PAK 001 / 0514 / OBS 040
Assassination / Death threats
Pakistan
May 15, 2014
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Pakistan.
Description of the situation:
According to the information received, on May 7, 2014, at 8.45 pm, Mr. Rashid Rehman was shot five times by two unidentified men who walked into the HRCP office on Kutchery Road, Multan. He succumbed to his injuries on the way to Nishtar Hospital. Mr. Rashid Rehman’s colleague Mr. Nadeem Parvaz and client Mr. Fazal Baloch were also shot and are receiving treatment in the same hospital. The two gunmen managed to escape.
The Observatory firmly denounces the assassination of Mr. Rashid Rehman, which was preceded by death threats he received as a result of his human rights activities. Indeed, Mr. Rehman denounced the repression of religious minorities and advocated against the misuse of blasphemy laws in Pakistan [1] and, since December 2013, had been representing Mr. Junaid Hafeez, a lecturer at Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, who was accused of blasphemy in a high profile case. It is reported that no lawyer was willing to take the case for many months after Mr. Hafeez’s first lawyer withdrew on the first hearing of his bail petition after being threatened by extremist religious groups. The next hearing in Mr. Junaid Hafeez’s case is fixed for May 19, 2014.
On April 9, 2014, Mr. Rehman was threatened with death by four men in a courtroom in Multan Central Prison, where the case of Mr. Junaid Hafeez was being heard due to security reasons. According to Mr. Rehman, Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Sindhu and Mr. Sajjad Ahmad Chawan, both lawyers who were present in the courtroom, said to him: “you will not come to court next time because you will not exist anymore”. Mr. Ayoub Mughal and a fourth man present in the court whose identity is not known allegedly repeated the threat.
Although the threats were made before Additional District and Sessions Judge Shahbaz Ali Paracha, he did not say anything even when Mr. Rehman reportedly drew his attention to the threats. On April 10, 2014, Mr. Rehman and Advocate Allah Dad, who was also representing Mr. Hafeez, wrote to the Punjab Chief Minister, the Inspector General of Punjab police, the city police officer and District Bar Association’s President Sher Zaman Qureshi, saying that they had been threatened by two lawyers and two other people who asked them not to appear in a blasphemy case.
HRCP also wrote to the Punjab government on April 10, 2014, bringing the threats made against Mr. Rehman inside a courtroom and in front of a judge to his attention. HRCP expressed its concern in that regard and also demanded that the persons who had threatened Mr. Rehman were proceeded against and effective measures were taken to ensure Mr. Rehman’s security. On the same day HRCP also released a statement to the media exposing and condemning the threats [2].
However the authorities took no action against those who threatened Mr. Rehman and did not provide any security to him. The police in Multan did not even summon the men who had threatened Mr. Rehman for questioning, much less take into custody for making the threat, which is an offence under Pakistan’s penal law. No case was registered against the four men either.
Following Mr. Rashid Rehman’s assassination, the police stated that the shooting was likely to be a targeted killing and that they were aware of threats that had been made against him. The Chehliyak police in Multan, on a complaint of the brother-in-law of Mr. Rashid Rehman, lodged a first information report under Section 302 ("Punishment of qatl-i-amd" [3]), Section 324 ("Attempt to commit qatl-i-amd") and Article 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997 against two unidentified attackers. No further steps have been taken so far and no progress made in arresting the killers.
Moreover, on May 8, 2014, the day of Mr. Rehman’s burial, leaflets that claimed that Mr. Rehman had met his “rightful end” were distributed in Multan and the person who led the funeral prayers was threatened.
The Observatory recalls that this is not the first time that those opposing or advocating against the misuse of blasphemy laws in Pakistan are targeted. Judges have previously been attacked in Pakistan for acquitting blasphemy defendants and two politicians who discussed reforming the law were shot dead in 2011. The federal and provincial governments’ inability to condemn such killings as well as their failure to investigate abuses in the lodging of blasphemy cases and instigation of hate and violence in Punjab not only encourage acts of violence against human rights defenders but also undermine their trust in the authorities’ commitment to protect them.
Furthermore, in the last three years five human rights defenders belonging to HRCP have been killed. Numerous others have been intimidated and threatened for their work and remain under constant threat. To date all these crimes remain in impunity as no one has been held to account for any of these crimes and the authorities fail to guarantee the protection of human rights defenders under threats.
The Observatory offers sincere condolences to the bereaved family and to Mr. Rashid Rehman’s friends and colleagues and urges the authorities in Pakistan to conduct an immediate, thorough, effective, and impartial investigation in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before a civil competent and impartial tribunal and apply the penal sanctions provided by the law, as well as to adopt urgent measures to protect human rights defenders in Pakistan.
Actions requested:
The Observatory urges the authorities of Pakistan to:
i. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of all HRCP members and staff, particularly Advocate Allah Dad, witnesses of Mr. Rashid Rehman’s assassination, as well as all human rights defenders in Pakistan;
ii. Carry out an immediate, effective, thorough, transparent and impartial high-level investigation into the assassination of Mr. Rashid Rehman, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before a civil, competent and impartial tribunal, and apply to them the penal sanctions provided by the law;
iii Probe the reasons why the authorities failed to take any meaningful steps on information provided by Mr. Rehman and HRCP detailing the threats, requesting security for the lawyer and taking action against the four men who threatened him;
iv. Provide adequate reparation and compensation to Mr. Rashid Rehman’s relatives;
v. Take effective steps to ensure that the rising dangers against human rights defenders are curbed and ensure in all circumstances that they are able to carry out their work without unjustified hindrance and fear of reprisal;
vi. Condemn Mr. Rashid Rehman’s murder unequivocally and recognise publicly that human rights defenders have a legitimate role to play in ensuring peace, justice and democracy, and therefore promote a dignification campaign of human rights defenders;
vii. Conform in all circumstances with the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted on December 9, 1998 by the United Nations General Assembly, in particular:
– its Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually or in association with others, to promote the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels” ;
– and its Article 12.2 which states that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”.
viii. Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights standards and international instruments ratified by Pakistan.
Addresses:
· H.E. Mr. Muhammad Nawaz SHARIF, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Prime Minister House, Islamabad, Pakistan. Fax: + 92 51 9221596. E-mail: pspm@pmsectt.gov.pk or nsethi@pmsectt.gov.pk
· H.E. Mr. Mamnoon Hussain, President of Pakistan, President’s Secretariat, Islamabad, Pakistan. Fax: +92 51 9207458. Email: publicmail@president.gov.pk
· Mr. Pervaiz RASHID, Minister of Justice, Human Rights, Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage, Pakistan. E-mail: pervaiz.rashid@senate.gov.pk
· Mr. Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister, Government of Punjab Province, Chief Minister’s Secretariat, 5-Club Road, GOR-I, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Fax: +92 42 99205065. Email: cmcomplaintcell@cmpunjab.gov.pk
· Mr. Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, Chief Justice of Pakistan, Supreme Court of Pakistan, Constitution Avenue, Islamabad, Pakistan. Fax: +92 51 9213452. Email: mail@supremecourt.gov.pk
· Mr. Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Shahra-e-Quaid-e-Azam, Lahore Pakistan. Fax: +92 42 99212319.
· H.E Mr. Zamir Akram, Ambassador to the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Nations in Geneva, 56, Rue de Moillebeau, Case Postale 434, 1211 Geneva 19, Switzerland. Fax: +41-22-734-8085. E-mail: mission.pakistan@ties.itu.int
· H.E Mr. Munawar Saeed Bhatti, Ambassador to EU, Belgium and Luxembourg, 57 Avenue Delleur; 1170 Brussels, Belgium. Fax: +32 (0)2 675 83 94. E-mail: parepbrussels@mofa.gov.pk
Please also write to diplomatic representations of Pakistan in your respective countries.