PPP for early legislation to criminalise torture

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has expressed concern over the absence of anti-torture legislation amid reports of torture in police stations and opaque detention centres, and called for early legislation to criminalise torture.

“The Convention Against Torture (CAT) was ratified during the PPP government in 2010 and it was obligatory to make domestic legislation, and a private member bill criminalising 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,” said the PPP Secretary General Farhatullah Babar in a statement on the occasion of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

Farhatullah Babar said we live in a state of denial.

“Official reports submitted to the UN human rights bodies deny torture in state’s detention centres. When the National Commission on Human Rights (NCHR) in 2019 refuted the no-torture claims in its shadow report, the Commission itself became dysfunctional since May that year,” he said. The PPP leader said as per 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.