ISLAMABAD: The creation of the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) has been delayed again because of hitches in the process for selection of its chairperson and members.

The parliamentary committee on appointment of chairperson and members of the NCHR was scheduled to meet on Monday to interview the candidates for the posts but the meeting was cancelled by the committee’s chairman, Senator Muzaffar Hussain Shah, because of some procedural matters.

The committee had invited the candidates to personally appear before it during the two-day meeting.

Talking to Dawn on Sunday, Muzaffar Shah said he had to postpone the meeting because one of the candidates for the post of NCHR’s chairperson had expressed his inability to appear before the committee due to his foreign assignment.

Another reason was that he had been informed that the human rights division had sent a letter to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat suggesting that another advertisement be published inviting applications for posts of NCHR members from Balochistan and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

Parliamentary committee faces problems in the selection of chairperson, members

After consultations with Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khurshid Ahmed Shah, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had sent the names of retired Justices Ali Nawaz Chowhan and Mehta Kelashnath Kohli and a woman activist from civil society, Rehana Bibi Khilji, to the parliamentary committee and asked it to select any one of them for the post of NCHR chairperson.

The committee also received a list of the candidates to be appointed as members of the commission — one each from the four provinces and Islamabad, Fata and minorities community.

At its last meeting in July, the committee had to defer consideration of the names sent by the government because the list contained no names from Islamabad, Fata and Balochistan.

Muzaffar Shah said Justice Nawaz Chowhan had gone to an African country for some official work and informed the committee that he would not be able to attend the meeting on such a short notice.

He said the committee decided to interview the candidates because the government had only submitted their curriculum vitae (CVs) containing “very little information” about them and their background.

He said the NCHR would be a very powerful body with vast powers of holding investigations and trials and, therefore, the committee wanted to appoint the most competent persons.

The law seeking creation of a state-funded but independent NCHR was passed by parliament on May 4, 2012, after remaining under discussion at the committee-level for almost three years.

The bill was tabled in the National Assembly by then human rights minister Mumtaz Alam Gilani in December 2008, two months after its approval by the federal cabinet.

The National Assembly’s standing committee on human rights took another two years to approve the draft of the bill with major amendments made in August 2011.

The law empowers the federal government to appoint the NCHR members under a procedure involving a public notice inviting suggestions, consultations between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition in National Assembly, and approval by a parliamentary committee before a presidential confirmation.

The NCHR will comprise a chairperson who has been or is qualified to be a judge of the Supreme Court or possesses knowledge of matters relating to human rights; one member from each province, Fata and Islamabad with knowledge of matters relating to human rights; the chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Women; one member from minorities and a secretary.

Its functions will include inquiring into human rights violations or abetment at its own initiative or on a complaint, intervening in court proceedings on allegations of violation by seeking to become a party in the case, visiting jails or other places of detention, reviewing factors that inhibit enjoying human rights, spreading human rights awareness, submitting independent reports to the government on the state of human rights in the country and developing a national plan of action for promotion and protection of human rights.

After the establishment of the NCHR, every citizen will have the right to register a complaint in case of human rights violations against any individual or institution. The commission, while inquiring complaints, will have all powers of a civil court and will be able to summon any individual, public or private department.

The proposed commission will also have the powers to take suo motu notice of any incident and may seek assistance of any agency and organisation.

Published in Dawn, September 29th , 2014