ISLAMABAD: Representatives of the Ministry of Human Rights on Monday informed a parliamentary committee that the Ministry of Interior and other departments were not cooperating with them on the collection of information to prepare a report related to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The representatives of the Ministry of Human Rights, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chairman National Commission on Human Rights briefed the committee on the current status of Pakistan’s initial report on the implementation of the ICCPR.

Director General Ministry of Human Rights Mohammad Hassan Mangi told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights during a meeting with Babar Nawaz in the chair that the ministry had been facing problems in getting information from the Ministry of Interior and the KP government in preparing the report on the review of Pakistan’s initial report on the implementation of the ICCPR.

Ministry representatives say no response to questions may delay submission of report on International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

He said the response from the governments of Balochistan and Sindh was also slow. “Civil and political rights are being dealt by the Ministry of Interior but their response is not satisfactory. We forwarded a bill related to torture to the ministry in 2013 but so far have received no response,” Mr Mangi said.

He added that Pakistan’s initial report on ICCPR was submitted to the UN Committee in October 2015. “In this regard, the committee had shared a list of issues related to ICCPR report for response from the government of Pakistan,” he said, adding a matrix indicating the relevant ministries, divisions, departments, against each issues, was developed and communicated to all the relevant ministries and divisions at the federal and provincial levels, seeking their input by December 31, 2016.

He said the deadline given by the Pakistan mission in Geneva to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for submission of the response was February 20, 2017.

“The response to most of the issues such as death plenty, torture, counter-terrorism measures, Protection of Pakistan Act, establishment of military courts, enforced disappearances etc., raised by the UN committee is awaited from the Ministry of Interior,” he said.

Because of no response from the ministries/departments, the report is going to be delayed.

The committee members, especially MNA Munaza Hassan, expressed their displeasure over the non-serious attitude and non-cooperation between the ministries.

The committee directed that all the concerned should respond properly, so that the report could be submitted within the given time.

The committee also recommended that before signing any international treaty on human rights, the government should take on board human rights committees of both the Senate and National Assembly.

The chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights, retired Justice Ali Nawaz Chohan, informed the meeting that his commission had been facing a shortage of manpower.

The committee could not properly discuss its agenda item of the Quetta carnage and steps taken to avoid such incidents by the government of Balochistan. The committee had invited representative from the government of Balochistan for a briefing. However, no relevant official turned up. The committee showed its displeasure and decided to summon the chief secretary, home secretary and the health secretary Balochistan to the next meeting.

The chairman NCHR briefed the committee about the commission’s report on Quetta carnage, stating that it was a failure of intelligence agencies. The committee members, particularly MNAs Aliya Kamran, Zahra Wadood Fatemi and Surriya Asghar, expressed dissatisfaction over what they termed a brief report on such a big terrorism issue. The committee directed the NCHR head to submit a comprehensive report with recommendations in the next meeting.

Published in Dawn January 24th, 2017