PPP to table anti-torture bill in parliament

State institutions would've to abandon policy of torture, innocent people must not be humiliated: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party will introduce legislation in parliament to eliminate “ the barbaric practice of torture at the hands of state”, party chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Tuesday.

In a tweet, Bhutto Zardari said that police and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) have the long history of this practice. “#PPP will bring legislation in Parliament to end the barbaric practice of torture at the hands of the state,” he wrote in his tweet.

“Police, agencies & NAB all have a long and sordid history of such practices. We know it is still on going. No civilized democratic country functions this way. #EndTorture”, the PPP chairperson added in his post.

PPP information secretary Nafeesa Shah, along with party leaders Qamar Zaman Kaira and Chaudhry Manzoor, told a press conference in the federal capital that that the PPP would present the anti-torture bill in the National Assembly.

They said that though Pakistan is a signatory to the anti-torture convention, yet the use of torture by the state institutions had become a common practice. In Pakistan, they added torture is used as a weapon, which is unacceptable in the “age of democracy”.

“We are taking up such an issue, which is not generally debated,” Kaira said. “There is no end to torture by the state institutions,” he said, adding that “torture has become a mindset.” He warned that the situation could worsen if the new Interior Minister Ijaz Shah stayed in the ministry.

Kaira said that the interior minister’s track record is in front of everyone. The interior minister forced people in the past to change loyalties. “He [Ijaz Shah] said in his constituency that anyone who would go opposition’s protest, would be punished,” Kaira alleged.

The PPP leader also came down hard on NAB. “Suspects are drugged to get their statements changed,” he alleged. “The chairperson of the Human Rights Commission sought to visit the detention centres of NAB, but the permission was denied,” he added.

He said Punjab University vice chancellor Brig (retd) Asad Munir’s case is in front of everyone, and more of such cases could come to the fore. He urged the Supreme Court to take notice of Munir’s previous application.

The PPP leaders warned that the issues could not be resolved through torture. “The state institutions would have to abandon the policy of torture and innocent people must not be humiliated,” he said, adding that the government had resorted to torture to hide its failures. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2019.