ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has expressed its grave concerns regarding the absence of anti-torture legislation amid reports of torture in police stations and detention centres, and called for early legislation to criminalise torture.
PPP Secretary General Farhatullah Babar expressed these views on the occasion of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, observed worldwide on Saturday.
He said that the Convention against Torture (CAT) was ratified during the PPP government in 2010 and it was obligatory to make domestic legislation.
A private member bill criminalizing torture was also passed unanimously by the Senate in March 2015, but there has been no progress despite many public assurances by the government during the past three years, he said.
“We live in a state of denial. Official reports submitted to the United Nations’ human rights bodies deny torture in state’s detention centres. When the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) in 2019 refuted the claims of no torture in its shadow report, the commission itself became dysfunctional since May that year,” he said.
As per the universally accepted practice, the bill passed by the Senate also stated that war, threat of war, internal political instability or an order of a superior authority shall not constitute a defence against the commission of offence of torture. However, during a meeting of the Senate’s human rights committee, it transpired that the government had reservations over it.
“Not making this provision in the law will defeat the very purpose of legislation and raise more questions about internment centres in the country,” he said.
Farhatullah said that allegations of securing confessions under torture are not entirely unfounded.
“In October 2018, the Peshawar High Court had set aside convictions of over 70 people on the basis of questionable ‘confessional statements’. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has suspended the PHC verdict,” he said.
He called for an independent inquiry into the allegations of involvement of state functionaries in torture in all detention centres.
