PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi said on Thursday that the provincial government is fully devoted to formulation of laws to protect human rights and ensure good governance in the province.

He was speaking as chief guest at a seminar titled “awareness of human rights”, organised by the newly-established Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Directorate of Human Rights in collaboration with Tribal NGOs Consortium, Blue Veins, and Peace and Justice Institute here at a hotel on Thursday.

The minister said that the establishment of the directorate of human rights in the province was a major achievement of the PTI-led government as the directorate was an autonomous body and it would ensure basic human rights, including rights of minorities, across the province.

“Other provinces have merely set up human rights cells, but we have succeeded in establishing a proper directorate to protect and promote human rights in all districts of the province,” he said, adding that it would be a role model for other provinces to set up such institutions.

KP Directorate of Human Rights holds seminar

Mr Qureshi said that initially awareness campaigns would be arranged in 14 districts to highlight various functions and regulations of the directorate.

After hearing arguments and suggestions for improvements from the participants, he said that legal modifications could be made in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Promotion, Protection and Enforcement of Human Rights Act 2014 to make it more effective in terms of implementation.

Speaking on the occasion, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa human rights director Noor Zaman Khattak said that in 2013 only 48 complaints concerning human rights violation were registered, but the number of such complaints increased to 500 in 2015. He claimed that 14 or 15 complaints of serious nature had been pending to be redressed while other complaints were disposed of during last 11 months.

He said that minorities and transgender community were being given priority to ensure their basic and citizen rights.

All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement chairman Haroon Sarab Diyal lauded the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for establishing the directorate and demanded modification in its Act to get rid of sectarianism and terrorism.

Additional secretary of law department Daud Khan said that the law had been formulated in the light of international laws on human rights. Rafique Ali from Democracy Reporting International said that the European Union could withdraw GSP-plus status to Pakistan if human rights were not fully protected in the country. Qamar Nasim, Robina Khattak and Bashir Ahmed also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2016