ISLAMABAD: Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights argued on Tuesday that the parliamentary panel should concentrate on human rights violations in the country instead of criticising the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR).

The NCHR has been criticised during a number of standing committee meetings chaired by MNA Babar Nawaz Khan.

In September last year, Mr Khan even directed NCHR Chairman retired Justice Ali Nawaz Chohan to leave the committee meeting.

The matter was resolved after National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq intervened and Mr Khan apologised.

However, Mr Khan has continued to criticise the commission, and raised issues such as the excessive use of vehicles, employees’ appointments and the cost of air conditioners.

It was also claimed at committee meetings that the commission was under the administrative control of the Ministry of Human Rights and could not make decisions on its own; a notification that was challenged by civil society in court.

Members of the standing committee have also accused members of the commission for embarrassing the country and parliamentarians by expressing views against state policy.

The commission came up again during Tuesday’s meeting, which was chaired by MNA Zahra Wadood Fatemi because Mr Khan was out of the country.

MNA Munaza Hassan first asked Human Rights Secretary Rabiya Javeri Agha whether the NCHR was independent. Ms Agha said the commission was completely independent, as the ministry is the administrator of the act rather than the NCHR.

Ms Hassan then asked: “Then why do we discuss the NCHR at every meeting? We should move on from the NCHR and its small issues, and discuss other human rights issues which are taking place in the country.

“We also need to make public the standing committee’s performance report, to see if we have finished any agenda item.”

MNA Kishwer Zehra added that the committee was wasting its time holding meetings on the NCHR, to which MNA Sajid Nawaz agreed and said there were many important issues that were neglected by the committee.

NCHR Secretary Mashood Ahmed Mirza also briefed the standing committee on its efforts to address human rights issues.

He said: “Not only have we visited a number of jails across the country, we have also published a number of reports, such as on issues of children, prisoners, transgender, Fata etc.”

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2017