ISLAMABAD, Jan 28: Parliamentarians at a dialogue with the director Human Rights Watch, Asia Division, Brad Adams, agreed that the country lacked a true democratic culture that was the main factor behind human rights violations.

The dialogue on "State of human rights in Pakistan" was organized by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Wednesday. Pakistan People's Party Senator Farhatullah Babar said the people of Pakistan did not enjoy basic rights due to frequent military interventions in the country's chequered history.

About the human rights situation in the country, Senator Babar said women and minorities were the most disadvantaged groups due to the controversial Hudood Ordinances, 1979 promulgated by the late military dictator General Ziaul Haq.

Similarly, he said Gen Musharraf, who single-handedly re- wrote the constitution could have also done away with discriminatory laws such as the Hudood ordinances and the blasphemy laws but he did not do so because he soon felt the need to create his constituency among the religious parties.

About the present constitutional dispensation in Pakistan, he said the new constitution written at the GHQ had violated the basic rights of the country's genuine political leadership. For instance, he said, back-dated laws, and the laws which violated the human rights had been indemnified without parliamentary debate by the government. One such law, he said, was banishing the leaders of the most popular parties from electoral politics. The anti-terror law under which anyone could be held for one year without trial was another.

Yet another such law, he said, was the so-called accountability law that was specific to the political leadership and exempted the generals and the judges from prosecution for corruption. Through another such law the trade union activities in a number of state-run corporations were banned.

PML-Q senator and former information minister, Mushahid Hussain, in response to Mr Babar's remarks said the Legal Framework Order (LFO) was now a history and "let's talk about future".

"I don't go into details that how LFO became part of the constitution, but it has, with two-thirds majority in the parliament," he said. In response to a query of another participant, he said, neither military nor the civil governments took care of human rights violations in the past. He said the only way to resolve all these problems was a vibrant parliament and true democracy.

"It will only be possible if the political forces of the country jointly worked for the strengthening of democracy beyond their party lines," he argued. He also regretted that there had never been across the board accountability in the country's history, which was one of the factors responsible for better human rights conditions.

Mamoona Hashmi, daughter of the detained PML-N acting president Javed Hashmi, took a swipe at General Musharraf terming him one of the dictators in the country's history under whose tenure people had witnessed the worst form of human rights violations.

Dr Donya Aziz, a parliamentarian of the ruling coalition, defended the LFO saying that it had become part of the constitution after due discussions and the mandatory parliamentary approval.

Ms Kashmala Tariq, another MNA of the PML-Q, inquired about the Human Rights Watch's activities regarding Kashmir and in the recent deporting of Pakistanis from Canada.

In response to a number of questions put up by the parliamentarians, Mr Brad said he was feeling a lot more comfortable in Pakistan than in India. To a question, he said there remained a room in every country's constitution to make it people-friendly on a par with the international standards, therefore, "you (parliamentarians) can also review your constitution including the LFO".

About Kashmir, he said the role of the HRW for awareness about the ongoing atrocities had been more than any other such organization in the world. He was also asked to pay his special attention to the upcoming elections in India in the background of Muslims victimisation in Gujrat.