9,364 fall victims to police torture in 9 years

The provincial break-up of total figure indicates that 35 cases were reported from Balochistan, 152 NWFP, 1017 Punjab and 519 cases from Sindh.

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.  

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.