Islamabad, July 21 (IANS) The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Tuesday called on the Pakistani government to strengthen the country’s legal framework against torture and custodial abuse, warning that abuses remain “endemic” in the country’s criminal justice system and are routinely inflicted in lockups, prisons, and interrogation rooms.
On behalf of Pakistani citizens, the HRCP urged the authorities to amend Pakistan’s Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act 2022 to recognise psychological torture as a distinct crime.
It further appealed to the authorities to reform investigative frameworks in the country to ensure their independence from other institutions, including law enforcement agencies, that may themselves be implicated in such abuses.
“Evidence from survivors and even official data indicate that torture is endemic in Pakistan’s criminal justice system, inflicted daily in lockups, prisons, and interrogation rooms. For those who survive the practice, physical wounds may heal; psychological ones often do not. Survivors carry post-traumatic stress and a profound loss of dignity. Families of the disappeared or dead carry grief without justice,” the HRCP stated.
Although Pakistan ratified the Convention against Torture in 2010 and enacted the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act, 2022, to meet its obligations, it said, the legislation remains inadequate and weakly enforced, with perpetrators rarely held accountable.
“Torture is fundamentally illegal. Yet, where it persists unchecked, it becomes institutionalised. Interrogators are trained in its methods, facilities are designated for its practice, and denial is made standard policy. This normalisation reveals how deeply state power has corroded the guardrails meant to constrain it,” the HRCP stated.
The rights body noted that the damaging impact of torture extends beyond its immediate victims , undermining the credibility of institutions tasked with protecting life and liberty.
“Courts accept torture-extracted evidence, legitimising abuse within the justice system itself. The citizen-state covenant is fractured. When torture becomes routine, society learns that cruelty is permissible and that power need not justify itself. It brutalises both society and the perpetrator. Torture thrives in darkness and impunity. We refuse that silence,” it added.
Last month, the HRCP wrote to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, expressing grave concern over what it described as the widespread use of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, both physical and psychological, in detention facilities across the country.
Marking the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, in a letter addressed to Sharif, the HRCP said that Pakistan’s legal framework remains inadequate to prevent such acts.
The rights body warned that the absence of systematic monitoring and reporting has left the scale of torture and ill-treatment in detention facilities largely unknown to policymakers and inaccessible to civil society and international accountability mechanisms.
–IANS
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