‘Rights have been systematically manipulated’: Second Asma Jahangir Memorial Lecture
Speaking at the annual Asma Jahangir Memorial Lecture instituted by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Senator Raza Rabbani observed that, although the Constitution protected the right to freedom of association, Pakistan had witnessed a systematic and premeditated plan on the part of the state to ‘manipulate’ and ‘deny’ this—and other—fundamental rights
Although the late Benazir Bhutto had attempted to revive student unions in 1988, ‘the overarching state structure to which all political governments were, and continue to be, held hostage’ had prevented these efforts from materializing.
Senator Rabbani also pointed out that the judiciary’s interim order banning student unions in June 1992 was ‘a clear infringement of Article 17’ and that its subsequent decision in March 1993 to allow limited student activity was based on the flawed understanding that it was did not behoove students to be involved in political matters.
It was a ‘source of shame’, he added, that students in Balochistan had been forcibly disappeared: ‘Parliament has raised this issue, but at the end of the day, the deep state does not listen.
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Thanking Senator Rabbani for having spoken on the occasion, HRCP’s chairperson Hina Jilani said that HRCP stood not just behind, but alongside the students’ movement and would continue to espouse their cause.