WASHINGTON: Human Rights Watch (HRW) says in its annual report issued this week that President Pervez Musharraf’s government did little in 2006 to address a rapidly deteriorating human rights situation.
The report’s “ongoing concerns” include arbitrary detention, lack of due process, and the mistreatment, torture, and “disappearance” of terrorism suspects and political opponents; harassment and intimidation of the media; and legal discrimination against and mistreatment of women and religious minorities. However, the human rights watchdog group calls the passage of the Women’s Protection Bill a significant development, besides the North Waziristan peace deal with “Taliban supporters” and reconstruction efforts in Azad Kashmir after the earthquake, though the later were marred by allegations of corruption.
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