Asma Jahangir The Frontline Activist

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"The time for dilly-dallying is over, we need to face the issues up front," says Pakistan's foremost human rights activist.

TALK ABOUT HUMAN rights in Pakistan and sooner or later Asma Jahangir´s name crops up—for some very good reasons. An advocate at the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Ms Jahangir has shot to prominence with the frontline positions she has taken on controversial, sometimes life-threatening, issues. She and the organisations she has founded and worked for have taken up causes ranging from the rights of women, children, religious minorities, bonded labourers, and jail inmates, to civil rights and constitutional reform. Over the last decade, Asma Jahangir´s name has become synonymous with progressive thinking and activism for change in the country.

Ms Jahangir´s first steps towards activism began when she co-founded Pakistan´s first all-female law firm, AGHS (for Asma, Gulrukh, Hina and Shahla, the founding members) and its Legal Aid Cell in 1980. She was instrumental in establishing the Punjab Women´s Lawyers Association and was part of the pioneering group that formed the Women´s Action Forum (WAF) in 1981. In 1987, she was among the founders of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), an institution whose credibility and integrity is now acknowledged internationally.

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