Speakers at a focus group discussion on Thursday demanded legislation against torture by police and other law enforcement agencies.
They said the legislation should also prohibit detentions and torture by security agencies in the name of national security.
“The Punjab government must take immediate steps to improve the image of its police force,” they said.
Some of the speakers suggested that woman station house officers be appointed at police stations and at least 100 model stations established in the province.
The discussion ‘Ending Torture and Ill-Treatment’ was held to mark the International Day in Support of Torture Victims.
The event was arranged jointly by the Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) and Anti-Torture Alliance (ATA). The speakers included Naseem Anthony, Shazia George, Nazia Sardar, Arif Ayaz, and Shafique Sharif. The speakers said torture in custody had been the favoured method of the police to obtain confessional statements from suspects.
They said this was a legacy of the colonial-era administration and not acceptable in a democratic society.
They lamented that incidents of torture in custody; extra-judicial killings, forced disappearances and other human rights violations were happening in presence of an independent judiciary and parliament.
Pakistan ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) in June 2010, but has yet to make laws against torture.
The speakers asked the government to ratify an optional UN protocol on torture as well.
The speakers said the police and other law enforcement agencies were running private detention and torture cells in almost every city of the country. They said forced disappearances, illegal detention, torture and extra-judicial killings were rampant in Balochistan.
They said dozens of political activists, students, journalists, writers and human rights activists had been killed in the province. Over 1,000 cases of torture in custody were reported from the province in 2011. They said sexual assault against women in police custody was also rampant in the province. “Up to 70 per cent women in custody were reportedly sexually assaulted during investigation,” they said.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2012.
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