PAKISTAN: The chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights forced to leave his native place by the police and ruling party of Punjab government

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about the case of Mr. Riaz Fatyana, the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights (PCHR), which highlights the mockery of the rule of law and the extent to which the police work at the whims of political opponents. Despite his position in parliament and long history of serving the people of the country he has been victimised and punished by the very institutions which are supposed to be protecting him. Mr. Fatyana has been illegally detained and implicated in the attack on his own house in which it was razed to the ground. He was exonerated from all charges but has been displaced from his own native place by the police acting on the instructions of a family member of a retired senior judge of the Supreme Court and the ruling party in the Provincial Government. Mr.Fatyana and his family have been forced to move to Islamabad, the capital.

This is a further example of political victimisation dominating over the rule of law, human rights and justice.

CASE NARRATIVE:

Mr. Riaz Fatyana, who is the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and leader of PML-Q, is facing political victimization, humiliation and police threats. On June 19, 2012, at around 11am, a group of his political opponents allegedly led by PML-N activists attacked his house. They were armed with pistols, iron rods, sticks and bottles of petrol. They damaged and looted his office and a portion of his house. During the attack hooligans burnt seven cars and 17 motorcycles parked outside Mr. Fatyana’s residence and set fire to the furniture and electronic equipment which was completely destroyed. His house was torched with all belongings but fortunately all of his family members including children and women were saved by courageous neighbours. The police station was just half a kilometer from Mr. Fatayana’s residence but no one came until two hours after the incident when everything had been burned to ashes.

Before being attacked by the mob of hooligans, Mr. Fatyana requested the District Police Officer (DPO), Mr.Mohammad Ahsan Younas, to take appropriate security measures. However, despite of being requested to provide security one day earlier no preventive measures were taken. The DPO, instead of providing him protection disarmed his guards and gave the attackers free access to his office which was then destroyed. In this riot many persons were injured.

This particular DPO has always been considered to be the most incompetent officer in the provincial police. He was in charge of the security for the Sri Lankan cricket team who was attacked in Liberty chowk Lahore, but being a puppet of the Regional Police Officer (RGO) Faislabad, Punjab he was never reprimanded or held in any way responsible for the attack.

As a puppet officer he is frequently used to harass and intimidate political opponents. In the case regarding Mr. Fatyana he was ordered to arrest him despite the fact that there was no case registered against him. The police officers with the backing of Justice Ramday’s (the retired Supreme Court judge) family managed to implicate him in FIR no.205/12, Police Station City Kamalia, District Toba Tek Singh (the attack and arson of his own house), which was, in fact, lodged many hours after his arrest.

Before this incident, the houses of two ministers from the PML-Q were also attacked in the cities of Chichawatni and Mianwali, Punjab Province and it was alleged that the attackers were from the ruling party of the Punjab government in an attempt to punish its rivals.

On hearing the news of his detention, his supporters in Kamalia were furious and planned to organize a huge protest. Fearing this massive public reaction the District Police did not register the arrest of Mr. Fatyana in the police daily diary (Roznamcha). After his arrest at 3.00pm from his house in Kamalia, he was held in illegal detention in the Rajana Police Station before being shifted to Chutiana Police Station. His cell phone was confiscated so he could not contact anyone and he was not offered water or food until midnight when he was shifted again to a rest house, 50 kilometers away from his house in district Jhang

He was illegally detained in police custody until the late evening of 21st June when he was allowed to attend the National Assembly session to cast his vote to elect the new prime minister. This was done on the directions of the National Assembly secretariat according to the privileges provided in the Constitution and rules of business.

He was told by the police officials that he should not contest elections of the National Assembly in the coming elections otherwise he and his family would face more problems. He was released on the intervention of the Senior Political leadership of the country, but the police arrested his close associates.

After his release Mr. Fatyana tried to lodge an FIR on the attack and arson of his house and property and the murder of a child, Master Ramesh Masih (14), who was killed during the attack but the police initially refused to file the case and eventually did so after two days.

The report from the Commissioner, the District Coordinator Officer (DCO), Mr. Syed Javed Bukhar, on the incident has exposed the personal vendetta of the local police against Mr. Fatyana and confirmed the names of the actual accused persons whose names were mentioned in the FIR. But, to date, the police have taken no action on his FIR and no arrests have been made. Instead, the police arrested Mr. Dilawar Khan, who was the personal staff of Mr. Fatyana’s family and who helped the police in their investigation into the attack on the house.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

It is reliably reported that this all was done on the behest of ruling party, the PML-N, of the province whose workers in the past have carried out similar attacks and burned the houses of federal ministers from PML-Q in different cities. In the case of Mr. Fatyana, Mr. Choudry Asad ur Rehman, brother of Mr. Khalil ur Rehman, the former senior judge of Supreme Court is behind the whole drama including the attack on the Dera of Mr. Fatyana, the Dera is a term used for the guest house for meeting people. Choudry was defeated two times in the general elections by Mr. Fatyana from Toba Tek Singh constituency during the elections of 2002 and 2008 when he won elections with a good margin.

Justice Khalil Ramday is very close to the chief minister of Punjab province. After retirement in 2010, Justice Ramday is still using his position as the serving judge of the Supreme Court and has not yet left the official residence. When he was asked by the federal ministry of law to leave the residence he resisted and the chief minister allowed him to stay at the half amount of the rent. It is well known in the province that posting of the high police officials are decided with his consent.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Mr. Riaz Fatyana is a senior politician and has served on various important portfolios during his 35 years long political career. Currently, he is Member of National assembly of Pakistan and is Chairman of the National Assembly’s first ever Standing Committee on Human Rights , he has done a lot for promotion and protection of Human rights in the country.

This was Mr. Fatyana’s fifth time in the assembly. He served three times as Minister for Education, Finance and Information in the government of Punjab. His wife Ashifa Riaz Fatyana was also a member of the Provincial Assembly, Punjab on general seat from PP 88 in last term (2002-2007) and served as Minister for Women’s Development and Human Rights, Punjab. Both husband and wife were elected in National and Provincial Assemblies as independent candidates after defeating all major political and religious parties. In 2008, Ashifa Riaz lost the general seat election only with a margin of 287 votes. Mr. Fatyana was elected vice president of the third committee of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Panama in 2010. He was recently elected president of Pakistan Psychological Association in February, 2012 for next two years. He is also chairman of the Parliamentarians Commission for Human Rights, Pakistan, a group of cross party members of parliamentarians working for human rights since 2002.

He has been a very vocal critic on Pakistan’s policing system and has raised the issue of police high handedness and police brutalities many times during committee meetings. Famous cases including the killings of five Chechens by the Frontier Corps in Kharotabad, Quetta, the murder of Sarfraz Shah by Rangers in Karachi, the killing of seven innocent citizens in Abbotabad are still on the agenda of Standing Committee on Human Rights. He also actively raised his voice on various issues such as missing persons, target killings, extrajudicial killings, misuse of authority and torture by law enforcement agencies. Many times he summoned officials in parliamentary committee meetings on killings and victimisation of minorities like Ahmadis, Shiite, Christian and Hindu communities in Parachinar, Quetta, Lahore, Abottabad, Sialkot, Gojra, KPK , Baluchistan , Punjab and Sindh provinces.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the given names of the authorities calling them to initiate a judicial inquiry against the incident of torching the house of Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and killing of a minor in the vicinity of police station. Please urge them to provide appropriate security to the Mr. Riaz Fatyana and his family members, withdraw all the cases falsely registered against the victim and his associates, prosecute the police officers of Toba Tek Singh who were involved in the instigation for burning the house and instituting the false cases against Fatyana and his staff.

The AHRC writes a separate letter to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders on this matter.

To support this appeal, please click here:

 

 

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER