HYDERABAD: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Secretary General Haris Khaliq has said that the commission had prepared a major fact-finding report on forced conversion which had become part of apex court’s proceedings.

He said at a tea party hosted in his honour at local press club on Saturday that HRCP would mobilise liberated haris to struggle for their rights in Hyderabad in coming winter.

He said that Pakistan needed to adhere to three basic principles, which were; governance based on federal principles, provinces’ autonomy over their resources and decision-making, and equal rights for people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan to Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

He said that all political parties and federating units had agreed upon federalist structure of the Constitution and state. Those who believed in running the state through undemocratic means must understand that these core principles would benefit them and that survival of the state was directly linked with democracy and federalism, he said.

He said that currently there was crisis of political and citizens’ rights in Pakistan. Political, social and cultural rights continued to be violated and freedom of expression had been curtailed. His own literary column had been subjected to scrutiny, he said.

He said that HRCP continued its work but nowadays the commission’s activities and statements did not get the space they used to get until three to four years back. “We believe that it is part of the same undeclared press advices,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2019