April 10, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1429

LAHORE, April 9: No words are strong enough to condemn an attack on Arbab Ghulam Rahim in Karachi and another on Dr Sher Afgan Niazi in Lahore, says the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

Pakistan People’s Party activists beat up former Sindh chief minister Rahim in the provincial assembly on Monday and ‘lawyers’ attacked former federal minister Niazi in Lahore on Tuesday.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, HRCP said both incidents would cause the people distress, shame and anger for years to come. The victims' record may not be such as to make any defenders of justice and democracy envious and their warped view of human rights is known, but every human rights activist will defend their right to disagree and their right to personal safety and dignity.

The rights group called for thorough investigations into both incidents and action against those responsible for this violence and those who failed in their duty to quell disorder. It said both incidents revealed the extent to which long periods of dictatorship had brutalised the Pakistani society and how professional gangsters of old days had been joined in criminal acts by educated professionals.

The Karachi incident invited indictment of political workers and the Lahore incident stigmatised lawyers. One should still hope that both these groups realise their stake in fostering democracy and justice. As neither of the two incidents appeared to be a fortuitous affair, there is ground to suspect that the traditional enemies of democracy might be up to their nefarious tricks.

But that only increases the responsibility of political activists and lawyers to avoid being trapped or exploited. It is good that bar leaders have condemned Tuesday's disgraceful episode but the bar council must also hold an independent inquiry. The lawyers have to save their movement from coming to grief as a result of the excesses or weaknesses of a few of them. The situation does not allow the luxury of evading responsibility.

“Not surprisingly the diehard enemies of democracy have raised a chorus of vilification against the yet-to-be-installed governments and some of them want to divert attention from the blood of innocents on their hands by abusing human rights activists.