NWFP govt must protect human rights in Swat: Sherry

 

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

By Asim Yasin

ISLAMABAD: Former Information Minister Sherry Rehman on Tuesday expressed reservations about the implementation of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in Swat and urged the NWFP government to protect human rights in Swat region.
Speaking in the National Assembly on a point of order, she referred to the reported incident of flogging of a girl and said after the approval of the Adl Regulation it was the responsibility of the provincial government not to allow any violation of human rights.
The former information minister said the provincial government should ensure its writ in Swat and adjoining areas, which was essential for discharging its responsibilities. Later, talking to The News, Sherry Rehman said that elected governments and democratic forces should be strengthened, as their mandate is under visible threat in areas like Swat. “The issue at this point is not the debate in parliament on the Nizam-e-Adl. This system, with a few changes, was in existence in Malakand in 1994 and 1999, but at that time the elected representative of the province had executive control over the area. There was, then, no danger of people being subjected to privatised justice, to Taliban vigilantism and public brutality.”
She said that elected leadership has a responsibility to delivering on its manifesto pledge. “What we need to protect right now is the mandate of the people who had elected progressive political parties like the ANP, and my worry is that they do not have control over the province, where as per the Constitution, only the state should exercise the monopoly on the use of force,” she added.
She said when the ANP loses its leaders to the bullets and bombs of terrorists in the area, who hold large swathes hostage by the use of force, we should acknowledge that we have a collective and grave problem. “I want to know how, as citizens and leaders, we will forge a social contract in our tribal areas and the PATA, which is the status of Swat, where fundamental human rights guaranteed in our Constitution can be protected,” she added.
She questioned how we can allow women to be flogged on the streets, even if it was January 3, or men to be handed out summary justice on the streets of Swat by vigilante groups that have nothing to do with any structured Adl or Nizam.
She said the issue today is how we reverse the retreat of the state in areas only a hundred miles from Islamabad. “We also need to ask how this peace, guaranteed by the TNSM, will actually hold and on whose terms, and in what context?” asked Ms Rehman.
She said in 1994 and 1999, Swat used to be a tourist haven, where everyone walked free in tranquillity. “Now the 130 hotels are empty, and the ground reality is that women can no longer leave their homes in safety, men are made to grow beards and they are browbeaten to grow uniform beards, and girl sports are subject to the Taliban ban,” she added. She said this is not the Islam Pakistan was created to protect. It was the Sufi way that brought Islam to Pakistan, not the sword.

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