Afrasiab Khattak
By Raza Rahman Khan Qazi
Afrasiab Khattak is a politician and human rights activist. He has been the president of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), which is believed to be the largest human rights organisation in the country.
Khattak hails from Karak in southern NWFP. He was an active leftist politician during the '70s and '80s. He spent many years in self-exile in Afghanistan in the '80s, due to his strong opposition to General Ziaul Haq’s military rule.
After his return from Afghanistan, Khattak contested the general elections from his ancestral town Karak but could not win due to his progressive ideas that were in conflict with the conservative electorate he belonged to. He is also a known constitutional expert and a practicing lawyer of Supreme Court and High court.
In a recent interview with Political Economy, Khattak spoke on military rule, democracy and human rights in Pakistan. Excerpts follow:
PE: What do you mean by human rights?
AK: "After the Industrial Revolution in Europe, people started to talk about human rights. It was a direct result of the emerging concept of citizenship. Previously, there had been a lot of talk about rights of nations, rights of religious and ethnic communities, but no discussion on individual rights. A number of democratic revolutions in the West facilitated the ideology of individual rights and the people made a collective commitment in this regard.
"But women were still deprived of basic human rights even in societies that had undergone democratic revolutions. The principle of adult franchise was only accepted in the 20th Century. In the West, women’s right to vote was not recognised until the last century. It was only in the 20th Century that the concept of fundamental civil and human rights bore fruits. It was after World War II that people sat down seriously to define the concept of human rights, and in 1948 UN General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This was followed by other declarations like that of Refugees and the 1951 Geneva Convention. But more important were the 1966 conventions–the one pertaining to International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights and the other International Covenant for Social and Economic Rights. These covenants as well as Universal Human Rights Declaration are also known as International Bill of Human Rights. It served as a foundation for the International Human Rights Law.
“I like the concept because it is simply called Human Rights. This means that the only qualification for having these rights is being a human. It is simple and at the same time very comprehensive.”
PE: What is the stand of human rights activists on the exploitation of consumers by market forces?
AK: “Every human rights activist is concerned about the rights of vulnerable people. These are the segments of societies that are oppressed and exploited. They include women, children and all underprivileged people. These people do not have equal opportunities. So we stand for these people and advocate their rights. We have a very clear stand on economic rights of the underprivileged class.”
PE: What is the condition of human rights in Pakistan?
AK: "Unfortunately, the human rights situation in Pakistan is quiet bleak. In a country where the constitutional process has broken down to shreds and the military determines the fate of individuals and communities, it is very hard for people to achieve their rights.
"In civilised societies, the State and society enjoy a symbiotic relationship. Society controls the State through democratic and electoral process. People vote for political leadership to pursue certain type of policies that represent people’s aspirations. Similarly, the State administers society through government. In Pakistan, the control of society over State is very weak. But in spite of empowering the civil society in Pakistan and transforming it into a democratic State, we took a journey in the reverse direction. Pakistan started off quite well, but the dissolution of Constituent Assembly in 1957 and the Martial Law in 1958 marred the nascent democratic process. In Pakistan there have been military dictatorships, punctuated by brief periods of controlled or quasi-democracies.
"I would like to add that the so-called 1985 Republic, manufactured by General Zia, collapsed in the late 1990s. General Musharraf’s takeover was an anti-climax of this process, which is the total disempowerment of the people. The State system in Pakistan, which is heavily militarised, is in no way accountable to the society. So it is natural that State imposes its policies on society.
"The state in Pakistan does not represent aspirations of its people and this fact is also reflected in its anti-people policies. Just look at the priorities of the State. The money we spent on health, education, and development of human resources is nothing in comparison to the huge spending on defense, administration and debt-servicing.
“The worst victims of these policies are the vulnerable sections of the society like women. Poverty is on the rise. Poverty harms women more than men, and affects children more than grown-ups. The rise of religious extremism has further limited space for a healthy growth of civil society and human rights.”
PE: Do you agree that the rise of religious extremism is a result of economic deterioration?
AK: “Religious extremism is a complex phenomenon, involving many factors. It has national as well as international actors behind it. It is true that economic deprivation is a very important factor, but the despotic and undemocratic rulers have also caused religious fanaticism to grow by leaps and bounds. These regimes abrogate constitution and resort to religious slogans to justify their unlawful rule. Then, of course, Cold War also added fuel to fire and the Western powers used religion as a weapon to serve their interests. Religious extremism, which was then created, has now taken new forms.”
PE: You mean to say that religion is used as an agent of de-politicisation of the State…
AK: “Yes, of course. Various religious slogans were used as an alternative to constitutional rule to achieve legitimacy. This has had very negative consequences on Pakistani society.”
PE: There have been reports of human rights violation at the family level. What is the depth of these violations?
AK: "We have feudal and tribal structures still intact in rural areas. Family, in our society, is not a democratic institution. It is fiercely patriarch and the male is the unchallenged king, deciding the fate of women and children members of the family according to his whims.
“Marriage is not regarded as a contract in which the parties have well defined interests and remedies. Violence against women has unfortunately increased a lot in recent times. We have yet to define domestic violence in specific terms, as a crime punishable by law. Women are killed in the name of so called ‘honour’ only because the murderers can get away with their crimes.”
PE: So the foundations of our society are whimsical?
AK: “No they are not whimsical. It is basically a male-dominated society in an institutionalised way. All the institutions, ideologies and laws are biased in favour of men and are crafted to subjugate women. I admit that patriarchy is almost everywhere in the world, but it is no where in such a horrible shape as in Pakistan.”
PE: You have been a very vocal exponent of the restoration of 1973 Constitution. Do you think that the constitution really safeguards human rights at all levels?
AK: “It is a matter of principles. The 1973 Constitution is important because it was drafted by a representative assembly of the people of Pakistan. We may have disagreements on certain contents of the Constitution, but no one can deny its importance in a democratic system.”
PE: What needs to be done in order to undermine the role of military in State machinery?
AK: "Unfortunately, we are bogged down in a vicious cycle. Preventing military from interference in State affairs requires a strong mass democratic movement. Only political consciousness and political organisations can guarantee to stop military influence in State affairs.
“But the problem is that our military has grown into a State within a state. It shapes all basic State policies. It enjoys almost complete monopoly over State intelligence. In recent years, it has encroached upon civil rights even more. It is a complicated situation for the people of Pakistan and as I earlier said, we need to establish a democratic culture to develop a viable political system. For that purpose, political parties have to function democratically.”