ISLAMABAD: A functional committee of the Senate on Thursday expressed resentment over the delay in the creation of the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR).

The chairman of the committee on human rights, Afrasiab Khattak, during a meeting expressed dismay over the slow progress on the selection of the chairperson and members of the NCHR which is being set up in the country for the first time under a law passed by the parliament in 2012.

The meeting was convened to discuss the recent murders of Sikhs in Peshawar and Shabqadar, and the difficulties being faced by the common people in receiving national identity cards, particularly in Punjab.

The committee members also expressed concern over the increase in the number of attacks on people belonging to minority communities and their places of worship, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Nominees from ICT, Fata, Balochistan yet to be finalised

The issue of the NCHR came up when a law ministry official informed the committee that the commission had not yet been constituted because the nominees for its members from Islamabad, Fata and Balochistan had not yet been finalised.

Talking to Dawn after the meeting, Mr Khattak said the delay was a result of “the weakness and inefficiency” of the concerned government departments.

He said legislation had already been made and a lot of time wasted since.

“It is now imperative that this commission is made so that incidents of human rights violations may be reduced.”

Mr Khattak regretted that first the PML-N government abolished the human rights ministry and now was taking too much time in the creation of the NCHR. He said he had even written a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in this regard but did not receive a response.

Earlier, interviews for the positions had been cancelled on September 29 by Muzaffar Husain Shah, the chairman of the four-member Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of Chairperson and Members of the NCHR, due to some procedural issues. Mr Shah also explained the reasons for the cancellation to the committee.

The Senate committee directed the federal government to deploy more platoons of the Frontier Constabulary in the tribal areas and Peshawar to eliminate terrorist dens.

The committee also called for the removal of hate material from school curriculums to promote interfaith harmony in the country.

Senator Amarjeet during the meeting said it seemed that there was no government in KP to protect the minorities and their places of worship.

Senator Hemandas asked how the government in KP can provide protection to the people if the chief minister and his cabinet members were spending most of their time at the sit-ins in Islamabad.

DIG investigation Mohammad Ali told the committee that a number of terrorists involved in the killing of minorities had been traced.

Nadra Chairman Imtiaz Tajwar briefed the members about the process of issuing the CNICs.

He said Nadra had issued about 90 million CNICs and 20.5 million computerised child certificates so far.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2014