Leading right activists highlighted the deteriorating state of human rights in Pakistan and urged the government to take more interest in protecting the rights of citizens in a seminar titled ‘Challenges for human rights defenders’ that was organised by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) here in Lahore on Sunday. The seminar and Annual General Meeting (AGM) of HRCP was attended by a large number of human rights activists who came from all the provinces of the country.
Speaking on the occasion, veteran journalist and right activist I.A.Rehman said that everyone must be aware of his right and there must be courage to standing against each and every injustice being committed in the society. “No government likes the human right activists because governments think we criticise them but there is a large room of criticism in civilised societies,” he said. He further added that making the unions or associations is the right of every citizen according to the Article 17 of the constitution of Pakistan. Article 17 was further amended in 1923 and these unions were allowed to perform political work as well, despite the fact that World War 1 had just ended and there was extreme political uncertainty in the subcontinent, Rehman added. He was of the opinion that there must be a mechanism for information sharing among the different unions of human rights and all must win the goodwill of the masses. “To win the support of general public is significant for us, and all the human rights activists must foil the propaganda of the government that we receive money from other countries. The credibility of a non-government organisation (NGO) is highly dependent upon its transparency and integrity,” Rehman said.
Media historian and right activist Dr Mehdi Hasan said that unfortunately “our media has become an ‘agenda follower’ instead of ‘agenda setter’ and there is almost no editorial control in the electronic media these days.”
“I met an owner of a news channel and asked him if he has any gatekeeper in his organisation and he replied that ‘yes, we have retired subedar as gatekeeper in our organisation’,” Hasan said. It may be mentioned here that gatekeepers are responsible for filtering out information before the dissemination in very field of journalism. According to Mehdi Hasan, “We are not living in Jinnah’s Pakistan as it is the Pakistan of Zia-ul-Haq.”
Writer and journalist Ghazi Salahuddin said on the occasion that media is losing professionalism very fast. He recited the verse of Allama Iqbal ‘Khirad Ko Ghulami Se Azad Kar’ (Free your thought from the shackles of slavery) and said that “all of us are slaves even today.” Salahuddin also announced the I.A.Rehman scholarship on the occasion from HRCP, saying that the scholarship will be given to the students who will study human rights as a subject in the university.
Answering the question of a participant, Asma Jehangir said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will be a futile exercise if the local population of Balochistan does not get any benefit from the project. A large number of right activists, including Afrasiab Khattak, Salima Hashmi and Hussain Naqi were also present on the occasion.
