Analysts and rights advocates in Germany's Berlin have warned that the 27th Constitutional Amendment adopted in Pakistan will weaken judicial independence and increase executive authority.
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BERLIN — Analysts and rights advocates in Germany's Berlin have warned that the 27th Constitutional Amendment adopted in Pakistan will weaken judicial independence and increase executive authority, resulting in reduced protection for people already facing human rights abuses and political exclusion, local media reported.
Political analyst Rafiullah Kakar and Human Rights Council of Balochistan (HRCB) Executive Director Abdullah Abbas participated in the discussion moderated by former BBC correspondent Sahar Baloch, The Balochistan Post reported. During the discussion, Abbas stated that the amendment's impact would be severe in Balochistan, a region where rights groups have documented enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
"This law applies across Pakistan, but Balochistan is a unique case.Years of dehumanisation and state-driven narrative-building against dissent have enabled — and often justified — the gravest human rights violations," Abbas said.
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He mentioned that in Balochistan, the Constitution barely exists in practice. "With the 27th Amendment, even the little remaining hope for legal remedy is being extinguished."
Abbas stressed that amendments made to Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act effectively legalise enforced disappearances. "What China did to the Uyghurs through lawfare and surveillance is now being replicated in Balochistan", he opined while terming the development as the "institutionalisation of repression," The Balochistan Post reported.
Kakar stressed that the amendment "fundamentally reshapes" the relationship between the judiciary and the executive by limiting the authority of the courts to review or challenge executive action.
He said the change will limit the ability of people, activists and civil society organisations to seek legal remedy. He stated that rights are not formally abolished "but their enforceability collapses when courts are stripped of authority."
On Tuesday, a leading human rights organisation revealed that three more Baloch civilians were forcibly disappeared by the Pakistani forces in Balochistan province.
These latest incidents come against the backdrop of a growing wave of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings across the province.
Condemning the incidents, Paank, the Baloch National Movement's Human Rights Department, mentioned that 40-year-old Ali Ahmed Reki, a teacher from Surab district in the province, was abducted on January 24 from Ganjh Chowk area in the provincial capital Quetta, by Pakistan’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) personnel. Since then, his whereabouts remain unknown.
The rights body further stated that a 25-year-old doctor Shahzain Ahmed from Surab was abducted on the same day and at the same location by CTD.
Highlighting the atrocities against civilians in Balochistan, Paank also brought to light the enforced disappearance of 22-year-old Junaid Ahmed, a student from Surab. He was abducted on January 23 at the Children's Hospital, Quarry Road, in Quetta, by CTD.