Lyari Literary Forum ( LLF ) organised a study circle on 7 December 2019 at Mullah Fazul Library, Chakiwara, Lyari entitled as”UN DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN PAKISTAN”
Lecture was delivered by research journalist and Human Rights Activist Qazi Khizar.
In the beginning of his lecture, Qazi Khizar briefed us on second world war, its turmoils and the purpose behind the formation of UN charter in 1945.
He informed the audience that The UN Charter sets out to maintain worldwide peace and security. Developing relations among nations. Fostering cooperation between nations in order to solve economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian international problems.
Aftermath 1945, then on 1946 UNESCO commission was structured, which consisted of 19 members that aims, peace must be constructed, and human shall live with consistency.
These 19 members worked for the creation of international human rights declaration. Drafting committee was created for the UDHR final structure which was led by Alvino Roosevelt, wife of America’s president and then finally on 10th of December 1948 complete structure of UDHR was formed in United Nation, whereas Pakistan also agreed and signed it. However Pakistan had no constitution at that time.
UDHR consist of 30 articles and today is the 71st birthday of UDHR.
While talking about constitution he said, a constitution is an aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity, and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. The committee, which was assigned the task to frame the Constitution, presented the draft Bill in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in 1956.
However, some points in the constitution were neglected by committee and some points were rejected by state, such as no law was passed for child labor, freedom of expression, leaving the country and in case arriving back, changing over religion, preferring marriages, any person who is not subjugated as terrorist to be presented before the court within 24 hours. Such fundamental articles were not mentioned in the 1956 Constitution of Pakistan.
Thus, In January 1962, the Cabinet finally approved the text of the new constitution. It was promulgated by President Ayub on 1st March 1962 and finally came into effect on 8 June 1962. The Constitution contained 250 articles divided into twelve parts and three schedules.
Moreover, Purpose of 1973 constitution was to replace the 1962 constitution, 1973 Constitution, is the supreme law of Pakistan. Drafted by the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, with additional assistance from the country’s opposition parties, it was approved by the Parliament on 10 April and ratified on 14 August 1973.
Current situation of Pakistan was also depicted by lecturer. According to Human Rights commission of Pakistan 2018 report sexually violated cases that were filed in 2018 were 845 in which 316 were reported of honor killings.
Cyber crime harassment cases have increased, prisons are overfilled with prisoners by 57%.
Pakistani people are imprisoned in foreign states,
In term of freedom of expression, 150 journalists are under threat who filed the report those who didn’t file are not included. Media industry is shrink.
Pakistan is the world 2nd worst country in term of gender equality. More then 70 percent women are engaged in agricultural work but 60% of them are unpaid.
Number of children who die during birth and child labor is estimated to be more than 12 million.
More than 2 crore school going children are deprived of Education.
Pakistan is ranked number 8 in term of global slavery index that includes 30 lac modern slavery and bounded slavery.
Approximately 6 crore and 50 lac labors are working in Pakistan with no health and safety insurance, security, old age benefits and no one is trained for an emergency situation.
Pakistan is among those states that use less expenses on education and health.