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Geneva [Switzerland], October 3 (ANI) | Pakistan's record on enforced disappearances and extrajudicial abuses came under sharp criticism at a side event organised during the 60th Session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Chongshi Yeah Joseph, Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Peace, accused Islamabad of turning into a "rogue state" over its alarming number of cases of extra-judicial killings, torture, and detention in unknown places. The event, titled "Enforced Disappearances in Pakistan: Amplifying Voices, Demanding Justice, Calling for Global Action", was convened by the Centre for Human Rights and Peace Advocacy. Joseph said enforced disappearances amount to a war crime, and Pakistan was "becoming alarming" in its use of such practices. "It is a very serious crime, considered a war crime. All states are guilty of these crimes, but I think in Pakistan it's becoming alarming... extrajudicial killings, torture, detention in unknown places, irrespective of who they are, and all this detention with the consent of the state means that the state is becoming a rogue state," he told ANI. Joseph urged the UN to intervene, warning that silence would mean failure of its duty to ensure peace after the horrors of the two World Wars. "It is the responsibility of the UN to come in, advise, recommend and even sanction its member states for continuing to violate their human rights," he said. Furthermore, Speakers from Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) also highlighted cases of abductions, torture and killings, urging the United Nations to act under its founding mandate of protecting peace and human rights. Political activists from PoJK, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan used the platform to expose the scale of enforced disappearances. They described Pakistan as one of the leading states in South Asia for such abuses and called for its compliance with the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Convention on Enforced Disappearances. Pashtun activist Fazal-ur-Rehman Afridi of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) said more than 6,500 confirmed cases of enforced disappearances involving Pashtuns had been documented. "Besides Pashtuns, there are Sindhis and Balochis as well. The number is astronomical... We informed the United Nations Human Rights Council about these enforced disappearances," Afridi told ANI. From PoJK, exiled activist Nasir Aziz Khan of the United Kashmir People's National Party condemned killings of demonstrators during protests in Muzaffarabad last week. "Pakistan is using brutal force against civilians and peaceful protesters... More than 10 people lost their lives since September 29. Hundreds are in jail and tortured. We urge the UN to intervene to protect the lives of Kashmiris living under Pakistan's occupation," he said. Sindhi activist Kamran Jatoi of the World Sindhi Congress said those who opposed a canal project in Sindh were abducted and silenced. He criticised Pakistan's anti-terrorism courts for being misused against peaceful activists. Former Canadian MP Dr. Habib Millat, now head of the Global Center for Democratic Governance, called enforced disappearances a "grave human rights concern" that required coordinated international action. (ANI)
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