Dear friends,
We wish to share with you the following statement from the Madadgaar Helpline, Karachi – PAKISTAN.
Asian Human Rights Commission
Hong Kong
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A Statement from the Madadgaar Helpline, Karachi-PAKISTAN forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission
Madadgaar Helpline, Karachi, reported in its report on torture that in the first six months of year 2009 (January to June 2009) 695 reported cases of police torture occurred in the country. 174 boys, 45 girls, 198 women and 278 males were the victim of police torture.
The provincial break up of total figure indicates that 41 cases were reported from Balochistan, 98 NWFP, 324 Punjab and 232 cases were reported from Sindh. Crime and violence ratio is increasing in province of Punjab very rapidly as the majority of cases were from Punjab. The trend of less reporting is seen from Balochistan and NWFP but it does not mean that there is less violence in these Areas of country. The reason behind the situation is very strong tribal and illegal judicial system, which is prevailing in these provinces. Because of the biased customs, victims and their family members cannot have the courage to come out and report what actually happened to them. In many cases jirgas rather come forward to help the perpetrators and suppress the case.
The nature of abuse includes 87 cases of murders, 99 Rapes, 124 illegal detentions, 287 physical tortures, and 98 harassment cases. The data shows that the graph of police torture/violence on people is increasing day by day.
A further analysis reveals that 259 cases occurred at police stations, 98 at victims residence, and 103 at public places, 125 in private jails, 110 cases were reported in jail.
Major Cities of abuse (2009)
Multan is on the top of the list while Lahore, Faislabad, Sialkot, Karachi, Sukkur, Khairpur, Nawab shah Hydrabad and Gujranwala remained conspicuous for high rate of incidences of police torture.
Ten Years Data with gender/province breakdown
According to the previous reports of Madadgaar Helpline Database, within last ten years from January 2000 to June 2009 there were 10421 cases of police torture. Out of total (231) cases were reported in 2000, 555 in 2001, 996 in 2002, 838 in 2003, 1260 in 2004, 1356 in 2005, 1662 in 2006, 1723 in 2007, 1105 in 2008 while till the mid of current year January to June 2009 695 cases of police tortured were already recorded by Madadgaar data base team.
According to report, 423 girls, 656 boys, 7885 males and 1457 females were the victim of police torture during the last ten years. The provincial break up of ten years total figure shows that 189 cases were reported from Balochistan, 711 from NWFP, 6250 from Punjab and 3271 from Sindh.
Reasons of torture
It has been cited that police torture occurs in Pakistan because of two main reasons. One reason is to extract confession and the other reason is either to show efficiency in investigation or extort bribery.
The President of Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid centre. Zia Awan said that current police system has become obsolete and rotten and as a result the condition of innocent people and victims has become pathetic. Government is not taking positive steps for the improvement of system and enforcement of laws while the civil society and political parties are also not taking stand for positive changes or proper implementation of police ordinance in order to pressurize the incumbent Government to bring long awaited change.
Mr. Awan further said that Under Pakistani laws, the police have to produce suspects before a judicial magistrate within 24 hours of their arrest and seek physical remand – legal permission to extract evidence from the accused. However, the procedures are seldom followed. ”Since there is usually no record of who is taken in and released, nobody from outside the police station can prove any wrongdoing,” said a police sub-inspector who naturally did not want to be identified.
Now newly elected government has promised to reform the police, and make it ”people-friendly”. Activists would like to see changes in the laws to ”curtail the powers of police and make their working more transparent by introducing monitoring committees of citizens, lawyers and NGOs.
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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984. The above statement has only been forwarded by the AHRC.
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