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having regard to its previous resolutions on Pakistan,

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having regard to the Council conclusions of 18 July 2016 on Pakistan,

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having regard to the EU-Pakistan Five-Year Engagement Plan,

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having regard to the Human Rights Action Plan of Pakistan,

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having regard to the EU-Pakistan Multiannual Indicative Programme (MIP) 2014-2020,

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having regard to the recommendations of the reports of the EU Election Observation Mission to Pakistan,

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having regard to the statements by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and her spokesperson on Pakistan,

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having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, in particular Article 18 thereof,

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having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Pakistan is a signatory,

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having regard to the Convention on the Rights of the Child,

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having regard to the Constitution of Pakistan,

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having regard to the EU Guidelines on the promotion and protection of freedom of religion or belief, on Human Rights Defenders and on the Death Penalty, and the 2012 Strategic Framework on Human Rights and Democracy,

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having regard to Rules 135(5) and 123(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.

whereas Pakistan had a moratorium on the death penalty in place until 2015, but reinstated it in the wake of the massacre at the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014; whereas the moratorium was lifted initially only for terrorist activities, but was subsequently extended to all capital offences;

B.

whereas Pakistan now has one of the largest death row populations in the world; whereas cases have been reported of executions carried out while appeal mechanisms were still under way;

C.

whereas Pakistan’s ‘blasphemy law’ (Section 295-C of the Penal Code) carries a mandatory death sentence; whereas currently hundreds of people are awaiting trial and a number of individuals are on death row on charges of ‘blasphemy’; whereas the law is considered to contain vague definitions which are open to abuse to target political dissidents or silence legitimate criticism of state institutions and other bodies;

D.

whereas in March 2017 the Prime Minister ordered a ban on all ‘blasphemous’ material online, and Pakistani authorities have asked social media companies to help identify Pakistanis suspected of ‘blasphemy’; whereas on 14 April 2017 Mashal Khan, a student at Abdul Wali Khan University, was lynched by a mob of fellow students after having been accused of publishing ‘blasphemous’ material online; whereas on 10 June 2017 a Pakistani counter-terrorism court sentenced Taimoor Raza to death for allegedly committing ‘blasphemy’ on Facebook; whereas the activist Baba Jan and 12 other demonstrators have been sentenced to life imprisonment, the most severe sentence ever to have been handed down for demonstrating;

E.

whereas Pakistan’s National Assembly passed a resolution on 18 April 2017 condemning the lynching of Mashal Khan by a violent mob over alleged ‘blasphemy’; whereas the Senate has debated reforms in order to rein in abuse;

F.

whereas military courts were authorised for two years while the civilian judiciary was supposed to be strengthened; whereas there has been little progress in developing the judiciary, and on 22 March 2017 the military courts were controversially reinstated for a further two-year period;

G.

whereas multiple instances have been noted in Pakistan of human rights defenders, political dissidents and members of religious minorities or groups such as the Ahmadiyya experiencing intimidation, assault, imprisonment, torture and harassment and being killed; whereas information collected by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and by NGOs reveals that enforced disappearances are being perpetrated by security and law enforcement authorities including the police and intelligence agencies; whereas not a single perpetrator has been successfully brought to justice;

H.

whereas Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav was convicted by a military court in April 2017 and sentenced to death; whereas the case is currently before the International Court of Justice on the grounds that he was denied consular access rights; whereas on 4 May 2017 a 10-year-old boy was murdered and five other people wounded in a mob attack on a police station in Balochistan, believed to have been motivated by ‘blasphemy’ allegations; whereas on 30 May 2017 the alleged rape of a teenager (only named ‘Shumaila’ in local media) by a family member in Rajanpur led to the victim being sentenced to death by a tribal court; whereas these cases are not isolated events;

I.

whereas the case of Aasiya Noreen, better known as Asia Bibi, continues to be a matter of grave importance for human rights concerns in Pakistan; whereas Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman, was convicted of blasphemy by a Pakistani court and sentenced to death by hanging in 2010; whereas should the sentence be carried out Asia Bibi would be the first woman to be lawfully executed in Pakistan for blasphemy; whereas various international petitions have called for her release on the grounds that she was being persecuted for her religion; whereas Christian minority minister Shahbaz Bhatti and Muslim politician Salmaan Taseer were murdered by vigilantes for advocating on her behalf and speaking out against the ‘blasphemy laws’; whereas, despite the temporary suspension of Asia Bibi’s death sentence, she remains incarcerated to the present day and her family remains in hiding;

J.

whereas the crackdown on NGOs is continuing unabated; whereas, on the pretext of implementation of the national plan against terrorism, numerous NGOs have been intimidated and harassed and some have had their offices sealed;

K.

whereas 12 million women do not have national identity cards and are therefore denied the right to register to vote in elections; whereas several EU election observation missions have made recommendations for improving the electoral process for the next elections, which are scheduled for 2018;

L.

whereas Pakistan entered the GSP+ scheme on 1 January 2014; whereas this scheme should provide a strong incentive to respect core human and labour rights, the environment and good governance principles;

M.

whereas the EU remains fully committed to continuing its dialogue and engagement with Pakistan under the Five-Year Engagement Plan and its replacement;

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