Pakistan's human rights records require urgent attention: India's statement at 46th UNHRC

Terming Pakistan as a "failed state" that should be held accountable for its state-sponsored terrorism, India on Monday urged the UN Human Rights Council to pay urgent attention to its deplorable human rights records and discriminatory treatment of ethnic and religious minorities.

In response to a statement by Pakistan's representative at the 46th Session of the Human Rights Council, India also said that Pakistan must stop preaching and focus on its responsibility towards the millions suffering in the country.

"This Council must pay urgent attention to Pakistan's deplorable human rights records and discriminatory treatment of its ethnic and religious minorities," said Pawankumar Badhe, First Secretary of India's Permanent Mission in Geneva.

"It is high time that Pakistan, which continues to export terrorism, is held accountable for its state-sponsored and supported grave violation of human rights of its people. It is high time that the failed state of Pakistan stops preaching and focuses on its responsibility towards the millions suffering in the country," he said.

Citing victim groups, Badhe said millions of people from Balochistan have disappeared since the year 2000 and their families continue to struggle for their voices to be heard. "Balochistan has now come to be known as the land of the disappeared," he said, adding that the risk of enforced disappearances has also increased in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after the promulgation of a new Ordinance, which gives security agencies vast abusive powers.

Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law

The Indian envoy also noted that there has been an alarming increase in blasphemy accusations under Pakistan's draconian blasphemy laws and that around 200 such cases were reported last year. Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws and their punishments are considered extremely severe. Under the law, those accused of blasphemy are deprived of the right to a counsel of their choice, as most lawyers refuse to take up such sensitive cases.

Badhe also said that the case of a 12-year-old girl who was abducted, chained in a cattle pen, and forced to marry her abductor, is emblematic of the systematic discrimination and persecution faced by Christian, Hindus, and other minorities in Pakistan.

In September 2020, over 30,000 people gathered in Karachi, demanding that Shia Muslims in the region be declared blasphemers' and, calling for their beheading. He also mentioned the killing of 11 coal miners of the Shia Hazara community in January in Pakistan.

"The climate of fear continues to impede media coverage of abuses by both the Government and the militant groups. Pakistani journalists not only face threats but are often kidnapped and tortured for expressing views that differ from the Government's narrative," he said.

Badhe said that political and human rights activists continue to be targeted and charged under draconian laws in Pakistan, including under the anti-terrorism act.