HISTORY OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN PAKISTAN

Pakistan’s human rights situation is complicated due to the multicultural nation,

enormous population, status as a developing country as a soverign Islamic
democracy with a mix of Islamic and secular legislation.
Since the birth of Pakistan on 14th august 1947, the government and Pakistan
constitution garauntee fundamental rights for every citizen.
On august 11, 1947, quaid e azam Muhammad ali jinnah is known as a founder of
Pakistan, was elected president of pakistans constituent assembly, and the very
following day, a committee on ‘’ fundamental rights of citizens of Pakistan and
matters related to minorities” was formed under his leadership. He further stated
“you are free, to go to your temples. You are free to go to your mosque, or to any
other places of worship in the state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion,
cast or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the state.”

Equal citizenship and secular polity remained contested subjects from Day One.
Months after Jinnah’s death, in March 1949, the Constituent Assembly passed a
motion titled ‘Aims and Objectives of the Constitution’, famously known as the
‘Objectives Resolution’, which was vehemently opposed by all minority members
who voted against it. They did not approve of the amalgamation of religion and
politics written into the Objectives Resolution — individuals have religions, states
don’t, they warned — and feared it will turn Pakistan into a theocracy.

Uttering these prophetic words, the minority members who could leave, left the
country over time. The promise of equal citizenship dwindled, a Constitution was
formalised in 1956 and abrogated in 1958 when the first Martial Law was
declared, a centralised state was preferred over a decentralised one, and another
Constitution brought in, in 1962.
The 1962 Constitution was a rarity in that it ignored the concept of justiciable
fundamental rights. The then president General Ayub Khan paid no heed to the
recommendation of its own, selected Constitution Commission — to retain the
fundamental rights as provided in the 1956 Constitution. Instead, he turned them
into Principles of law-making alone. In an overly insecure and highly centralised
state, eight political leaders (all from East Pakistan) made a public statement
demanding these rights to be restored in the 1962 Constitution and be made
justiciable instead of as Principles of law-making.

The rights were eventually restored to the Constitution in early1964, with three
exceptions: these will not be applicable on the military/defence forces and those
maintaining law and order (just as it was in the 1956 Constitution); all laws passed
after the imposition of Martial Law would not be declared void if they are in
conflict with fundamental rights; and that these rights will not apply to the tribal
areas.
A state wearing religion on its sleeve has remained unkind to minorities,
beginning with the passing of the Objectives Resolution mentioned earlier. The
abuse of rights ranges from violence against religious minorities to minority sects
to women to children to torture to abuses in the name of counter-terrorism.

Alongside the constitutional and legal battle for fundamental rights, which began
early on, were women’s, students’ and labour movements since the 1950s and
1960s, albeit in silos. Add to these the fight for civil and political rights
spearheaded by journalists and lawyers. Women protested under the Women’s
Action Forum (WAF) against the discriminatory laws during Zia ul Haq’s draconian
military rule.

However, when Martial Law was lifted in 1985, it opened up the possibility of a
wider movement on human rights which consolidated all the individual struggles.
That is when lawyers Asma Jahangir, Hina Jilani and a few like-minded people
from amongst lawyers, retired judges, journalists and academics gathered to lay
the foundation of a Human Rights Commission. In 1986, the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) started its work, which was ambitious to begin
with: it aimed to keep a record of all human rights violations, ranging from civil
and political to economic, social and cultural, conduct fact-finding missions,
produce authentic reports, do advocacy and lobbying, synchronise the local
human rights debate with the one happening on the international scene, remind
the Pakistani government of its international obligations, push for a National
Commission on human rights, and so on.
Today, human rights get spoken about. Yet, not only is the country still far from
Jinnah’s vision of equal citizenship in a secular state, one isn’t sure if it is even
geared in that direction. Just by way of example, a unique though imperfect law
for the protection of intersex persons was passed in 2018, with corresponding
provincial legislations being in the process of being presented as bills when, in
recent months, obscurantist forces unleashed their hate campaign against the law,
making the community more vulnerable than before. On the flip side, there is
more public debate on the issue.

Seventy-five years, and the struggle for rights is still on.