing out the faults of the system, but freedom ends when it reaches lack of respect for other views. Religion should be kept out of our political lives. If I am scared to express for rights for women, minorities and liberal Muslims, I will refrain from expressing such views. Those who kill because you think differently and do not follow the teachings of any faith, should be sidelined and if any party shows sympathy with such people, t should be banned to participate in any elections.