HRCP report highlights rights, security crisis
According to the report, terrorism continues to take a heavy toll on civilians, law enforcement personnel, and security forces - a grim reflection of the deteriorating security landscape in the province.
At least 150 new cases of enforced disappearances were recorded over the past year, prompting repeated judicial interventions. Despite this, legislative progress remained sluggish, with only 30 bills tabled in the provincial assembly - 21 of which were passed. Judicial pressure also intensified, with more than 23,000 cases pending in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and over 38,000 cases overall, including many related to contempt of court involving political and police figures.
The HRCP report also drew attention to the growing trend of violence driven by "self-styled justice" and noted a disturbing surge in crimes against children, including the murder of several minors.
Regarding labor rights, the report documented serious violations, including the deaths of 26 miners due to hazardous working conditions and extremist attacks. Additionally, more than 30 laborers were abducted by militants.
Environmental concerns were also underscored in the report. Over 100 people reportedly lost their lives due to torrential rains and floods, while Peshawar remained among the most polluted cities globally.
Speaking at the press conference, Professor Dr Sarfaraz, HRCP Coordinator, said that worsening law and order in the tribal districts has led to mounting humanitarian crises and severe economic stagnation. He criticized both the federal and provincial governments for neglecting the region, leaving citizens vulnerable to numerous socio-economic problems.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
4 days ago
- Express Tribune
HRCP report highlights rights, security crisis
The Pakistan Human Rights Commission (HRCP), Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chapter, has released its Annual Report 2024, highlighting worsening human rights conditions and security concerns in the region. The report was unveiled by HRCP Vice-Chairperson Akbar Khan during a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club. According to the report, terrorism continues to take a heavy toll on civilians, law enforcement personnel, and security forces - a grim reflection of the deteriorating security landscape in the province. At least 150 new cases of enforced disappearances were recorded over the past year, prompting repeated judicial interventions. Despite this, legislative progress remained sluggish, with only 30 bills tabled in the provincial assembly - 21 of which were passed. Judicial pressure also intensified, with more than 23,000 cases pending in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and over 38,000 cases overall, including many related to contempt of court involving political and police figures. The HRCP report also drew attention to the growing trend of violence driven by "self-styled justice" and noted a disturbing surge in crimes against children, including the murder of several minors. Regarding labor rights, the report documented serious violations, including the deaths of 26 miners due to hazardous working conditions and extremist attacks. Additionally, more than 30 laborers were abducted by militants. Environmental concerns were also underscored in the report. Over 100 people reportedly lost their lives due to torrential rains and floods, while Peshawar remained among the most polluted cities globally. Speaking at the press conference, Professor Dr Sarfaraz, HRCP Coordinator, said that worsening law and order in the tribal districts has led to mounting humanitarian crises and severe economic stagnation. He criticized both the federal and provincial governments for neglecting the region, leaving citizens vulnerable to numerous socio-economic problems.
Express Tribune
6 days ago
- Express Tribune
Kashmore's criminality: a way forward?
The writer is a freelancer based in Kandhkot, Sindh. He can be reached at alihassanb.34@ Listen to article A democratic, Islamic and welfare state. The only nuclear-armed Muslim country in the world. A geo-strategically key player in global politics. Though these characteristics and epithets may manifest and appeal to people's sensibilities elsewhere, they rarely inspire the people of Kashmore and Kandhkot struggling with chronic criminality. Over the past few years, hundreds of citizens have been killed, injured, kidnapped, tortured, extorted and had their businesses and properties attacked and looted with impunity due to the state's apathy and the provincial government's lasting complicity. The HRCP has occasionally taken notice of the Hindu community's worsening plight, only to receive misleading 'all is well' replies from the district's LAEs. Worse, by compromising their journalistic integrity, the local branches of mainstream media have prioritised personal connections, protocols and ties with officials and influential figures, thereby obscuring critical issues from the mainstream narrative. Haunted and hapless, the citizens of Kashmore recently travelled to Islamabad to protest the rampant criminality. The state minister for interior, along with Kashmore's MNAs, has — after bringing the issue to the Prime Minister's notice — verbally assured the protesters of an 'operation' against the criminals and their patrons in the district. It remains to be seen whether the proposed operation — lacking a clear description of its nature, scope or extent — will be implemented and effectively address the crime. Understanding the factors and actors driving criminality in the district would help inform efforts to combat it. A district with one of the lowest literacy rates, Kashmore remains systematically marginalised — trapped in a disadvantaged socio-economic state with negligible political consciousness. This reinforces the power of tribal and feudal warlords, as well as of those who are politically electable, which directly undermines independent policing and the writ of the state. The policing influenced and constrained by predetermined 'red lines' and the judiciary's limited role also strengthens tribal-feudal and political influence, empowering tribal, feudal and political leaders as key stakeholders who lord over citizens' lives by inciting clashes and cultivating authority. The warring tribes seek refuge in katcha's rugged terrain, only to be co-opted and organised by key stakeholders. These empowered gangs then operate with impunity and unleash chaos. Moreover, criminality has raised many self-styled saviors who, in one way or another, capitalise on criminality by hedging their bets or playing both sides — the aggressor and the aggrieved. This includes segments of civil society — primarily composed of religio-political and nationalist groups, white-collar individuals and public sympathisers — who carefully balance their ill-informed prominence, factional loyalties and connections with both stakeholders and LAE officials. Also, they cash in on the inefficiency of policing for their benefit by affecting arrests and releases. This way criminality turns out to be a self-sustaining lucrative enterprise. Amid the deeply rooted factors, an 'operation' limited to selective kinetic actions would amount to a renewed false hope. Instead, a comprehensive strategy with long- and short-term goals is needed — the former focusing on socio-economic and educational uplift, and the latter on policing efforts aimed at restoring the state's writ. For this purpose, depoliticising the police; enhancing the judiciary's role in adjudicating tribal feuds; stepping up cross-border coordination among the provinces; scrutinising local stakeholders, groups and people associated with them; detaining the informers, facilitators and insiders; and rehabilitating the flatterers would help sustainably restore order in Kashmore. However, considering the public plight as an encouraging factor for the provincial political dispensation and its complementary role in the central government, many might rightly harbor skepticism about the potential outcomes of the proposed operation beyond budgetary allocations or mere kinetic actions. One can only hope against hope that the state will unprecedentedly prove the skeptics wrong.
Express Tribune
6 days ago
- Express Tribune
Pakistan's poverty is political
The writer is a Lecturer in English at the Higher Education Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Email him at namdar057@ Listen to article By any decent standard, Pakistan is broke: not in fiscal lingo or glossy budgetary graphs but broke in a way that gnaws at the stomach. World Bank numbers show a shocking 44.7% of Pakistanis stay below the global poverty line. That works out to more than 107 million people scraping by on less than $4.20 a day (under Rs1,200 for the full twenty-four hours). That's not even the worst of it. Upwards of 39 million — 16.5% of the country - live in what the world euphemistically calls 'extreme poverty'. That's not living, that's barely hanging on, that's economic abandonment. These numbers are long past their expiry. They're based on a 2018-19 survey, like diagnosing a patient today using a six-year-old X-ray. They don't reflect the 2022 floods that drowned homes and livelihoods alike. They don't account for the punishing inflation of the past few years, turning grocery, gas and electricity bills into waking nightmares. Imagine the horror the real numbers would reveal if they reflected today's reality. We're flying blind or pretending the plane is fine while it plummets. World Bank says this surge in poverty isn't from worsening conditions per se but from a shift in how poverty is now measured globally. In other words, people didn't suddenly get poorer, the goalposts just moved. About 82% of that spike is due to the new poverty line; the rest — 18% — is thanks to Pakistan's own price surges from 2017 to 2021. We'll get the full picture in September. Maybe then we'll finally see the truth for what it is. Maybe it'll stir someone awake in Islamabad. Maybe that'd serve as a reality check for those still playing policy ping-pong in air-conditioned offices. Meanwhile, the HRCP is done mincing words. It has called for a living wage - not just a minimum wage. That's not semantics. There's a world of difference. A minimum wage keeps you just above the grave. A living wage lets you breathe with dignity. The HRCP says a family of six needs at least Rs75,000 a month to live with basic dignity while the government pegs it at Rs37,000. Never mind that the government leaves it to rot on paper. It's policy on paper and paper doesn't quiet hunger or pay the rent when the month is up. What's the value of a policy if it never touches the ground? I know teachers in private schools pulling in Rs9,000 a month. A woman in my neighborhood teaches at a government primary school for Rs3,000 a month. That's not a wage. That's an insult! A middle-aged bakery salesman I know was earning Rs7,500 until recently. Yes, he finally got a raise, but you can guess how far that crumb really goes. Maybe enough for an extra packet of tea. These aren't rare outliers. This is business as usual. Employers operate with impunity because labour laws exist like paper tigers; because they (employers) exploit loopholes and underpay at will; because there are always others desperate enough to take the same job for even less. And then we wonder why our young people drown off Greek shores, fleeing a country that gave them nothing but unpaid internships, underpaid jobs and broken promises. They know the risks. They know they might not make it. They still go. Because hope — even a sliver — feels worth dying for when home offers only hunger, humiliation and hopelessness. We're not just poor in numbers; we lack the will, the compassion and the basic belief that a citizen deserves more than just survival. We're not poor because poverty sneaked up on us. We are poor because we've been kept poor by policies that drone on about 'reforms' while people can't afford 'daal', by leaders who hold pressers on economic growth while schoolteachers earn less than what a politician's tie costs, by a system that only works for those already at the top. This country is starving. Not just for food but for fairness.
