Rights body writes to Pakistan PM over widespread torture in detention facilities nationwide

Islamabad, June 26 (IANS) The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Friday 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 on Friday, in a letter addressed to Sharif, the HRCP said that Pakistan’s legal framework remains inadequate to prevent such acts.

Despite the enactment of the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act (TCDA) in 2022, the HRCP noted that the law’s definition of torture omits, without justification, “mental and psychological pain and suffering,” thereby excluding practices such as “threats of death or serious harm, intimidation, coercion, humiliation, mock executions, threats against family members, and prolonged or indefinite solitary confinement.”

“The TCDA also grants exclusive investigative jurisdiction to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)—whose senior officers are drawn from the police service itself—without providing adequate safeguards against the conflict of interest that this arrangement invariably generates,” HRCP stated.

“Although the National Commission for Human Rights is tasked with overseeing investigations, concerns over the FIA’s independence continue to undermine accountability, while the supervisory role of the NCHR remains ambiguous,” it noted.

The HRCP 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.

The rights body called on the Government of Pakistan to amend the TCDA to explicitly recognise mental and psychological pain and suffering as a constituent element of torture and establish criminal liability and proportionate penalties for acts of psychological torture.

It also urged the government to ensure that victims of psychological torture have access to effective remedies, rehabilitation, and reparations in line with Pakistan’s obligations under the Convention against Torture.

Calling on the Pakistani authorities to amend the TCDA and the 2025 Rules, the HRCP demanded the establishment of an independent, prompt, and effective investigation into torture allegations.

It also called for the removal of procedural barriers that cause undue delays, clarify the oversight powers of the NCHR, and ensure that no institution implicated in allegations of torture exercises exclusive control over the investigative process.

The rights body urged the Pakistani government to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) and designate a credible and independent national mechanism for regular monitoring, with findings made public and acted on.

–IANS

scor/rs