Sardar Saeed
The question arises: why should the world care about Pakistan? The international community needs to concede the multifaceted security dynamics faced by Pakistan.
Pakistani society is shaped by the continuous volatility in Afghanistan like cross-border terrorism and persistent strategic pressures from India like state sponsored terrorism. Even then, Pakistan has proved outstanding resilience and steady progress across various sectors of national development, despite the complex external and internal security concerns. Pakistan has also made an extraordinary come back from almost bankruptcy to economic revival through robust policy reforms. The stable and progressive Pakistan is in the interest of regional and global community because of its geographic location, economic corridors for trade it provides, energy transit trade hub and its role in the counterterrorism. Pakistan’s commitment to the world regarding fighting the war on terrorism has crippled its economy. The grant of Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) status to Pakistan was one of the positive steps taken by EU to enhance its exports and built its economy.
The EU’s GSP+ Scheme provide developing nations a distinct incentive to follow sustainable development and good governance. The countries have to implement 27 international conventions based on the criteria laid down including human rights, labor rights, the environment and good governance. As per the latest list of GSP beneficiaries’ countries, according to Annex II, III, and IV of the GSP Regulation (EU) 978/2012, there are 11 countries including India in GSP standard, 8 countries in GSP+ including Pakistan and 23 countries in EBA (Everything But Arms) including Afghanistan.
Pakistan was awarded GSP+ status in 2014 and since then Pakistan has executed noteworthy reforms, to be in line with the scheme’s requirements. GSP+ status enhanced Pakistani exports to the EU, especially in the field of textiles due to concessional tariffs. This status was extended by the European Parliament unanimously for another four years in October 2023. The recent statement of EU Ambassador to Pakistan in Dawn News TV interview that Pakistan needed to “do more” came at a time once GSP+ review is due in the coming days. His statement is disturbing, since significant steps have already been taken by Pakistan to implement reforms and fulfil its commitments under the scheme to address the areas pointed out in preceding review reports. Pakistan has enacted comprehensive reforms to reinforce its human rights framework which was the major concern and one of the basic requirements of the scheme.
These reforms include Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act (2018); to recognizes gender identity and prohibits acumen to safeguards equal admission to education, employment and public services. Zainab Alert Act (2020); to establishes a centralized database for child protection and to generates a prompt-response mechanism for missing and abducted children. Protection of Journalists and Media Professionals Act (2021); to cater for the safety and security of journalists, a federal law was passed by the Parliament of Pakistan, authorizing special prosecutors and commissions to investigate intimidations or acts of violence against media personnel. Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act (2021); special courts for gender- based crimes are launched with forensic evidence collection mandates and have introduced stringent punishments for the criminals. Domestic Violence Acts (2020–22); the law is introduced at federal and provincial levels to outlaw local abuse, to provide protection and create shelter by providing legal aid mechanisms for the victims.
Above all a self-governing statutory body, National Commission on HRs (NCHR) has been established, who has been authorized to examine human rights violations, review laws and recommend the government on compliance with international conventions just to reaffirm Pakistan’s continued compliance with GSP+ conventions. Unfortunately, the growing politicization of human rights within geopolitical rivalry has intricate genuine global advocacy by letting states and non-state actors alike to selectively organize human rights dissertation for strategic advantage. The other significant growing challenge is the capacity of foreign-based insurgents and politically driven groups to mount their agendas in the cover of victimhood and human rights exploitation. This disproportionateness allows political campaigns overseas to form international opinion in ways that unswervingly mark domestic stability in targeted countries. These elements established front organizations that look like legitimate NGOs or human rights defenders and reposition themselves as political actors rather than security threats. This approach affords them multiple returns like soft-power acceptability, lining from scrutiny and the capability to contest state policies at international mediums under the cloak of activism.
For the states like Pakistan who is confronting hybrid threats, such sub-kinetic actions can wear down the trustworthiness of lawful counterterrorism actions by calling them as suppression. Subsequently, the active use of human rights sermon by politically motivated or violent actors not only twists the global support but also deteriorates state capability to counter the real security threats. This also shrinks the government’s policy space which weakens public trust and further obscures the efforts to differentiate between legitimate political engagement and clandestine assistance of militant activity. People like Mahrang Baloch who is the flagbearers of oppressed class often demonstrate discriminating activism. She loudly criticizes state institutions while remains silent on the killings done by US designated terrorist groups like Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Baluchistan Liberation Front (BLF). There are irrefutable evidences regarding involvement of hostile intelligence agencies for their clandestine support to dissidents and anarchists living in Europe as asylum seekers, who in return proliferate subverting narratives against Pakistan. These activists do malign Pakistan but remain hushed on continue human rights violations by Western countries and India as mentioned in Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reports of 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023, as well as in various UN reports.
From racial violence and Islamophobia in Germany, France and UK to organized acumen of police ruthlessness and clampdown of dissent in US are the glaring double standards while State-sponsored persecution of minorities in India further exposes duplicity of discerning condemnation. Few West continues by using human rights narrative as a strategic tool maintain structural inequalities in developing countries and advance geopolitical agendas under moral pretexts that need to halt at some stage.
