KARACHI: Pakistan is due for its second review by the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva on Oct 17-18, “as human rights violations and abuses remain rampant”, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

The review comes under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Pakistan is a state party, the rights organisation said in a statement, Dawn.com reported.

“Pakistan’s review comes at a crucial time for the country, as human rights violations and abuses remain rampant,” said Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia.

“Two blasphemy-related extrajudicial executions by the police, crackdown on protests, enactment of the restrictive Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act 2024, arbitrary detention and mass arrests of opposition workers and leaders, ban on the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), and harassment of human rights defenders like Mahrang Baloch — have all been reported in past month alone.

“The review presents an opportunity for the Pakistani government to take stock of the state of human rights in the country and implement concrete measures to address the human rights concerns raised during the review,” it said.

Amnesty had on Oct 8 called on the authorities to revoke the ban on the PTM, calling it “an affront on the rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly in the country”.

On Oct 10, the federal government agreed, in principle, to lift the ban, with some caveats.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2024