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India-Pakistan

Vote counting in Pakistan hit by unexpected delays after millions cast their ballot in controversial general election

2024-02-11

[CNN] Vote counting in Pakistan’s general election has been hit by unexpected delays after millions cast their ballot in a race in which old dynasties are vying for power while the country’s widely popular former leader languishes behind bars. There had been no final result as of early Friday evening, more than 24 hours after polls closed. Pakistan’s Election Commission on Friday said it had given “instructions to ensure immediate declaration of results.” With 156 out of the 266 contested seats counted, independent candidates were in the lead with 62 seats. The majority of the independents are affiliated with the party of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The much-anticipated vote, already delayed for months, comes as the country of 220 million faces mounting challenges – from economic uncertainty and frequent militant attacks, to climate catastrophes that are putting its most vulnerable at risk. Police in Pakistan’s capital announced a ban on gatherings as vote counting continued. Islamabad police imposed Section 144 in the city, which prohibits gatherings of more than four people. “Legal action will be taken in case of any disturbance,” the police force wrote in a post on X on Friday. Khan’s party earlier accused authorities of delaying results in an attempt to rig the vote, accusations they have denied. “This is the second half of counting & the point when manipulation takes place,” Khan’s PTI said in a statement Thursday, adding it was “clearly leading” in 114 constituencies across the country. Pakistan’s National Assembly consists of 336 seats, of which 266 are decided through direct voting on polling day. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan described the “lack of transparency” surrounding the delay in announcing the election results as “deeply concerning.”

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India-Pakistan

Police killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud angers Pakistanis

2018-01-20

[Al Jazeera] The police killing of a man in Karachi has sparked a social media outcry, as his family members reject claims by authorities that he was a member of the Pakistan Taliban, saying he was an innocent aspiring male model. Police fatally shot Naqeebullah Mehsud, 27, during a raid on what they described as a "terrorist hideout" in eastern Karachi last week, according to a police statement. He was buried in his native town of Makin, in the South Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan, on Friday, family members told Al Jazeera. So-called "encounter killings" are common in Pakistan. Rights groups say when police lack enough evidence for a court conviction, they extrajudicially kill suspects. In 2016, police said they had killed at least 318 suspects during raids and shootouts in Karachi, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HCRP), an independent rights organisation. "Some men in plainclothes came and abducted him from a restaurant in Karachi on January 3 [10 days before police said he was killed]," said Alamgir Mehsud, Naqeebullah's cousin. "Then on January 16, we were told that he had been killed by police. We got his body back the next day." Naqeebullah, also known as Naseemullah, ran a popular Facebook page where he posted pictures of himself modelling clothes and hairstyles. "He used to work in a garment mill in Karachi, and he used that money to fund his modelling," said Alamgir. "He was a sort of idol to young people from the Mehsud tribe in Karachi." By late December, Naqeebullah's page had more than 14,000 followers, and he often posted light-hearted messages. On September 16, he posted a warning to young people not to engage in the "Blue Whale Challenge", a reported social media campaign that encouraged self-harm.

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India-Pakistan

Pakistani Woman Throws Acid at Man Who Refused to Marry Her - Politicians Magically Start Suggesting Fixes

2016-06-17

A woman in Pakistan was arrested for allegedly throwing acid on a man who refused to marry her, police said Friday, marking an unusual case in a country where rates of violence against women are high. Local police official Bashir Ahmed said the 32-year-old woman, Monil Mai, was arrested Thursday, hours after she attacked her boyfriend Sadaqat Ali when he went to her home in the Mukhdoom Rashid neighborhood of Multan, a city in central Pakistan. Ahmed said that Mai had been having an affair with Ali for several years. She wanted him to marry her so that she could divorce her husband, he said. Ali was being treated at a hospital in Multan, in the eastern Punjab province, Ali said. Acid attacks and other so-called honor crimes against women are not unusual in Pakistan, but women are rarely the perpetrators of such attacks. "It is a rare incident in which a woman has been accused of throwing acid on a man," said Zohra Yusuf, who heads the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. She urged the government to take steps to stop the sale of acid to unauthorized persons. "There is a need to make checks on the availability of acid to common people to prevent such future attacks against men or women," Yusuf said. Acid is easily available at markets in many parts of Pakistan, although the government says it was tightening controls to stop illegal sale of chemicals. When women are attacked by men: Meh. When men are attacked by women: Shit just got real. Would I be a bad person if I shipped five gallon jugs of acid to the local wimmins rights groups in Pakiwakiland?

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India-Pakistan

Young boy, father injured in acid attack

2015-11-01

KHANEWAL: A five-year-old boy and his father suffered an acid attack at their house in Punjab's Khanewal district early Friday. Unidentified masked men trespassed into Iqbal's house and threw acid on him and his five-year-old son Irfan, hospital sources said. The duo was rushed to District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital but considering their serious burns, doctors at the facility referred them to Multan's Nishtar Hospital. Doctors at Nishtar Hospital told DawnNews that the the boy received 60 per cent burns while his father received 10pc. The boy is said to be in critical condition. District police has arrested one suspect in the case so fair while raids are being conducted to catch others in what police is describing as an old family feud, police sources said. A practice rampant in Pakistan, women and children are the biggest victims of acid throwing incidents used as a revenge tactic in domestic disputes. India and Pakistan have the highest rates of acid attacks with other countries in the league being Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Colombia,a Nepal and Uganda. According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) for the year 2014, 114 acid attacks were reported across the country in the previous year, involving 159 victims.

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India-Pakistan

Badami Bagh tragedy: HRCP finds police, admin responsible

2013-03-15

[Dawn] LAHORE: In its preliminary report after a fact-finding mission to the Joseph Colony in Badami Bagh, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has held the police and the provincial administration squarely responsible for the attack on Christian homes earlier this week. The mission's purpose was to "present facts -- regarding the incident of violence on Saturday, March 9 -- and the events that led up to the incident." The report also seeks to look at the response of the administration before and during the incident and identify those responsible for the lapse. The initial investigations were conducted over two days and the HRCP plans to issue detailed findings within a few days. On March 9, more than 200 houses in Joseph Colony were attacked, looted and burnt by a mob. The incident which sparked the chain of events that led to the assault is said to have occurred on Wednesday, March 6. "(A)ccording to most residents...on Wednesday evening a quarrel broke out between Shahid Imran, a local barber, and Sawan Masih alias Bodhi, while they were drinking together," says the initial HRCP report. "At the end of the fight Imran alleged that Sawan had made blasphemous remarks. "At a subsequent stage, a resident of a neighbouring locality, Shaikhabad, Shafiq alias Cheeko, came to know of the incident through Imran. Later Shafiq, with the apparent intention of attacking Sawan, went to Joseph Colony, burnt down the billiard table (owned by) Sawan and proceeded to curse and threaten Sawan and the Christian community generally. Sawan was subsequently arrested on Friday after an FIR under Section 295-C, PPC, had been registered against him at the Badami Bagh police station." The report quotes Zahida Parveen, a relative of Sawan, as saying that on the Friday evening the local police told the Christian community to vacate their houses as there was a possibility of violence erupting on Saturday. "The police also assured them of the safety of their houses and their belongings. Following the warning by the police almost the entire community evacuated the colony on Friday." Some of the residents expressed the fear that the local trader community might have played a role in escalating the tensions. A local candidate for the upcoming Trader Association elections was alleged to have played a subversive role in the episode and in particular the incitement. "On Saturday, a mob reportedly of around 3,000 ransacked and looted the colony with complete impunity, setting fire to majority of houses," says the HRCP report. "There is enough evidence to suggest that there was a considerable presence of the police force on the scene of occurrence. There is nothing to suggest that the mob was in any way resisted by the police. According to some residents, there was looting before the houses were set on fire." The HRCP mission found it "disturbing" that the local administration "that was clearly aware of the possibility of such an attack failed to take adequate measures either before or even during the attack". The commission asserts that the warning issued by the police on Friday to the residents "establishes conclusively the fact that the administration knew about arson and plunder in advance". DCO Noorul Amin Mengal, while talking to the mission, "admitted the knowledge on Friday about possible violence and claimed to have informed his superiors, the IGP, and the chief minister, about the situation". The DCO said "he was present at some point during the incident on Saturday and asserted that maintenance of law and order was not part of his job as after the Police Order 2002 this power had devolved to the police administration". The mission contacted City SP Imtiaz Sarwar, who had taken charge of the post after the occurrence. "He said in his opinion the police could have contained the protesters and a mistake had occurred in threat assessment by the local police and administration". The entire police administration at the time of the occurrence, consisting of SP City, DSP Badami Bagh and the SHO Badami Bagh have been removed from their posts and "were not available for comment at this stage". The HRCP mission also tried to contact SSP (Investigation) Babar Bakht, who also was not available. "The HRCP mission feels that the responsibility for the incident has to be ascribed at two levels -- immediate and ultimate," says the report. "The immediate responsibility for this act lies primarily with the police and district administration that despite prior knowledge failed to act. The ultimate responsibility rests squarely with the provincial government. The statement by the DCO establishes that the provincial government at the highest level was aware of the threat and potential damage, even likely violence in advance, and yet failed to order any measures. The HRCP mission also took note of statements made by the people it talked to that the raiders were ordinary residents from the adjacent areas and could not be identified as a group. That points to the effect of accumulated animus against the minority communities."

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India-Pakistan

Bomb kills policeman in Karachi's Orangi Town

2013-02-08

[Dawn] A policeman was killed and five other people, including two police, were wounded in a bomb attack targeting a police van in the Pakistani port city Karachi's Orangi Town neighbourhood on Thursday, officials said. "A low-intensity remote-controlled bomb planted on a footpath exploded in Orangi Town injuring six people, including three of our officials. One policeman died in a hospital," police official Naveed Nasir told AFP. "Another police official is in critical condition," he said. Orangi is an impoverished neighbourhood in the west of the city. "We can't say who is behind this attack, but it is certainly a part of the terror campaign aimed at police officials that has killed and injured scores in the last two months," said another official Ahmed Khan. At least 10 people have been killed in acts of violence in the city since late Wednesday, said a security official who wished not to be named. Ethnic, sectarian and politically-linked violence in Pakistan's financial capital killed at least 2,284 people in 2012 in the deadliest such violence for two decades, according to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. The unrest comes with general elections due by mid-May. The polls will mark the first democratic transition between two civilian governments in Pakistan's history.

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India-Pakistan

Pakistan acid attack parents 'feared dishonour'

2012-11-05

Mother: "It was her destiny to die this way" A couple arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of killing their 15-year-old daughter with acid say they carried out the attack because she looked at a boy. The girl's father told the BBC that they feared she would bring dishonour on their family. Her mother said it was her "destiny" to die that way. The couple were arrested in Pakistani-administered Kashmir last week. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan reported 943 women were killed in honour killings last year. That represented an increase of more than 100 from 2010. The question, and remember death is not an option: are Pakistani families becoming bolder, are the Pakistani police being more incompetent, or is Pakistani society becoming more perverted? Discuss... Police say that the incident took place in a remote village in the southern district of Kotli. They say that the case was brought to their attention by the couple's eldest daughter. The girl, known only as Anusha, was found to have burns over 60% of her body. Her father Muhammad Zafar told the BBC what happened: "There was a boy who came by on a motorcycle. She (Anusha) turned to look at him twice. I told her before not to do that, it's wrong. People talk about us because our older daughter was the same way," he said. Her mother Zaheen described the aftermath: "She said 'I didn't do it on purpose. I won't look again.' By then I had already thrown the acid. It was her destiny to die this way." Anusha's father is reported to have taken his daughter inside, beaten her and then acid was poured over her with the help of his wife. Officials say that the couple did not take their daughter to hospital until the following morning. The couple say that an older daughter had already disgraced the family and they did not want to be dishonoured again.

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India-Pakistan

Sentenced to death for singing at wedding

2012-05-29

Four women and two men have been sentenced to death in northern Pakistan for singing and dancing at a wedding, police say. Clerics issued a decree after a mobile phone video emerged of the six enjoying themselves in a remote village in the mountainous district of Kohistan, 176km north of the capital Islamabad. Pakistani authorities in the area said local clerics had ordered the punishment over allegations that the men and women danced and sang together in Gada village, in defiance of strict tribal customs that separate men and women at weddings. "The local clerics issued a decree to kill all four women and two men shown in the video," district police officer Abdul Majeed Afridi told AFP. "It was decided that the men will be killed first, but they ran away so the women are safe for the moment. I have sent a team to capture them and am waiting to hear some news," he said, adding that the women had been confined to their homes. Afridi said the events stemmed from a dispute between two tribes and that there was no evidence the men and women had been mingling. "All of them were shown separately in the video. I've seen the video taken on a cell phone myself. It shows four women singing and a man dancing in separate scenes and then another man sitting in a separate shot," he said. "This is tribal enmity. The video has been engineered to defame the tribe," he added. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said at least 943 women and girls were murdered last year for allegedly defaming their family's honour.

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India-Pakistan

Nearly 1,000 Pakistan women 'killed for honour'

2012-03-23

At least 943 Pakistani women and girls were murdered last year for allegedly defaming their family's honour, the country's leading human rights group said Thursday. The statistics highlight the growing scale of violence suffered by many women in conservative Muslim Pakistan, where they are frequently treated as second-class citizens and there is no law against domestic violence. Despite progress on better protecting women's rights, activists say the government needs to do more to prosecute murderers in cases largely dismissed by police as private, family affairs. "At least 943 women were killed in the name of honour, of which 93 were minors," wrote the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in its annual report. Seven Christian and two Hindu women were among the victims, it said. The Commission reported 791 "honour killings" in 2010. Around 595 of the women killed in 2011 were accused of having "illicit relations" and 219 of marrying without permission. Some victims were raped or gang raped before being killed, the Commission said. Most of the women were killed by their brothers and husbands. Only 20 of 943 killed were reported to have been provided medical aid before they died, the Commission wrote.

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India-Pakistan

Rights violations in Swat a concern: HRCP

2010-08-07

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) expressed concerns over human rights violations in Swat in a report released on Thursday. The report of a fact-finding mission to Swat acknowledged improvement in the law and order situation in the militancy-hit region, but raised concerns over condition of detainees and performance of courts, expulsion of families of suspected militants from towns and reports of excesses by the security forces. Preliminary findings of the fact-finding mission had been released to the media earlier. The report, entitled "Swat: Paradise Regained?", highlights the specific concerns for women and children in the region, especially their psychological needs, and the need for compensating citizens whose properties have been taken over by the security forces and those who have been ordered not to cultivate their lands as they desire. The report notes concerns of the local population that the Taliban leadership continued to be at large and could stage a comeback once the army was withdrawn from Swat. The HRCP team learned that 1,000 to 2,600 individuals were in the security forces' custody in Swat and had not been produced in any court.

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India-Pakistan

HRW uncovers military's 'role' in Swat

2010-07-17

The Pakistan government should investigate reports of summary executions, torture, and mistreatment during counterterrorism operations in Swat, according to a Human Rights Watch report on Friday. "The Pakistani military has yet to understand that a bullet in the back of the head is simply not the way to win hearts and minds in Swat." Since September 2009, the HRW has received credible reports of extra-judicial executions, allegedly by soldiers in Swat or police, acting at the behest of the military. The HRW has since February researched alleged human rights violations in Swat, based on an initial list of 238 suspicious killings provided by local sources and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. None of the killings were falsely reported in the cases examined, suggesting that the total number of killings is as high as or greater than this. To date, the military has not held any of the perpetrators accountable. "The Pakistani military has yet to understand that a bullet in the back of the head is simply not the way to win hearts and minds in Swat," said Ali Dayan Hasan, senior South Asia researcher at HRW. "Killing suspects and their relatives is vicious, illegal, and constitutes an appallingly bad counterterrorism practice that just creates more enemies."

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India-Pakistan

SC orders govt to set up body over Pakistanis jailed abroad

2010-05-21

ISLAMABAD: A three-member Supreme Court bench on Thursday ordered the government to constitute a five-member committee for the repatriation of Pakistani nationals in foreign jails. The bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Asif Saeed Khosa was hearing petitions filed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, former senator Farhatullah Babar and others, seeking recovery of the missing persons. The committee comprising secretaries of foreign affairs, interior, finance, law and human rights has been tasked with devising a detailed plan for the repatriation of Pakistanis jailed abroad. The court directed the government to assign a responsible person as a liaison officer to complain about Pakistanis jailed abroad.

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