Tortured to death
LAST week a Islamabad-based English daily carried a photograph distributed by a foreign news agency capturing the scene of a capital policeman giving a stalk of flower to a hijab-clad woman driver in a red car. The gesture by the cop was described as part of a campaign launched to improve police-people relations in Islamabad.
On the same day the photograph was published (Dec 12), a 19-year-old robbery suspect died from police torture in Rawalpindi. So much for improving police-people relations.
An even greater irony was that the young suspect’s death took place in the same week when Human Rights Day (Dec 10) and International Day for Prisoners (Dec 15) were being observed all over the country.
On the same day when the news about the death of the robbery suspect appeared, it was reported that two prisoners had died at District Headquarters Hospital in Rawalpindi. One died of hepatitis and the other, a condemned prisoner, from multiple medical problems that went untreated; so much for Human Rights and Prisoners Day.
The incidents of deaths from torture while in police-lockup can be judged from the frequency of such reports appearing in the newspapers. This is a countrywide phenomenon with reports of such deaths from Peshawar, Attock, Rawalpindi and Lahore, down to Sukkur, Larkana, Hyderabad and Karachi. Other places where deaths in police lockup have been reported this year include Naushehro Firoz, Mansehra, Hangu and Vihari.
The victims are usually robbery or drug suspects, been hauled up by the police for interrogation. Many of them had obvious signs of being tortured, corroborated by medical examination — like the above Rawalpindi robbery suspect — but others have been reported to have died of heart attack or to have committed suicide while in police custody.
Whether the deaths from torture while in custody are murder (intentional) or manslaughter (accidental), the frequency with which such deaths are occurring is most alarming. Whatever the reason for the deaths, it would be inhuman and unjust for the authorities to brush them off as “collateral” sustained during the course of duty by police and jail officials.
Robbery suspects are not the only ones who have died at the hands of the police. Last month, even a robbery victim died of heart attack in a police station in Islamabad. His briefcase of cash snatched in broad daylight outside a bank a week earlier. He had since been trying to get the police to pursue his case.
The details leading to his death at the police station are not clear but one can well imagine the mental torture he must have gone through — what with the monetary loss — and how the attitude of the police must have added to, rather than alleviated, that torture.
Apart from the suspects, torture-to-death victims also include under-trial prisoners. Such cases were reported this year in Attock, Peshawar and Hyderabad.
In Peshawar in August, one under-trial prisoner died due to severe beatings in jail that had left him with a broken arm, fractured ribs and head injuries. In the same month, another under-trial prisoner in Peshawar had tried to commit suicide by slitting his throat with a shaving blade. In hospital he told newsmen that he could no longer stand the torture meted out to him in prison.
Last month, two prisoners in Kasur jail died from torture by the jail staff. They were not under-trial; they were on life sentence.
Usually the police and/or jail authorities try to cover up such incidents on plea that the victim died of “natural causes” like heart failure or suicide. The authorities act only under pressure from press and protests by relatives of the deceased.
The action usually leads to a police or judicial inquiry into the death and in some cases even suspension and/or arrest of the officials involved. For example, the death of an under-trial prisoner in Attock in October led to the suspension of the jail superintendent and deputy superintendent. Similarly, the death of two prisoners in Kasur jail last month resulted in the suspension of seven jail officials and prompted a judicial inquiry. But unless pressure is continuously applied through press or through protests by relatives of the victim, these inquiries do not usually see the light of day. It is not surprising if those officials who are suspended, eventually resume duty after the heat wears off. Punishment — in the form of jail sentences — for police or jail staff responsible for torture deaths is rarely heard of.
Conviction is recognized as the key to crime control. One high ranking police officer in Punjab said last week that crime rate cannot be brought down if criminals did not have the fear of being convicted. But in death from torture, those responsible are the authorities themselves. Culprits in torture deaths are rarely convicted at all because the authorities are reluctant to pursue investigation and convict their own people.
In the case of the death in police custody of the robbery suspect in Rawalpindi, the police say they are pursuing the arrest of the four police officials involved, including an SHO, all of whom have absconded. The Rawalpindi District Nazim has also ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident. But whether anything concrete will eventually come out of all this is anybody’s guess.
Why is it that justice in our country does not come readily, least of all for the relatives of police/jail torture victims? Why is it that the victims’ relatives have to fight tooth and nail in order to get justice?
Little wonder the government is usually reluctant to press, let alone fight, for the rights of Pakistani prisoners abroad.
How can the government fight for the rights of Pakistanis in foreign jails when the authorities themselves do not respect the rights of their prisoners and convicts at home?
Sindh Assembly session Turncoats make it possible
Seven turncoats — five belonging to the Pakistan People’s Party and two belonging to the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal — made the whole difference when Ali Mohammad Mahar was on Monday ascertained as new chief minister of Sindh. The unimpressive tribal lord from Ghotki needed the support of 82 members and was declared winner with a head-count of 89.
The four-hour-long session on Monday was dominated by Nisar Khuhro and the women MPAs of the PPP who, though out-witted at times by Speaker Muzaffar Hussain Shah, continued to make their presence felt.
At the outset of the proceedings, which began late by 40 minutes, Nisar Khuhro drew the attention of the chair towards a privilege motion he had jointly filed with Murad Ali Shah at the assembly secretariat in the morning. The motion pertained to police excesses against the elected members following a five-hour-long siege of the assembly premises on Saturday.
The speaker immediately admitted the motion and wanted to consign it to some house committee but Qaim Ali Shah, rising on a point of order, reminded the landlord from Umerkot that it was for the House to decide whether there should be an immediate debate on the motion or it should be referred to a committee.
Muzaffar Hussain Shah had no choice except to allow the members, mostly from the PPP, to speak on the motion and to share their outrage against the police excesses and brutality on Saturday. Acting more like a garrison commander than a speaker, it was Muzaffar Shah whose frequent interruptions and reprimanding remarks kept on adding commotion to the noise in an already indisciplined House.
“I understand that you are designated as Speaker but you are supposed to listen more and speak less,” Muzaffar Shah was reminded by Qaim Ali Shah who went on, adding that “wrongful confinement event cannot be buried under your interpretation of rules.”
Ayaz Soomro of the PPP earned the ‘honour’ of becoming the first member of the nascent assembly to be served a notice by the Speaker after Muzaffar Shah started losing his cool, finding it difficult to reconcile with Mr Soomro’s intermittent provocations. Mr Soomro had reminded the Speaker that “this is a graduate assembly and you have to listen to these graduate members.” The speaker did not reply but someone in the Press gallery retorted: “This graduate assembly is a real sad commentary on our education system.”
The 41 members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the second largest party in the House, were conspicuous by their silence and non-participation in Monday’s proceedings.
However, the day virtually belonged to Younus Khan of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement. It was because of him that events had taken an ugly turn on Saturday. The Sindh administration probably had no choice but to arrest him. As the gossip goes, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement leadership had threatened Premier Jamali and his mentors that they would abstain from the ascertainment proceedings if this lone MPA of the MQM (Haqiqi) was not put behind bars. But it is doubtful if the government or the Muttahida leadership had the slightest premonition that Saturday’s action would turn Younus Khan into a martyr and hero on Monday. — Abu Ayesha
Murder most foul
IBRAT writes that the shocking news report from Larkana highlights the wave of savagery, which, if not stopped, can destroy the civilized norms of Sindhi society.
Shamshad, daughter of Mukhtiar Kehar, from Agani village, about 20km outside Larkana, was brutally attacked by her uncles and other male relatives who claimed that she was Kari (adulteress) and had to be put to death. She was beaten up savagely and repeatedly by the men with heavy sticks and bricks. After her face was pounded to a bloody featureless pulp and her hands were chopped off, she was stoned to death.
Her crime? They alleged that the Karo, probably a male member of her clan, had tried her to dance on the joyous occasion of Eid, when the entire family had gathered for a circumsicision ceremony.
After the murder, the killers paid off the SHO of the Mahota police to hush up the crime.
This horrifying incident reveals the social tendency, according to which, women are considered to be property of men. Due to this mediaeval thinking, women are killed merciessly and they have to face several forms of torture in their own homes.
It should not be forgotten, the newspapers says further, that pushing half of the province’s population to the wall has also contributed towards destruction of the economy of rural Sindh. Those societies, who refuse to respect the rights of their women, can never be expected to develop.
The new Sindh government is advised to enact a law to prevent wanton killing of women, by awarding exemplary punishment to the culprits. Besides, the corrupt police officials, for whom such crimes are lucrative business, should be tried for violating human rights.
Hilal-i-Pakistan says that Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali, at a high-level meeting in Karachi, has asked the Sindh police to prepare a comprehensive strategy to restore law and order in the rural areas of the province. He has also told the police that he will review the situation after six weeks to see if there has been any improvement in the law and order situation.
The rising graph of crime — including murder, dacotiy and kidnapping — particularly in Jacobabad district, which is neighbouring area of the prime minister’s native village, is a challenge for his government. However, it is not merely an administrative problem as economic and social fators are the root-causes of this state of lawlessness. It is necessary to address the economic and social issues to restore the writ of law in Sindh.
Kawish writes that despite the government notification to start sugarcane crushing on Nov 15, 20 mills of the province have not todate done so. As a result the crushing season, which should have begun in October, has not started yet. The reason behind it is a conflict over sugar prices between the owners of the sugar mills and the government, for which the hapless growers are being made to suffer. On the other hand, the sugar mill owners are delaying the crushing season also to compel the growers to sell their produce at the rate of the millers’s choice. This is evident from the fact that some sugar mills, which have started crushing sugarcane, are refusing to offer rate fixed by the government, to the growers. The Sindh government should immediately intervene in the matter and save the sugarcane growers from multiple losses.
Welcoming the decrease in power tariff, Awami Awaz writes that people should be provided more relief by reducing the prices of gas and consumer items. Under the present situation, when the country has significant foreign exchange and is under no tremendous pressure to pay its debt, it is high time to provide relief to the people.