Himalayan News Service

Islamabad, March 1:

The US State Department has said the human rights situation in Pakistan presents a troubling picture, despite attempts at improvement “here and there”.

The Daily Times newspaper, in a report from Washington quoting the department’s annual human rights report for 2004 released yesterday, said although there were some improvements in several areas at the beginning of the year, “serious problems” remained.

Local police used excessive force and committed or failed to prevent extra-judicial killings. Sectarian killings continued. Police abused and raped citizens. Prison conditions were extremely poor, and police arbitrarily arrested and detained citizens. Some political leaders remained imprisoned or in exile, the report said. It said case backlogs led to long delays in trials, and lengthy pre-trial detention was common. The judiciary was subject to executive and other outside influence. Corruption and inefficiency remained severe problems. The government violated due process and infringed on citizens’ privacy rights. The press was partly free but, in some instances, the government took retaliatory actions against media outlets and journalists. However, media criticism of security forces and the government continued to increase. The report said governmental and societal discrimination against religious minorities remained a problem.

It said local human rights organisations documented 1,458 cases of honour killings during the year while many more possibly went unreported. Discrimination against women was widespread and traditional social and legal constraints generally kept women in a subordinate position in society. Trafficking in women and children for forced prostitution and bonded labour, and the use of child labour remained widespread. Workers’ rights were restricted, and debt slavery remained a problem, it added.

The report said police and security forces were responsible for the deaths of individuals associated with political, extremist or terrorist groups during the year, and security forces committed extra-judicial killings. It did not give any figures.