News
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Interim govt should ensure safety of candidates: HRWNEW YORK: The interim government should take all necessary steps to ensure the safety of candidates and activists who are at risk of attack from the Taliban and other militant groups, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
The nationwide parliamentary elections are scheduled for May 11.
Since April 21, when election campaigns formally began, the Taliban and other armed groups had carried out more than 20 attacks on political parties, killing 46 people and wounding over 190. Earlier in April, another 24 people were killed and over 100 injured in election-related attacks.
On March 18, a spokesperson for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) declared elections part of an “un-Islamic democratic system which only serves the interests of infidels and enemies of Islam”, and warned voters to stay away from political rallies by the major coalition partners in the outgoing government.
Particularly at risk have been the Pakistan People’s Party, the Muttahida Quami Movement and the Awami National Party.
On April 28, the TTP again declared that it “had decided to target those secular political parties which were part of the previous coalition government”.
Human Rights Watch Pakistan Director Ali Dayan Hasan said that Pakistan’s interim government should use law enforcement agencies and, if essential, the army, to provide as much protection as possible to candidates and political parties from Taliban attacks. He said that unless the government, country’s independent election commission and security forces ensure that all parties can campaign freely without fear, the election may be severely compromised. The Human Rights Watch said the interim government, which took over on March 17 after the end of the government’s five-year term, should provide protection to individual candidates at high risk. “It should also facilitate election campaigns by political parties targeted by the Taliban by providing adequate security for rallies and corner meetings. The interim government should re-deploy civilian law enforcement to sensitive areas, particularly in Quetta, in insurgency-wracked Balochistan province; Karachi, Sindh; and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, along the Afghan border.” It also said that the Pakistan Army should follow the directives of the interim government to provide security in a non-partisan manner wherever necessary. It said that numerous deadly attacks were carried out against political parties in April. On April 27, an attack on a PPP election meeting in Karachi killed three and injured another 20. On April 25, two people were wounded in a grenade attack on a PPP election office in Nushki, Balochistan, and eight were killed in attacks in Karachi for which the Taliban claimed responsibility. On April 24, a bomb attack near the home of a politician from the PPP injured three people in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. online
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk