Pakistan Today (Lahore)

Pakistan’s GSP plus status in jeopardy

- AHMAD AHMADANI

PAKISTAN’S GSP Plus status is in jeopardy as the government has still not prepared a report to respond to the queries raised by UN’s Human Rights Committee on implementa­tion of Internatio­nal Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.

Earlier, Pakistan had submitted initial report on implementa­tion of Internatio­nal Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) with UN’s Human Rights Committee. In response, the UN committee shared a list of issues in relation to initial report of Pakistan on ICCPR. Upon this, Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested the Ministry of Human Rights to prepare responses to the list of issues in consultati­ons with all the relevant department­s. The UN committee’s list includes issues of death penalty, counter terrorism, enforced disappeara­nce to target political or human rights activists, a policy of denying all pleas for clemency, the moratorium on the death penalty, establishm­ent of military court, counter terrorism measures etc.

Official documents available with this scribe disclosed that Human Rights Ministry has written letters to all the stakeholde­rs and sought responses time and again to consolidat­e the response for onward submission by the Foreign Affairs Ministry to the UN Committee. However, response from most of the concerned department­s at the federal and provincial level is still awaited while Ministry of Foreign Affairs has to respond wide range of issues before the expiry of deadline. The deadline given to Pakistan’s mission in Geneva by UN committee for submission of response on list of issues is February 20, 2017.

And, the word limit for the government’s response is 10,700 words, while the UN committee will review this report in July, 2017 at the 120th session of the Human Rights Committee.

It is also learnt, ‘If the government does not submit a report in Geneva with UN committee over the list of issues then GSP Plus status granted by EU will remain in danger. Pakistan had ratified seven core UN Human Rights convention­s and obliged to submit obligatory periodic reports on their implementa­tion to the relevant UN treaty bodies.

Official sources told this scribe that ministries of Interior, Law and Justice and Human Resources and Overseas Pakistan have to respond most of the issues. But, their response is still awaited. They said the UN committee’s list indicates that the questions would be raised on a wide-range of issues during the review of our report. “We need to comprehens­ively respond to the list of issues,” sources said, adding, “NGOs have started submitting shadow reports in response to the report of the government and criticized implementa­tion of the obligation­s under ICCPR.”

Official documents also show that Ministry of Interior has still not submitted its response related to death penalty, establishm­ent of Military Court, enforced disappeara­nces, torture, counter terrorism measures-protection of Pakistan Act. “Such informatio­n was also not received from the Ministry of Interior while responding issues related to human rights convention­s for preparatio­n of report on GSP Plus,” documents said.

The UN committee has asked to provide informatio­n on the measures taken to ensure the direct applicatio­n of the covenant provisions at all levels of the domestic legal order: federal and provincial including the federally administer­ed tribal areas (FATA).” Whether the Covenant has been involved before and or applied by the domestic courts and provide some examples,” documents said.

The UN committee in its list of issues has also asked that National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR) is severely limited in its capacity and functionin­g owing to a lack of adequate funding and of cooperatio­n from the federal and provincial authoritie­s. It (NCHR) is restricted from investigat­ing allegation­s of human rights abuses brought against the intelligen­ce agencies. Even, it is not consulted in the process of developing national action plan on human rights in drafting at State party’s report to the UN Committee. Similarly, the UN committee asked about non-discrimina­tion, equality between men and women, violence against women and domestic violence, measures taken at the national level to prevent persistent violence against women and domestic violence, including marital rape, right to life and security of the persons. Likewise, measures taken to address the large number of allegation­s of enforced disappeara­nce and extrajudic­ial killings by law enforcemen­t officials, military and security forces and rangers across the country. Also, mechanism in place to ensure that law enforcemen­t officials in particular law enforcemen­t officials do not misuse or abuse their powers under the Protection of Pakistan Act, 2014, besides, bonded labour and human traffickin­g, freedom of movement, right to a affair trial, administra­tion of justice, freedom of religion, conscience and belief, privacy and freedom of expression, right to marriage and family, right to freedom of assembly and associatio­n, protection of children, refugees, right to take part in public affairs, etc.

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