How to bring about a change in this collective conduct and operational methods of law-enforcement agencies, especially the police? There are hundreds of judgments by the superior judiciary, drawing the attention of executive and legislative organs of the state to this situation while simultaneously making some suggestions and recommendations in this regard.
Now, the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) has taken up the issue of this growing number of cases of torture by the police. It has stressed the necessity and urgency of enacting a proper law to define the ‘torture’ and to prescribe strict punitive action against all those responsible for torturing citizens in detention or in custody of the law-enforcement agencies.
The NCHR also released a report in this regard which made startling disclosures. It says that on court orders, some 1,424 medico-legal testimonies were prepared about the cases of torture during 2006 and 2012 but no action was taken against any of the police officials involved in these cases.
It is not the police alone known for employing methods of torture. Now there is a growing number of complaints against NAB which has lately become overactive in its intrusions into every institution — in public or private sector.
Referring to the custodial death of Mian Javed of Sargodha University and the allegations of torture made by the former vice-chancellor of Punjab University, Mujahid Kamran, the NCHR chief, accused NAB of not allowing the commission members to visit its detention and entrapment centres across the country. Let us, however, pray that the NCHR’s cry does not turn out to be another call to fall on deaf ears.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 15th, 2019.
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