Ladies and Gentleman of the Media

Human Rights Watch urges you to raise a number of important human rights issues with General Musharraf. The United States has a strong interest in promoting a return to civilian rule and respect for human rights in Pakistan so that moderate voices in that country are empowered, not silenced. It has an equally strong interest in avoiding the perception among the people of Pakistan that it approves of General Musharraf's repressive policies. Given the close relationship between the United States and Pakistan and Pakistan's reliance on the United States for economic and military support, you are in a unique position to press General Musharraf on these concerns.

We are mindful of the fact that media in a free and democratic society plays a crucial role in shaping public policy.  When it comes to human rights, media has indeed played a significant role.  This visit of Pakistani president General Musharraf affords us an opportunity to present the case for human rights in Pakistan.  The remarks of my learned colleague Aziz would focus on the over-arching issues of militarism, democracy, constitutionalism, the rule of law, and human rights in Pakistan.  The learned remarks of Dr. Inge Genefke, Ambassador of the International Council for Torture Victims, would illustrate how denial of human rights ultimately leads to the traumatised human beings being stripped of dignity and hope.  

Several years ago on a family vacation trip to Bali, I was much intrigued by its terrace agriculture system.  I ended up interviewing several farmers asking them a specific question: how is the right to water of the lowest terrace farmer protected? The universal answer was each farming community is legally organized as a collective and the chief of the collective is without exception, the farmer with the lowest terrace.  The wisdom behind such social organization is derived from respect for rights of all concerned.  In Pakistan, however, the story is different.  Punjab while being the “top-most terrace” is the ultimate arbiter of who gets what share of waters from the Indus Valley river system.  My learned colleague Dr. Saghir Shaikh would indeed address the issue of water distribution in Pakistan.  I shall make only brief observations on the water issue here.

Sindh province of Pakistan, where all three of us were born has a very unique ecology.  It has the third largest mangroves forest in the world, which covers 44% of the intertidal zone of Indus delta (total 1.5 million acres).  Unfortunately due to the arbitrary, often unlawful, and highly parochial water distribution policies of General Musharraf and his predecessors in Islamabad, the mangrove forest has been reduced to naught. The deterioration of mangroves on the coast of Pakistan would contribute to global warming and would in all likelihood shatter the ecological balance.

The agrarian system in Sindh is akin to the hacienda system in most Latin American countries.  Consequently, agricultural workers live on subsistence.  The water shortage of the past 4-5 years has created a real prospect of the majority of rural Sindhi people facing wholesale starvation.  The southern Sindh especially its coastal districts Badin and Thatta are worst cases. The highest most suicidal cases have been reported in district Badin due to hunger and poverty directly caused by the water scarcity. This shameful fact has been reported by the Government of Pakistan. In these districts even potable water is scarce causing mass scale exodus to other parts of Sindh. Ghost villages, dry beds of canals, and barren lands, have unfortunately become common scenes in Sindh especially in its coastal districts. The recent research of Sindh University’s geological department shows that the increased intrusion of sea underground has contaminated all sources of drinking water including hand-pumps, wells, ponds, lakes and canals upstream up to 100 miles causing a serious epidemic of gastro-intestinal diseases.  General Musharaff’s regime or even the provincial government of Sindh has failed to effectively respond to such challenge.

Unfortunately, instead of providing for the basic healthcare needs of people or reducing the harm by ensuring equitable and fair distribution of water, General Musharraf’s government has steadfastly pursued unwise, callous, immoral policies that contravene the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and myriad of other international human rights statutes and covenants.  An example is the General’s commitment to building the Greater Thal Canal.  Interestingly, the water apportionment accord of 1991 and latter the Council of Common Interest’s (CCI) a high-level constitutional entity to resolve in-provincial disputes rejected the construction Greater Thal Canal.  Arguably, Thal Canal would benefit only few but would unleash untold suffering and misery on many lower riparian farmers. About ninety percent of the approximate 1.5 million acres of land earmarked to be irrigated by Thal Canal is owned by the in service or retired army personnel including General Musharraf himself. The Sindh Provincial Assembly has unanimously rejected the construction of Thal canal.  There is a widespread mass opposition to the building of Thal Canal as well as to the ongoing denial of water to Sindh.

Appendix 1

The Silent Features of Greater Thal Canal