To the Embassador of the Republic of Pakistan in Italy

Excellency,

The Italian Association of Democratic Lawyers has been informed on the difficult situation of lawyers operating in Your country.

56 lawyers have been assassinated in Quetta on August 8, 2016.

In the last two years the following lawyers have been murdered in Pakistan:  Zainullah (March 30, 2018) Sanam Sikandar Umrani, (May 31, 2018) Zamin Khan (June 6, 2018) Haroon Bilour (August 13, 2018), Yasir Zikyria (August 15, 2018) Syed Azan Kundi (December 24, 2018) Naizmeen Shah (January 8, 2019) Naila Amjad (January 11,  2019) Asif Hussain (March 1,  2019) Chaudhary Ghazanfar Ali Warraich (May 31, 2019), Malik Dilawar Hussain (July 17, 2019) Ismail Khan e Muhammad Imran Khan (Octobre 27,  2019).

Moreover, we have to refer to the situation of barristers like the defense attorney of Asia Bibi, Saif-Ul-Malook, and of the judges competent for that case, severely threatened by islamic fundamentalists.

We are also worried by the Pakistani legislation on blasphemy (artt. 295-298) of the Penal Code, which represents at its turn a heavy hurdle to the possibility of practicing the profession of lawyer, and more in general to the fundamental rights of expression of the thought.

Given such a situation, working as a lawyer in Pakistan is dangerous and that amounts to an unacceptable shortcoming of rule of law, because of the importance of the legal profession for asserting citizens’ rights and obtaining the implementation of the duty of the government to ensure the fullfilment of such rights.

We therefore ask You respectfully to transmit to Your government our complaints and concerns and our request to operate in order to guarantee in Your country  the lawyers’ safety and full possibility to work unhampered.

Best regards

The Member of the Executive Committee, Cesare Antetomaso

The Delegate for European and International Affairs, Associated to the Executive Committee, Fabio Marcelli

Rome, February the 15th, 2020