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Threat to Asma’s life condemned
Lahore, 4 June 2012: We the undersigned citizens, belonging to various sections of Pakistan’s civil society, express our serious concern and alarm at the information-leak from a responsible and highly credible source that there is a serious threat to the life of the country’s leading human rights activist and one of the most influential leaders of the bar, Ms Asma Jahangir. What makes the reported conspiracy to liquidate Asma Jahangir especially serious is, firstly, the environment of target-killings, in which dissident persons’ dead bodies are being dumped all over, and, secondly, the fact that the finger of accusation has been pointed at the extraordinarily privileged state actors. We wish to make it clear to all and sundry, especially those who preside over the security apparatus, that they must not under-estimate the consequences of any harm being caused to the life of Asma Jahangir. This is not a conspiracy against one individual alone; it is obviously a plot against Pakistan’s future as a democratic state, of which the threat to Asma Jahangir may be only one, though crucial, part. What the duty of the state in this matter is and how the civil society must face the challenge thrown to it need no elaboration.
1. Justice (retired) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim
2. Dr. Mubashir Hassan
3. Mr. I. A. Rehman
4. Mr. Yasmin Azad, President SCBAP
5. Akhtar Hussain President Pakistan Bar Council
6. Ali Ahmad Kurd, former President SCBAP
7. Mr. Tariq Mahmood former President SCBAP
8. Mr. Muneer A Malik, former President SCBAP
9. Lt. General (retired) Talat Masood
10. Air Marshal (retired) Zafar Chaudhry
11. Mr. Ahmed Rashid, author and senior journalist
12. Mr. Latif Afridi, President High Court Bar Peshawar
13. Mr. Shahryam Sarwar Chaudhry, President Lahore High Court Bar Association
14. Mr. Zahoor Ahmad Shawani President Balochistan High Court Bar Association
15. Sher Muhammad, President Malakand High Court Bar Association
16. Mr. Azam Nazir Tarar, Member PBC
17. Mr. Ehsan Bhoon Member PBC
18. Justice (retired) Malik Saeed Hassan
19. Mr. S.M. Masood former Law Minister
20. Mr. Ehsan Wyne General Secretary, ANP
21. Prof. Salima Hashmi
22. Hina Jilani, Advocate
23. Munir Kakar President Executive Committee Balochistan Bar Council
24. Jugnu Mohsin, Editor Friday Times
25. Mr. Kamran Shafi
26. Kamran Arif Co-Chairperson HRCP
27. Rashid Rehman, Editor Daily Times.
28. Fareeda Shaheed
29. Samina Rehman
30. Prof. Dr. Mehdi Hassan
31. Dr. Haroon Ahmed
32. Saleem Asmi, former editor, Dawn
33. Tahir Hassan vice Chairperson HRCP, Quetta
34. Neelam Hussain
35. Kishwar Naheed
36. Khawar Mumtaz
37. Nazish Ataullah former Principal NCA
38. Ms. Shahtaj Qizilbash coordinator, Joint Action Committee.
39. Nasreen Azhar
40. Mr. Abbas Rashid
41. Ms. Nighat Saeed.
42. Mr. Sajid Bashir former President Lahore Bar Association
43. Shahzad Hassan Sheikh former President Lahore Bar Association.
44. Muhammad Tahseen, South Asia Partnership
45. Ashothama, HRCP Task Force, Hyderabad
Issued by
Zohra Yusuf, Chairperson, HRCP
I. A. Rehman, Secretary-General HRCP
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For Immediate Release
Pakistan: Investigate Plot to Kill Leading Rights Activist
Former UN Special Rapporteur Asma Jahangir at Risk
(New York, June 6, 2012) - The Pakistani government should investigate allegations that elements in the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies have plotted to kill the prominent human rights activist Asma Jahangir, Human Rights Watch said today. Jahangir made the allegation in a television interview on June 4, 2012.
Jahangir is globally recognized for her human rights work and is one of Pakistan’s most respected rights activists. She is credited with establishing the highly regarded independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and AGHS Legal Aid, the first free legal aid center in Pakistan. In a career as a human rights activist spanning 30 years, Jahangir has been a consistent critic of human rights violations by the Pakistani military and the intelligence services.
"Pakistani authorities should urgently and thoroughly investigate the alleged plot against Asma Jahangir and hold all those responsible to account, regardless of position or rank," said Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director at Human Rights Watch. "A threat against Jahangir is a threat to all those in Pakistan who struggle for human rights and the rule of law."
see full text at: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/06/06/pakistan-investigate-plot-kill-leading-rights-activist
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Pakistani human rights activist Asma Jahangir
Security
Asma Jahangir: ‘Pakistani intelligence plotted my assassination’
Pakistan’s most renowned human rights activist Asma Jahangir claims that the country’s security agency plotted to murder her. In an exclusive interview with DW, Jahangir talks about her fears.
Asma Jahangir is Pakistan’s leading human rights activist and former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of the country. She was the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, a non-governmental rights-based organization, and has also worked with the United Nations as Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
DW: You have made some very serious allegations against the Pakistani security agencies, including the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Are your sources credible?
Asma Jahangir: I am a very responsible person, and I do not usually make these kinds of allegations. I have been threatened many times in my life but I never went to the police and never made any hue and cry about it. I believe now it is my duty to speak up and say what is needed to be said. My sources are extremely reliable.
You have been very critical of the Pakistan Army’s role in politics, and also of the military agencies’ human rights abuses inside Pakistan. Do you think this could be the reason they would want to eliminate you?
It is true that I have been critical of them but I have never been unduly critical. I am critical of their policies, which I do not agree with. I think that, in whatever I have said - for instance in my role as a lawyer in the missing people’s cases - I have repeated what people said in court. I hoped that there would be a change in the mindset of the establishment, which unfortunately doesn’t appear to have happened.
You are a prominent human rights activist and lawyer. Do you think the ISI and other security agencies could kill an internationally renowned person like yourself?
Let me remind you of our history. Prominent people have been killed in Pakistan just like in any other country. The difference between Pakistan and other countries is that in Pakistan nobody ever knows who is responsible for these murders. Akbar Bugti (the Baloch nationalist leader) was also a very prominent person. There was a warning that he would be killed. There was a warning that they would go after him. And when he was actually killed, nobody was held responsible.
But there is a democratically-elected government in Pakistan right now. Is it incapable of protecting its citizens or are the military agencies so omnipotent in Pakistan that they can do anything with impunity?
Well, I have sent a very clear message to the Pakistan People’s Party’s government that they are the ones who are responsible for my protection, and if my protection is not adequate I will hold them responsible. So far, some protection has been provided to me but it is not sufficient. And more importantly, I have communicated to the government that it is not for me to go to the intelligence agencies and speak to them; it is the government’s duty to talk to them. And they should not do it only for me but to change the way they deal with the people of Pakistan.
Do you feel more threatened by the Islamists or the Pakistani security agencies?
To explain that, I would like to give you an example. There was an attack on me in 1995. People tried to kill me inside my house. Subsequently, after the failed attempt, there was a trial and some people were arrested. During the trial, the people who were arrested were protected by two people (as bodyguards) all the time. When the lawyers protested and demanded that they wanted to know who these people who always accompanied the accused were, we came to know that one of them was from the Intelligence Bureau, and the other one was from the ISI. All this is recorded in court’s proceedings.
So you are saying that it was actually the intelligence agencies that wanted to kill you?
There is a nexus. I am not saying that agencies have connections with all groups, but they used a lot of these groups. Now the information that I have about this recent plot to kill me is not related to small groups; unfortunately it deals with the highest levels in the security services.
Are you satisfied with the recently established National Human Rights Commission? Prior to its setup, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) had requested President Asif Ali Zardari not to sign it into effect on the pretext that the Commission had no powers to investigate military agencies. Do you share the HRW’s reservations about the Commission?
It will depend on the commissioner they are going to appoint. I have seen the draft of the commission. I agree with most of its clauses, if not all. It can truly be a workable commission. But in a system where even the highest judiciary is hesitant to question the military, I do not think the commission can play a big role. Nevertheless, I do not underestimate the fact that you have to setup more and more civilian organizations for justice and accountability in all fields.
Last but not least, what is your stance as rights activist and lawyer on the case of Dr. Shakeel Afridi, who has been sentenced to 33 years by a tribal court for helping the CIA in finding the whereabouts of al Qaeda’s former head Osama bin Laden?
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has already said that every citizen has a right to due legal process, which was certainly not given to Dr. Afridi.
Interviewer: Shamil Shams
Editor: Richard Connor
