Asian Human rights commission titled PAKISTAN is a country under Torture endemic

Asian Human rights commission said amid the demonstration of the most

cruel form of torture by the police, armed forces, the intelligence

agencies and paramilitary forces during the last year, from July 2009

to June this year, the government of Pakistan has ratified the

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the

Convention against Torture, Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or

Punishment.
AHRC also said that it is also quite well known in Pakistan that

torture prevails both in police and military custody. The primary

method by which crimes are investigated is still the use of torture

and in almost all police stations torture takes place daily. Dealing

with this issue by the development of the police force will now be one

of the main obligations of the state. Civil society and human rights

organisations must now take greater interest in the attempt to

eliminate the use of torture within the policing system

According to AHRC Torture in custody is a very common phenomenon in

Pakistan because of the rouged legal system and impotent rule of law.

The laws of the land are silent on the issue of torture by the law

enforcement agencies. The Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) has no specific

section about torture; it deals only about the word “hurt” and, even,

in the definition of 'hurt' the state authorities, who are mainly

responsible for exercising torture, are not mentioned in any way.

The criminal procedure code (CrPc) also does not mention any clause

for punishing perpetrators of torture. The existence of a rogue legal

system has meant that serious issues of torture are disregarded.

Therefore, law enforcement authorities are given free hand to use

torture as the best way to mint the money and obtain confessional

statements which favour the police and other law enforcement

authorities.
AHRC shared that If Pakistan can develop its policing system based on

modern policing philosophies and methodologies, the country will make

a great leap towards becoming a nation based on the rule of law and

democracy.
According to AHRC Torture in custody still needs attention from the

law makers after so many ruthless demonstrations from the police and

armed forces. During the past year (July 2009 to June 2010), the law

enforcement agencies have shown their power of impunity by conducting

torture in the open places before the public—women were not spared

from facing torture before many persons. The reason is that there is

no law in existence which criminalizes torture.