LAHORE: On July 2, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) released a statement unlike any in its history.
“In the past few months, HRCP has faced a series of arbitrary, illegal and unjustified actions that have impeded the organisation’s ability to carry out its mandate,”
it read.
The statement detailed how individuals identifying themselves as members of security agencies had been harassing and intimidating HRCP staff.
“We urge the authorities to respect the fundamental freedoms of association… and to ensure that human rights defenders can operate without fear of reprisal,” the statement continued.
Established in 1987, HRCP was cofounded by the late lawyer and activist Asma Jahangir.
It is Pakistan’s foremost rights body and has long served as an independent and credible voice on civil liberties, both nationally and internationally.
Over the years, its reports and advocacy have drawn criticism from politicians and state officials. In 2014, Imran Khan, then a leading opposition figure, accused HRCP of promoting “foreign agendas”- an allegation never substantiated.
Still, HRCP members say the last two and a half years have brought pressure unlike anything before.
“In the past we were pressurised, but it was never like this,” Harris Khalique, the organisation’s secretary general told The News.
Since late 2023, HRCP has faced a sustained campaign of interference.
Its Lahore headquarters was sealed, electricity meters removed, bank accounts frozen, and its chairperson detained. Events were blocked and staff received threatening phone calls.
Initially, HRCP refrained from making these developments public. But by May this year, the situation had become untenable, prompting the July 2 statement.
“We realized that if we keep taking this pressure, the pressure will keep increasing,” Khalique said.
The clampdown escalated after an October 2023 consultation in Islamabad, where HRCP urged the government to reverse its decision to expel Afghan refugees.
The statement noted that such action would “invariably affect poor and vulnerable Afghan refugees and asylum seekers.”
The backlash was swift. Men claiming to represent security agencies, along with others identifying themselves as interior ministry officials, visited HRCP’s office.
“They asked us to give them a recording of our event,” Khalique said, along with a list of attendees. The request was refused.
This year, HRCP planned to hold consultations in Gilgit-Baltistan on local communities’ right to natural resources, and a roundtable in Islamabad on the human rights situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
Neither event took place.
In both locations, the hotels demanded a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the local administration.
“This has not happened to us in the last 38 years, that we are being asked to get an NOC to hold a consultation,” said Farah Zia, HRCP’s director.
Their local staff also received threatening phone calls from a person who warned them against holding the event or “they will be dealt with.”
HRCP was eventually forced to hold a smaller session in its Gilgit office, with government representatives present.
Then there are other actions that have also disrupted HRCP’s operations.
On November 5, 2024, the Lahore Development Authority sealed HRCP’s office, citing unauthorised commercial activity in a residential zone. It took hours and several phone calls to reopen the premises.
Later, the Lahore Electricity Supply Company removed the group’s electricity meter and issued a fine of Rs3.8 million. A private bank froze HRCP’s accounts, reportedly on instructions from the State Bank of Pakistan.
But in April, the State Bank submitted a written response to the Lahore High Court denying that it had issued any such directive.
The most serious incident occurred in July 2024. Asad Iqbal Butt, HRCP’s chairperson, was taken from his home in Karachi and held by police for four hours.
The 78-year-old was questioned about his work in Balochistan and possible links to the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), a women-led rights group.
The police, said Khalique, asked Butt if he was organizing a rally in Gwadar, Balochistan. Butt responded that he had not been to Balochistan in seven years due to his health and age.
“They also showed him pictures of his children and said look, your children are taking pictures with [BYC’s member] Mahrang Baloch,” the secretary general added. The photos were taken at a press club event in Karachi, where many activists, including Butt’s children, were present.
He was released after lawyers and activists gathered outside the station, and media outlets, including GEO and BBC Urdu, began reporting on his detention.
Khalique believes the state has drawn red lines around certain topics, such as enforced disappearances, the deportation of Afghan refugees, and legislative moves over land and minerals.
“We are the only organisation still documenting these cases across the country,” Khalique said.
According to the government’s Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, at least 10,565 people have gone missing since 2011. Activists place the numbers much higher.
In its 2024 annual report, HRCP called on the state “to eliminate the heinous practice of enforced disappearances, acknowledging that it constitutes a crime against humanity under international law.”
Despite the campaign against it, HRCP says it will continue its work.
“The space for [dissent and free speech] is constantly shrinking,” Zia said. “But we have to work regardless.”
The federal minister for law and justice and human rights, Azam Nazeer Tarar, and Punjab’s information minister, Azma Bokhari, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
