HRCP NATIONAL PEASANT CONVENTION MULTAN September 5-6, 2012. Convention Statement

The two-day (September 5 ,6) Peasant Convention organized in Multan by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has made a strong plea for land reforms , development of equitable land  utilization policies, mitigation of the hardships of landless tillers of the soil, acceptance of the tenants‘ rights that have been settled for long on lands leased to the military, fixation of a fair return to farm labor, effective action to eradicate bonded labor, protection of rights of women working in agriculture sector ,a peasant-friendly policy for distribution of inputs and for marketing of the farm produce.

The convention was attended by representatives of Kisan/Hari committees from the different parts of the country, peasant activist representatives of bonded /liberated workers, and human right activists.

The convention declared that the demand for land reform was justified in the country’s economic interest, the right of the vast rural population to social justice and the basic requirements of a democratic dispensation. Studies by economists had established that the skewed land ownership pattern in the country was hampering economic growth and spread of education, besides increasing the areas of mass poverty. An economically and socially disadvantaged peasantry was also unable to support a democratic order.

It was necessary to ensure, the convention declared, that the proposed land reform is the sincerely and efficiently implemented, small owners and landless cultivators are enabled to acquire at least subsistence holdings, and women cultivators, especially in case of women-headed families, are duly accommodated.

The convention called upon all the provincial governments to evolve both short and long term agricultural policies, including land utilization policies. The practice of giving away land as a reward for dubious and controversial services to the establishment should be discontinued.  No allocation of land for commercial exploitation should be allowed. Land must be given only to cultivators and the system of absentee landlords completely eliminated. The practice of allowing urban/industrial projects on fertile lands also needed to be reviewed and unnecessary and haphazard contraction of farm area stopped. Whenever land is acquired for non-agricultural purposes the tenants that are displaced should get a part, may be 25%, of the compensation allowed to the land owner.

The land utilization policy should also address the ecological disasters being caused by wanton destruction of forests.

The convention was of the view that all the provincial tenancy laws needed to be revised with a view to providing firm and clear guarantees for tenants’ rights, closing all gaps that permit exploitation of tenants, and adjudication of landlord –tenant issues by special Hari courts.

As regards landless tenants, the convention demanded allotment of land to the largest number possible, and effective safeguards against ejectment of tenants. The tenants should be helped with credit under new and liberal lending policies. Those who cannot be kept on farms ought to be enabled to develop alternative skills in towns near their homes, and provided with meaningful employment.

The participants of the convention strongly deprecated the government’s failure to recognize and protect the rights of cultivators who have been working on military farms for many generations. They hailed the struggle of peasant organizations in resisting attacks on their rights and called for immediate transfer of ownership to cultivators of military farms in Okara, Khanewal, Sargodha or anywhere else.

The convention expressed concern at the absence of any framework for guaranteeing fair wages for farm labor and urged an expeditious solution to the problem. At the same time it was necessary to take effective steps for the elimination of bonded labor and rehabilitation of liberated workers.

The participants were unanimous in demanding steps to ensure easy availability, at affordable cost, of the essential farm inputs, especially water and seeds. The peasantry suffered a great deal due to an unfavorable system of marketing of farm produce. A fair and equitable marketing system needed to be installed in consultation with representatives of the cultivators.

The convention expressed serious concern at the widespread and multi-dimensional exploitation of women associated with and dependent upon agriculture. In several areas of farming and cattle-breeding, women contributed more than men but were denied due recognition of and reward for their work. The convention called for a broad based movement o secure the rights of women engaged in agriculture.

The convention appreciated the work done for the peasantry’s uplift by the various kisan and Hari committees, peasant and tenant associations, human right activists and alliances and called for closer collaboration among them so as to generate a strong movement for justice to the country’s large agricultural community.

The convention also urged upon the state, the political parties, trade unions of industrial labor and all other elements of civil society to facilitate unionization of the agricultural labor in accordance with the ILO conventions and guarantees inscribed in the constitution of Pakistan and international instruments.

The other demands made at the convention included a call for recognition of the right to work, women’s’ right to equal wages, and all citizens’ right to social security as fundamental rights.

The convention called upon all political parties to give the peasantry’s interests and concerns a prominent place in their manifestos and programmes. At the same time it appealed to the entire peasant community to play their due role in the coming elections and seek assurances from all candidates that they would work for the realization of their rights. It was time the peasants served a notice on all concerned that they were determined to have their say in governance and equitable management of their affairs.

 

Issued By

I. A. Rehman, Secretary General HRCP

Rashid Rehman, Convention Co-ordinator.

In a letter to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf for the International Day for Victims of Enforced Disappearance

HRCP launches report of fact-finding mission to Balochistan

Islamabad, August 30: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) launched on Thursday the report of a fact-finding it had conducted in Balochistan. An HRCP mission had visited the province from May 15 to 19 in order to assess the impact of the recent measures by the government with respect to the province and to hear suggestions from the stakeholders on a way out of the lingering crisis there.

The fact-finding mission met members of the executive, representatives of political parties, civil society organisations, relatives of missing persons, religious and ethnic minority communities, businessmen, lawyers, journalists, teachers, students and senior government officials. The full report is available online at: http://www.hrcp-web.org/pdf/Balochistan%20Report%202012.pdf

The team held meetings in Quetta, Mastung and Pishin. HRCP Core Group coordinators in districts Bolan, Chaghi, Gwadar, Harnai, Jafarabad, Jhal Magsi, Kalat, Lasbela, Mastung, Naseerabad, Nushki, Panjgur, Pasni, Pishin, Qilla Abdullah, Qilla Saifullah, Sibbi, Turbat, Zhob and Ziarat travelled to Quetta and briefed the fact-finding team on the prevailing situation in their respective areas.

Chairperson Zohra Yusuf led the five-day (May 15-19) fact-finding team that also comprised HRCP provincial vice-chairpersons Tahir Hussain Khan (Balochistan), Sher Muhammad Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Amarnath Motumal (Sindh), HRCP Executive Council members Asma Jahangir, Zahoor Ahmed Shahwani and Habib Tahir, journalists Arifa Noor and Amir Mateen, novelist Muhammad Hanif and academic Prof. Azizuddin Ahmed. HRCP Secretary General I.A. Rehman, Hussain Naqi and Najam U Din from HRCP Secretariat and HRCP Quetta office coordinator Farid Ahmed were also part of the fact-finding mission.

The mission was of the considered opinion that if there was a genuine will and commitment to find solutions, the numerous challenges in Balochistan could be addressed. It was plain to see by that the strategy that the government had pursued in the province had not worked. Maintaining the same course was about the worst thing that could be done if the objective was to improve the situation.

The fact-finding team made the following observations:

1.      In many fundamental respects the situation had not changed in Balochistan since HRCP’s last fact-finding mission to the province in 2011. Enforced disappearances continued in Balochistan as did dumping of bodies and impunity for the perpetrators. Frontier Corps and intelligence agencies were generally believed to be involved in enforced disappearance of people. In some cases their involvement had been proved beyond doubt. Failure to punish the perpetrators or to probe that involvement in a meaningful way was aggravating the situation. The law and order situation had worsened and sectarian killings increased in all districts.

2.      However, there were some positive changes, each with a caveat, which offered hope for improvement in Balochistan’s situation. The Supreme Court hearings in Quetta had certainly had a positive impact, although it remained to be seen if the impact would endure. The mission found youth and political activists were more willing to talk and more keen to engage in efforts to resolve the crises politically. Sincerity and reciprocity were needed to avail the opportunity. There was keen awareness that change was vital and a lot of people looked towards the forthcoming elections to deliver that change. If free and fair elections were held progressive elements were expected to participate. Some nationalists might not contest but others would. If the nationalists became part of the government things were generally expected to improve. However, lawlessness made preparation for the elections difficult for nationalist parties, many of which had constituencies in insurgency-hit districts. There were apprehensions that elections might be rigged and demands were made for national and international monitors for the elections. Law and order had prevented many parliamentarians from visiting their constituencies. As of now, the people only got a chance to go to elections once every decade. There was a general feeling that if there was genuine democracy Balochistan’s woes could have been minimised.

3.      There were multiple layers of violence and tension in Balochistan. Law and order was a problem that cast a long shadow on all aspects of life. The crime wave that had engulfed urban Balochistan and the main highways was either a mark of collusion or utter incompetence of the authorities. The government, law enforcement and security agencies had completely failed to deal with militant / insurgent, sectarian and criminal elements.

4.      Kidnappings for ransom had become a profitable enterprise. No perpetrator had been arrested or tried. It was difficult to see how the kidnappers could operate despite heavy security deployment. The conclusion that most people reached in Balochistan was that the criminals had not been arrested because they enjoyed the patronage of the authorities. The provincial home minister had spoken of fellow cabinet members’ involvement in this crime but no action was taken. Questions were raised as to who would give protection to the people, to the Hazaras, non-Muslims and to truck drivers who pooled money to pay ransom.

5.      The problems in Balochistan had long been looked at in the perspective of a Baloch insurgency and Baloch rights. There was a need to have a holistic look at all the problems in Balochistan, including those faced by a substantial Pakhtun population, the Hazaras, non-Muslims and settlers as well as economic and livelihood issues in the province.

6.      There were complaints of the state’s inability or unwillingness to protect the lives of religious minorities as well as members of some Muslim sects. Killings and harassment of the settler population by the insurgents had led to the settlers shifting to Pakhtun-majority areas or to leave the province altogether. Target killings and crime on the basis of religious and ethnic identity of the victims had grown. The continued persecution of Hazaras was as ruthless as it was unprecedented. The people the mission met said that if the authorities had the commitment to stop the killings or punish those responsible the killings could not have expanded in the manner that they had. Questions were raised about absence of ability or willingness on part of the government to protect the people from faith-based violence as well as its lack of priorities. Heightened threats including kidnappings for ransom had forced Hazaras, non-Muslims, settlers and wealthy people to migrate to other parts of the country and even abroad.

7.      Talibanisation was growing in several areas. Unlike the past, religious fanaticism was not merely being exported to the province from elsewhere. It was now being bred in Balochistan. A growing network of madrassas had contributed to aggravation of inter-sect tensions. There were fears that the security forces were patronizing militants and Quetta was being turned into a haven for militants. There were said to be militants’ training camps in the province.

8.      Aspiring irregular migrants from or passing through Balochistan took great risks in their quest for a brighter future and the human smugglers were only too happy to exploit them. Little was being done to address the reasons that forced people to migrate.

9.      Unlike the past, the insurgents had systematically targeted infrastructure and development work.

10.  Despite the government’s oft-voiced desire for a political solution to the crisis in Balochistan no progress had been made on engaging through talks the nationalist elements in Balochistan. Even preparatory steps towards that end remained lacking.

11.  The state abdicating its basic responsibility and NGOs retreating for fear of abduction of their staff had further aggravated the crises. The government and development agencies had abandoned the troubled areas. Healthcare and education were neglected. Many good teachers had migrated. An insurgency in parts of the province did not justify the state ignoring the people’s health, sanitation and other basic needs and infrastructure, which were not affected by the ongoing strife. There were places in the province where the people, irrespective of their ethnicity, survived in conditions that were not far removed from the Stone Age. Alleviating their problems was no one’s priority.

12.  The provincial government was nowhere to be seen in the crises. The chief minister was away from the province for a lot of time and the provincial government held meetings regarding Balochistan outside the province. The provincial government seemed to have earned a lot of discredit in a short span of time. In probably the only example of its kind, all but one member of the provincial assembly was in the cabinet. After the 18th Amendment and the National Finance Commission Award, more funds had certainly become available to Balochistan but those did not seem to have trickled down. A general observation was that corruption had spiked by the same margin.

13.  The government had shown little interest in shoring up sagging economic activity and businesses. The industry had collapsed, natural resources had not been tapped nor the requisite expertise created and agriculture that was the mainstay of a large part of the provincial economy was in ruins because of drought-like conditions and lack of irrigation water amid plummeting water table, debilitating electricity shortages and absence of delay-action dams.

14.  The total electricity need of Balochistan was very small compared to the needs of the other provinces. Yet the people in the province faced excessive electricity suspension. The people demanded that the government should accept an Iranian offer to supply 1,000 megawatts of electricity to Pakistan and use the same in Balochistan.

15.  There was a widespread feeling that the national media had abandoned Balochistan and not given as much coverage to the events and incidents as their importance demanded. Even when whole cities were shut down during a strike the media did not report that. Journalists in the field felt threatened from the security forces, militants and insurgents. The people in the districts affected by the insurgency in general and journalists in particular felt like hostages. If they said one thing they were traitors to one side and if they did not they were traitors to the other side. The stories that the journalists did file were often covered only in Balochistan editions of publications by national level media organisations. That prevented the people elsewhere in Pakistan from getting the true picture of the situation in the province.

16.  Members of the mission were shocked at the glut of sophisticated firearms in Balochistan and the people’s easy access to them. It defied belief that huge quantities of weapons could pass through a series of check-posts when the common citizen was stopped even for carrying a knife. Had there been sincere efforts to curtail the free flow of weapons they would certainly have made a difference.

17.  The people generally expressed faith in the Levies force because of it being a local force. Police was not well respected.

18.  All investigations in Balochistan today seemed to end as soon as claims of responsibility were made by one militant or insurgent organisation or the other. It was a free for all and in cases of target killings or even common crime any investigation or prosecution worth the name was generally missing.

 

Zohra Yusuf

International Federation for Human RIghts (FIDH)

www.fidh.org/Nabeel-Rajab-sentenced-to-3-years

Today, 16 August 2012, FIDH Deputy Secretary General, Nabeel Rajab, was sentenced by the Bahraini Lower Criminal Court to three years imprisonment for “involvement in illegal practices and inciting gatherings and calling for unauthorised marches through social networking sites”, for his “participation in an illegal assembly” and for his “participation in an illegal gathering and calling for a march without prior notification”. FIDH strongly condemns this sentence and calls for his immediate and unconditional release.

Souhayr Belhassen, FIDH President declared “it’s been over a year that the Bahraini people have been peacefully asking for human rights and democracy. How does the government remain so deaf to these calls? Arbitrarily imprisoning human rights defenders will not stop the people from aspiring to freedom and democratic change. We hope that the international community will firmly condemn this decision and will call for Nabeel’s release.”

On the same day, the Higher Appeal Court also decided to postpone the verdict in the appeal against the decision of the Lower Criminal Court which had earlier sentenced Nabeel to 3 months imprisonment for alleged libel after he tweeted on 2 June 2012 a message asking for the Khalifa to step down. The verdict is now expected for 23 August.

Press contact: Arthur Manet Tel: +33 6 72 28 42 94 (in Paris)

 

 

 

IFJ Mourns Death of Young Reporter in Pakistan

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) are deeply saddened by the suicide of a young journalist in Lahore following her employer’s refusal to pay her salary.

Ms Semaab worked for local Lahore newspaper Daily Anti-Crime.  She was the sole financial provider for her family including younger siblings and her father who requires regular medical treatment for cancer. According to reports, Ms Semaab jumped from the fourth story of the hostel where she lived with her family on August 15 following the newspaper management’s persistent refusal to pay her salary for several months.

The PFUJ and IFJ extend its deepest sympathy to the family, friends and colleagues of Ms Semaab. Tragically, Ms Semaab’s commitment to journalism was undermined by the very media organisation she worked for.

The exploitation of media workers in Pakistan is all too common. According to the PFUJ, media organisations including Khabrain, AAJ TV, News 1, TV1, Royal TV, Wasaib, Channel 5 and Indus TV are known to withhold employee salaries.   In similar incidents over the past 12 months, journalists working for Channel 5 and Aaj TV committed suicide after their employers withheld salaries for several months.

 

In a statement, PFUJ Secretary General Amin Yousaf demanded media owners stop exploiting their workers and called on the Supreme Court Chief to take notice of this tragedy and direct the media owners to pay salaries to their workers.

The Seventh Wage Award for journalists and newspaper workers in Pakistan, announced in 2000, guarantees conditions and wages under which journalists are employed in Pakistan however, the government and Wage Award Implementation Tribunal have failed to implement the statutorily determined level of wages for journalists. Journalists are increasingly employed without a contract or under short term contracts which are not accountable to the Wage Board.

“The death of Ms Semaab draws acute attention to the plight of exploited media workers in Pakistan” said IFJ Director Jacqueline Park.

“The IFJ urges the Government of Pakistan to take decisive action in the implementation of the Wage Award and hold media organisations accountable to all employees under the Act.”

The PFUJ, in partnership with the IFJ, recently deployed four missions to assess the situation for journalists in Balochistan, Interior Sindh, the Khyber – FATA region and Punjab.   The PFUJ/IFJ report on the State of Journalism in Balochistan Province, released on World Press Freedom Day 2012, is available on the IFJ website here.

 

For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on  +612 9333 0918

 

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries

 

Find the IFJ on Twitter: @ifjasiapacific

 

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