Freedom of expression, other rights constricted in 2021.

ISLAMABAD -- The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed serious reservations concerning freedom of expression in 2021,said in HRCP annual report for 2021 here on Friday.

In at least nine cases, journalists were intimidated or silenced altogether, whether in the form of assault, enforced disappearance, murder or overt censorship.

Additionally, the previous government will be remembered for attempting to impose the draconian Pakistan Media Development Authority Ordinance on the press.

With this fundamental right in peril, all other rights too were increasingly constricted.

The state's attempts to expand the scope of restrictions on freedom of expression under Article 19 of the Constitution have emboldened non-state actors to impose their whims-often violently-on those who do not agree with them. The savage murders of a Sri Lankan factory manager in Sialkot by a lynch mob on allegations of blasphemy, and of human rights defender Nazim Jokhio allegedly by PPP lawmakers, are both cases in point.

The report observes that the near-absence of political consensus-building was reflected in the number of presidential ordinances issued by the previous federal government-a record 32 issued in 2021.

According to report published by Human Rights Commission Pakistan (HRCP), the

highest number of enforced disappearances reported to the Commission of Inquiry on

Enforced Disappearances in 2021 was in Balochistan, at 1,108.

Escalating religiosity remained cause for grave concern, given the implications for women and religious minorities. This was evident from the Council of Islamic Ideology's objections to the Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection Bill 2020 and Prohibition of Forced

Conversions Bill 2021. Yet...