ISLAMABAD, July 29: Member of National Assembly M.P. Bhandara has justified the use of torture by the state during investigations.
"If lives of 200 people can be saved from torturing a single person to extract vital information during investigation in custody then torture is justified," Mr Bhandara said.
Contrary to the above sentiment, secretary-general, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Hina Jilani in her lecture on 'Torture in Custody and Signing of Convention Against Torture', did not subscribe to the system of torture.
Invoking inalienable rights as given in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article- 5, the HRCP secretary- general read, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".
"Rights of people can never be suspended, restricted and limited even if the state is at war or at peace and during political unrest etc."
She said Pakistani criminal law did not mention torture anywhere. Torture should be defined and incorporated in the books of law, she added.
She criticized an article in the 1973 Constitution which prohibited torture to extract information, terming it vague. She said specific laws to this effect had not so far been formulated and implemented. As a result use of torture continued in all spheres unabated.
"The Constitution prohibited torture to extract confessions. Nobody ever bothered to change this confusing article or make amendments to it as it has been interpreted that torture is allowed to intimidate, frighten or for any other personal purpose."
"Everyone has the right to live free of the threat of torture and ill-treatment. International law unequivocally and absolutely prohibited torture in all circumstances. Yet despite universal condemnation, torturers continued to inflict physical agony and mental anguish on countless victims - and to get away with it," said Hina Jilani.
Although Pakistan is not a party to the convention on torture, it was the moral and ethical responsibility of the government that awareness in this regard be created for people in law-enforcement agencies.
On the subject of torture and ill-treatment, she said police knew no other way to extract confessions but by use of torture. She criticized the poor or non-existent investigation procedures the police otherwise adopted.
The courts were aware of all torture cases yet not one case against torture was ever tried, she maintained.
In her experience, Ms Jilani said signing the convention did not entirely stop a state from violating laws. Deep commitment, both at political and individual levels, were the permanent solutions to end this menace.
Participants, voicing their opinions at the lecture, believed that intelligence agencies were the worst example of committing most gruesome violations.
Security forces when called to play the role of police had defacto powers to arrest, detain and torture people and no law substantiated such violations of human rights, they believed.-Jamal Shahid
