Pakistan criticised on human rights

AN independent Pakistani watchdog criticised the country’s human rights record over the past year in a new report yesterday, saying the nation has failed to make progress.

The damning report card issued by the Human Rights Commission said people continue to disappear in Pakistan, sometimes because they criticise the country’s powerful military and other times because they advocate better relations with neighbouring India.

The controversial blasphemy law continues to be misused, especially against dissidents, with cases in which mere accusations that someone committed blasphemy leads to deadly mob violence, it said.