Case History: Asma Jahangir
On 4 June 2012, prominent human rights defender and lawyer Ms Asma Jahangir declared that an assassination plot against her exists within the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies.
Asma Jahangir has been a critic of the military's policies in the province of Balochistan, where extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and reports of torture are common. She is one of the founders and served as Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), which has been active in highlighting human rights violations by the Pakistani military and intelligence services. Asma Jahangir served as UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions from 1998 to 2004 and as Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief from 2004 to mid-2010. She is the current President of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
On 4 June 2012, prominent human rights defender and lawyer Ms Asma Jahangir declared that an assassination plot against her exists within the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies.
Asma Jahangir has been a critic of the military's policies in the province of Balochistan, where extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and reports of torture are common. She is one of the founders and served as Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), which has been active in highlighting human rights violations by the Pakistani military and intelligence services. Asma Jahangir served as UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions from 1998 to 2004 and as Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief from 2004 to mid-2010. She is the current President of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
During a television interview on 4 June, Asma Jahangir stated that she had learned through a reliable source of an assassination attempt being currently planned against her at the highest levels of the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies. Asma Jahangir fears that she may be killed and a member of her family framed for her murder.
Asma Jahangir and other HRCP members have been subjected to repeated acts of threat and intimidation in the past, including an assassination attempt on Asma Jahangir in 1995 and a period of house arrest in 2007. In May and December 2011, Front Line Defenders issued urgent appeals on the killings of two human rights defenders affiliated to the HRCP: member Mr Siddique Eido and coordinator Mr Zarteef Afridi. In March 2011, HRCP coordinator Mr Naeem Sabir was also killed. All three defenders were active in campaigning against enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
"The situation in the country is uncertain. There is a strong crackdown on the press and lawyers. A majority of the judges of the Supreme Court and four judges of the High Court have not taken their oaths. The Chief Justice is under house arrest (unofficially). The president of the Supreme Court Bar, Aitzaz Ahsan, and two former presidents, Mr Muneer Malik and Tariq Mahmood have been imprisoned for one month under the preventive detention laws" says human rights defender Asma Jahangir in Lahore.
"Musharraf has lost his marbles and is targeting progressives" says Asma Jahangir from Lahore.
The president of the Lahore High Court, Ahsan Bhoon, and former bar leader Ali Ahmed Kurd have also been arrested. The police are looking for six other lawyers, including the president of the Peshawar and Karachi bar. The president of the Lahore bar is also in hiding. Scores of political leaders have been arrested.
Yesterday, I was put under house arrest for 90 days and I was given a copy of my detention order.
Ironically the President (who has lost his marbles) said that he had to clamp down on the press and the judiciary to curb terrorism. Those he has arrested are progressive, secular- minded people while the terrorists are offered negotiations and ceasefires.
Lawyers and civil society will challenge the government and the scene is likely to get uglier. We want friends of Pakistan to urge the United States administration to stop all support of the unstable dictator, as his lust for power is bringing the country close to a worse form of civil strife. It is now time for the international community to insist on preventive measures, otherwise cleaning up the mess may take decades.
There are already several hundred internally displaced persons and the space for civil society has hopelessly shrunk.
We believe that Musharraf has to be taken out of the equation and a government of national reconciliation put in place. It must be backed by the military. Short of this there are no realistic solutions – although there are no guarantees that this would work.
Asma Jahangir is a leading Pakistani lawyer, head of the Pakistan Commission for Human Rights, and a Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on freedom of religion and belief. She was heavily involved in the movement for the restoration of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry earlier this year. Ms Jahangir sent this message from her home in Lahore.
