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Human Rights Developments
Defending Human Rights
The Role of the International CommunityPakistan’s human rights movement remained active on a range of issues including protests against the nuclear tests. In June, the militant Shabab-i-Milli attacked a press conference held by the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy to protest the nuclear tests. Although there were no other direct attacks on mainstream human rights organizations, the suicide of Bishop Josephhighlighted the obstacles activists faced in trying to achieve reforms. The press, particularly journalists exposing official malfeasance and corruption, came under attack more frequently. On July 9 two bombs exploded at the Karachi headquarters of Dawn , an English-language daily newspaper. On August 16 twelve individuals from the youth wing of Prime Minister Sharif’s PML attacked the editor-in-chief of a local weekly in Punjab for publishing an article critical of the PML. Despite threats on his life, the editor filed a complaint with the local police, but as of this writing, no action had been taken against any of the alleged attackers. Human rights groups and other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) protested against Prime Minister Sharif’s efforts to amend the constitution to make Islamic law the supreme law of Pakistan. On October 10 a joint committee of thirty-five NGOs released a statement claiming that the bill would increase intolerance and would limit the jurisdiction of the courts. |
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