MQM’s proposal: Senate panel to probe rights violations in Karachi

The committee will also look into the discovery of a mass grave in Khuzdar.

ISLAMABAD:

The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights will visit Karachi  to probe allegations of rights violations by security forces, in the ongoing operation in the city.

The decision came following a request made by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) lawmakers during the committee meeting on Monday, who alleged that law enforcing agencies were arresting MQM workers without a warrant and subjecting them to serious torture.

During the meeting, the panel recommended the Sindh government form a committee to oversee the Karachi operation to avoid any human rights violation. The panel will also look into the discovery of a mass grave in the Khuzdar district of Balochistan.

MQM Senator Nasreen Jalil insisted that the committee visit Karachi and meet families of the victims, who have lost their loved ones.

Commenting on the issue, Committee Chairman Senator Afrasiab Khattak said that the violation of human rights in the name of operation will not be acceptable at any cost. “Intelligence agencies and security forces have no right to torture any innocent citizen in the name of operation,” said Khattak.

Khattak further said that the panel would visit Karachi and investigate the situation in the city. However, he said that the Senate panel supports the operation against criminals in the metropolis.

Mass grave

During the meeting, Khattak constituted a three-member subcommittee comprising Senator Farhatullah Babar, Senator Surya Amiruddin and Senator Sehar Kamran that is expected to travel to Balochistan on a fact-finding mission to look into the issue of a mass grave discovered in Khuzdar last month.

Wading into the debate, Babar said, “We have to find out how many bodies there were of the missing persons and the responsible persons must be held accountable.”

Admonishing the provincial government for its failure to brief the committee on the issue, Khattak said, “Denial is not the solution and we have to get to the bottom. It is a humanitarian issue and we need to look into it.”

YouTube Issue

Discussing the ban on YouTube, the Senate panel observed that access to information was an inalienable right of citizens and they should not be deprived of this right.  “If you don’t like a book in a library, you had no right to abolish the whole library”, said the committee chairman.

Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) Chairman Dr Syed Ismail Shah informed the committee that the government was in touch with Google and the company had agreed to display a prior warning for all objectionable and blasphemous pages, identified by the government of Pakistan, uploaded on the site.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2014.