Watchdog condemns failing rights record

ISLAMABAD — An independent rights group in Pakistan said Monday that the country has failed to make progress on several issues over the past year, ranging from forced disappearances to women’s rights and protection of religious minorities.

The damning report card issued by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says people continue to disappear, sometimes because they criticize the military or advocate better relations with neighboring India.

It said a controversial blasphemy law continues to be misused, especially against dissidents, with cases in which mere accusations that someone committed blasphemy against Islam led to deadly mob violence. While deaths directly linked to acts of terrorism declined in 2017, the report says attacks against minorities were on the rise.

The 296-page report was dedicated to one of the commission’s founders, Asma Jahangir, whose death in February generated a global outpouring of grief and accolades for the 66-yearold activist.

Monday’s report also took aim at religious bigotry in Pakistan and the government’s reluctance to push back against religious zealots. It said conservative groups continue to resist laws aimed at curbing violence against women, giving greater rights to women and reducing gender segregation.

“Freedom of expression and freedom of association is under attack, except for those who carry the religious banner,” commission spokesman I.A. Rehman said of the report, which accused Pakistani authorities of ignoring “intolerance and extremism.”

The report pointed to a few signs of progress, including a “landmark development” in the country’s largest province, Punjab, where authorities now accept marriage licenses within the Sikh community at the local level, giving the unions protection under the law.

But it said religious minorities continue to be targeted by extremists, citing attacks on Shiites, Christians falsely accused of blasphemy against Islam, and Ahmedis, a sect reviled by mainstream Muslims as heretics.

Kathy Gannon is an Associated Press writer.