In recent days there have been reports that the Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights in Pakistan has embezzled large amounts of Norwegian money that was allocated for human rights victims. According to reports in the Daily Times and other local newspapers, Mohammad Wasi Zafar has allegedly misappropriated millions of rupees of Norwegian government assistance for victims of torture, extrajudicial killing, rape and other gross abuses of human rights. Zafar is accused of having made a fake list of 560 victims of abuses, all from his own constituency in Faisalabad. A senior joint secretary in his ministry, Saira Karim, refused to authorise transfer of the money after conducting investigations and the auditor general raised objections.
Although no investigation is known to have been commenced against Zafar, with a thirst for revenge he himself has launched a series of illegitimate and failed inquiries against the joint secretary. The first of these was found to be illegal because it could only be commenced by the president, not by a minister. The second again was found to be illegal because it could only be commenced by the prime minister. The minister is now onto his third attempt, claiming that the joint secretary is channelling money into bogus organisations outside the ministry.
There is little doubt among human rights defenders and concerned persons in Pakistan that the minister is using his position to commit theft on the pretext of support for victims of human rights abuses. According to the ministerial by-laws, these funds are meant to be allocated to victims of abuses only after attested copies of police records and recommendations from the local authorities have been submitted and considered. But during the last two years the minister has himself reportedly approved compensation to 865 people without the relevant documents having been given. It is known to the Asian Human Rights Commission that the minister simply had his own men ‘borrow’ the national identity cards of local people in exchange for some petty cash, which were used to draw up the lists and steal the money at around USD 70 per person. Meanwhile, many of the real victims of human rights abuses have allegedly received nothing. The fascinating part is that while some 1800 so-called victims have received this money over the last two years, the ministry of human rights has meanwhile denied that there are even so many cases of human rights abuse in Pakistan. So who is getting the cash?
The Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights, like other parts of the government of Pakistan, is an opaque mafia-like operation that has little to do with any of its three stated mandates, other than to ensure their persistent abuse. Attempts at communicating with staff of the ministry in Islamabad and Karachi reveal that they are scared to give any information about the Human Rights Fund, or any other information about their work that might ordinarily be available to the public in a functioning administration. One officer noted that the joint secretary already was in trouble and they did not want any further problems.
The Asian Human Rights Commission today calls on the government of Pakistan to launch an immediate, credible investigation into the allegations against the Minister of Law, Justice and Human Rights, and also to conduct enquiries with a view to halting his spurious attacks on the joint secretary responsible for accusing him of wrongdoing. It also calls upon the government of Norway to demand the same, and to launch its own inquiries to establish as to how its citizens’ money could be misused as alleged.
