Following a six-day visit to Oman in September, the UN Special Rapporteur on the PAKISTAN rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association stated that limits on peaceful Islamic Republic of Pakistan assembly in Oman were “quite restrictive, to Head of state: Mamnoon Hussain the point where they often annul the essence Head of government: Muhammad Nawaz Sharif of the right”. WOMEN’S RIGHTS In December, the Pakistani Taliban-led Women were not accorded equal rights with attack on the Army Public School in men under the criminal law, which attached Peshawar resulted in 149 deaths, including less weight to the evidence of a woman than 132 children, marking the deadliest terrorist to the evidence of a man, and under personal attack in Pakistan’s history. In response, status law, which accorded men greater the government lifted the moratorium on rights in relation to divorce, child custody and carrying out death sentences and swiftly inheritance. executed seven men previously convicted for other terror-related offences. The Prime MIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS Minister announced plans for allowing Migrant workers received inadequate military courts to try terror suspects as protection under labour laws and faced part of the government’s National Action exploitation and abuse. In May and Plan against terrorism, adding to concerns November,, the government renewed over fair trials. In October education for a further six months a bar on the rights activist Malala Yousafzai jointly won entry of most foreign migrant workers for the Nobel Peace Prize in October along construction and other work sectors. In July, with Indian child rights activist Kailash a new decree amended the labour law to Satyarthi. The National Assembly approved prevent the employment of expatriates in the Protection of Pakistan Act in July professions reserved for Omani nationals. The and other security laws during the year government also stated that it would begin to that enshrined sweeping powers for law strictly enforce a rule barring migrant workers enforcement and security forces, expanding who leave Oman from returning for two the scope for arbitrary arrests, indefinite years, which was reported to facilitate labour detention, the use of lethal force, and exploitation. secret court proceedings which go well beyond international law enforcement and DEATH PENALTY fair trial standards. Pakistan’s media faced Oman retained the death penalty for murder sustained harassment and other abuse, and and other offences. In June, the State the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Council approved proposals to extend its use Authority briefly ordered the closure of the to drug trafficking offences. No executions two largest private broadcasters because of were reported. content critical of the authorities. Religious minorities continued to face discrimination and persecution, especially due to the blasphemy laws. BACKGROUND Hearings in the treason trial of former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf continued to be delayed, creating tensions between the Amnesty International Report 2014/15 281 democratically elected government of Prime city of Peshawar, where 149 people were Minister Nawaz Sharif and the powerful killed, 132 of them children, and dozens military. The government and opposition injured in shootings and suicide bombings. political parties failed to secure a peace deal The Pakistani Taliban said the attack was in with the Pakistani Taliban, culminating in response to recent Pakistan Army operations the latter carrying out an attack on Karachi in nearby North Waziristan in which hundreds International Airport that claimed at least 34 of Taliban fighters had been killed. lives, mostly of security forces and Taliban Various factions of the Pakistani Taliban fighters. That attack and continued pressure continued to carry out attacks, including from the USA resulted in the Pakistan Army against activists and journalists for promoting launching a major military operation against education and other rights, or for criticizing Taliban and al-Qa’ida sanctuaries in North them. Ahrar ul Hind, a breakaway group from Waziristan tribal agency in June, which was the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility continuing as of the end of 2014. for the 3 March gun and suicide bomb attack Following their claims of rigging in the on a court house in Islamabad that left 11 2013 general elections, and disaffection dead and several others injured, reportedly in with independent inquiries into these claims, response to the Pakistani Taliban’s decision to demonstrators led by the opposition politician enter peace talks with the government. Jamat Imran Khan and the religious cleric Tahir ul ul Ahrar, another breakaway group from Qadri held protests across the country calling the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility on the government of Nawaz Sharif to step for the 2 November suicide bomb attack down and for fresh elections. After the killing following the daily flag lowering parade at of 12 political activists by police in Lahore’s the Wagah Border Post between Pakistan Model Town neighbourhood on 17 June, the and India, which left 61 dead and more than protests became increasingly confrontational, 100 injured. peaking in August and September. Health workers involved in polio and other Demonstrators briefly stormed the National vaccination campaigns were killed in various Assembly and threatened to occupy the parts of the country. Killings were particularly Prime Minister’s official residence, creating prevalent in parts of the northwest and the a crisis that risked forcing the collapse of the city of Karachi, areas with an active presence government, until the military publicly backed of Taliban and aligned groups which oppose the Prime Minister. vaccinations. Ethnic Baloch armed groups For the fourth year in a row major calling for a separate state of Balochistan floods across Pakistan displaced were implicated in the killing and abduction hundreds of thousands, creating a major of security forces and others on the basis of humanitarian crisis. their ethnic or political affiliations, and carried Attempts by the government to improve out attacks on infrastructure. The anti-Shi’a relations with India early in the year stalled armed group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed as the armed forces of the two countries responsibility for a series of assassinations engaged in regular clashes across the Line of and other attacks on the Shi’a Muslim Control across Jammu and Kashmir. population, particularly in the province of Balochistan and the cities of Karachi and ABUSES BY ARMED GROUPS Lahore. Rival armed groups frequently Armed groups were implicated in human clashed, resulting in scores of fatalities. rights abuses across the country. On 16 December, several men claimed by the ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES Pakistani Taliban as its members attacked Despite clear rulings by the Supreme Court the Army Public School in the northwestern to the government in 2013 demanding 282 Amnesty International Report 2014/15 the recovery of victims of enforced US drone strikes on Pakistan’s tribal areas. disappearances, the authorities did little He was released nine days later following to meet its obligations under international pressure from local and international rights law and the Constitution to prevent these groups and foreign governments. He claimed violations. The practices of state security that he had been subjected to torture and forces, including actions within the scope repeatedly questioned about his activism of laws such as the Protection of Pakistan and his investigation of drone strikes. Act, resulted in men and boys being The authorities failed to investigate the subjected to enforced disappearance across incident adequately and did not bring those Pakistan and particularly in the provinces responsible to justice. of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Human rights groups criticized a judicial Sindh. Several victims were later found dead, inquiry into mass graves discovered in Totak bearing what appeared to be bullet wounds Balochistan on 25 January for failing to and torture marks. The government did not investigate state security forces adequately. implement Supreme Court orders calling Baloch activists claimed that the graves for security forces responsible for enforced belonged to ethnic Baloch activists who had disappearances to be brought to justice. been subjected to enforced disappearance.2 Zahid Baloch, Chairman of the Baloch Student Organisation-Azad, was abducted in INTERNAL ARMED CONFLICT Quetta, Balochistan, on 18 March. Witnesses Parts of FATA in northwestern Pakistan claimed he was taken at gunpoint in the continued to be affected by internal armed city’s Satellite Town area by personnel of the conflict, facing regular attacks by the Taliban Frontier Corps, a federal security force. The and other armed groups, the Pakistan armed authorities denied knowledge of his arrest and forces, and US drone aircraft that claimed failed to investigate his fate or whereabouts hundreds of lives. In June the Pakistan or to investigate the abduction adequately. Army launched a major military operation No new information was known at the end of in North Waziristan tribal agency, and the year.1 carried out sporadic operations in Khyber The bodies of men and boys arbitrarily tribal agency and other parts of FATA. detained by the Pakistan armed forces in Affected communities routinely complained Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the of the disproportionate use of force and Federally Administered