NEW YORK: Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the Senate to speed up the adoption of a bill that criminalises the use of torture, a practice that the rights group said was widespread in the country.
Although the Constitution prohibits the use of torture “for extracting evidence” and the nation is a party to international treaties that prohibit it, HRW said Pakistan still lacks legislation that criminalises the practice.
After the National Assembly approved the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act on August 1, the bill was sent to a Senate committee.
The Senate will now vote on the legislation at the earliest during its next session later this month, it said.
“Pakistan’s Senate should urgently pass a bill that would make torture a criminal offense,” the New York-based watchdog said in a statement.
“The first step to ending Pakistan’s endemic torture problem is to criminalise it,” John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at the group, said.
“Justice and accountability in cases of torture will only be possible if parliament passes the torture bill and the government enforces the law by carrying out transparent and impartial investigations into torture allegations,” he added.
HRW also urged for an immediate, independent, and transparent investigation into the accusation of torture of Shahbaz Gill, chief of staff to former prime minister Imran Khan.
Pakistan ratified the Torture Convention in 2010. Under articles 2 and 4, Pakistan is obligated to bring domestic law in line with the treaty. The UN Committee against Torture and the Human Rights Committee, in each of their concluding observations following Pakistan’s 2017 treaty reviews, urged Islamabad to make torture a criminal offence under Pakistani law.
“By passing the torture bill, Pakistan will start a long-overdue process of reform to ensure that future allegations of torture are transparently investigated and that those responsible are held accountable,” Sifton said.
