E/C.12/PAK/CO/1
Right to housing
71.
The Committee is concerned at the acute shortage of adequate housing and the lack
of financing programmes for low-income families. It is also concerned at the high number
of persons living without legal tenure in urban informal settlements (katchi abadis), with
limited access to basic services. It is further concerned that people without secure tenure in
urban areas and people living in areas where development projects such as the Orange
Metroline project in Lahore are being carried out are often subject to forced evictions
without due process or adequate alternative housing or compensation (art. 11).
72.
The Committee recommends that the State party intensify its efforts to:
(a)
Increase security of tenure by taking normative and policy measures, by
increasing the number of social housing units and improving their maintenance, and
by providing affordable financing programmes for low-income families;
(b)
Improve living conditions in katchi abadis, including in terms of access to
health, education and other public services;
(c)
Regularize informal settlements, introduce or upgrade their basic
infrastructure and improve living conditions therein;
(d)
Bring the legal framework on eviction, especially affecting those without
tenure or with insecure tenure, in line with international standards and ensure that, in
case of eviction, the affected people are consulted prior to the eviction, that procedural
safeguards are observed and that adequate alternative housing is provided;
(e)
Consider the Committee’s general comments No. 4 (1991) on the right to
adequate housing and No. 7 (1997) on forced evictions, as well as the basic principles
and guidelines on development-based evictions and displacement.
Water and sanitation
73.
While noting the progress made by the State party, the Committee remains
concerned that a high number of people still have no access to safe drinking water and
adequate sanitation facilities (art. 11).
74.
The Committee recommends that the State party intensify its efforts to increase
access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities, including the full
implementation of the National Drinking Water Policy 2009.
Right to health
75.
The Committee is concerned at the very low level of public funding allocated to the
health sector, at the insufficient coverage of the National Health Insurance Programme and
at the weak public health system, which has led to a heavy reliance on private health
services. It is particularly concerned at the high maternal and infant mortality rates.
76.
The Committee recommends that the State party make every effort to increase
public expenditure in the health sector, to further expand the coverage of the National
Health Insurance Programme, to strengthen its public health system with a view to
providing free quality basic health services to all, including disadvantaged and
marginalized individuals, and to reduce the maternal, infant and under-5 mortality
rates.
Sexual and reproductive health
77.
The Committee is concerned that abortion is criminalized in the State party except
when the life of a mother is at risk, which has led to a very high incidence of unsafe
clandestine abortions. This has in turn led to many women suffering from life-threatening
complications that in more than 5 per cent of cases have resulted in death. It is also
concerned that about half of pregnancies are not intended and that women have limited
access to sexual and reproductive health services and information thereon.
78.
The Committee recommends that the State party:
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