KARACHI: Representatives of civil society, including human rights activists, on Friday asked the government to withdraw the notification about bringing the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) under the control of the federal ministry of human rights.

“The NCHR was supposed to operate as an independent entity to begin with,” said Karamat Ali, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (Piler), while addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Friday.

“The notification is in violation of the NCHR Act 2012 when it was decided that Pakistan should have independent commissions for monitoring the government’s way of addressing human rights issues while also offering its own recommendations,” he added.

Activists want notification putting human rights body under federal ministry withdrawn

Giving some background of the matter it was explained that the action was prompted due to MNA Zahra Wadood Fatmi’s filing a complaint against NCHR member Chaudhry Mohammed Shafique with the office of the National Assembly Speaker stating that she had been ‘embarrassed’ by Mr Shafique who interrupted and contradicted her while she was discussing terrorism and Afghanistan-related issues during a trip to the United States in March.

“With a mandate to investigate injustices, monitor the situation of human rights in the country and ensure compliance with Pakistan’s international rights obligations, the NCHR has been doing good work. [Its] members have visited Thar where children were dying to look into the real problems there before giving their recommendations to the government. They have prepared other reports, too, such as the one after the horrific Gadani incident in which many workers lost their lives due to lack of safety precautions and poor working conditions. They may be proving to be a thorn in the government’s side and the notification is a way of harnessing them,” Karamat Ali said.

“But the government [must] understand that it needs to give it more freedom to do its work of fact finding. It is for the benefit of the country after all,” he said, adding that civil society in Pakistan had long demanded the formation of such a body and when it was finally established in May 2015, they appreciated the government’s initiative.

“We also welcomed the selection of retired Justice Ali Nawaz Chohan, a renowned jurist of international repute as the first chairman of the commission, and human rights campaigners of high repute from all four provinces, Islamabad, Federally Adminis­tered Tribal Areas and minorities as its members through a joint parliamentary committee,” he said while mentioning other incidences of direct interference by the government, including the ‘insulting’ of the commission chairman and its members last year by Chairman of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Rights Babar Nawaz, who belongs to the ruling PML-N.

“We urge Speaker of National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq and Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani to take notice of such [incidents] and protect the functioning of the commission according to the relevant law.

They are the custodians of these houses. They should keep them in order. We also ask the prime minister of Pakistan to intervene and order immediate withdrawal of the notification of giving the commission under the control of the ministry of human rights,” Karamat Ali said, adding that the uncalled for confrontation among government institutions would serve no purpose.

“The parliament is where laws are made. The NCHR also came about as a result of a law passed in parliament. Don’t break your own rules, don’t ruin the sovereignty of parliament. Kindly don’t play with your own Constitution,” said senior trade union leader Liaquat Sahi, also present at the press conference.

Vice chairman of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Asad Iqbal Butt, also present, said that among the issues raised by the NCHR was the one about missing persons.

Convener of the Sindh Labour Solidarity Committee Habibuddin Junaidi and Naghma Shaikh of Democracy Reporting Inter­national also addressed the media.

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2017