By Syeda Tuba Aamir
ISLAMABAD – The Prime Minister of Pakistan is set to make vital Policereforms in the coming weeks. However, police brutality has been going onfor too long. The past few months, Pakistan has witnessed ghastly cases ofpolice inhumanness.
It would be incorrect to say that the country is seeing a surge in thesecases recently as they have been happening for a long time. The onlydifference is that due to social media, police misconduct is beinghighlighted repeatedly. The duty of police is to protect the citizens anduphold peace.
Contrary to the definition, police in the country has been involved ingross violations of human rights and power abuse. The lack ofaccountability and outdated methods has added up to the arbitrary arrests,extrajudicial killings, detention, and torture.
Ironically, the word ‘torture’ cannot be found under any section of PPC(Pakistan Penal Code), and the word ‘hurt’ has been used instead. However,causing hurt to extort confession is punishable under the law of Pakistan.Pakistan is also a part of a UN convention against torture, but the torturecells and torture killings are proof enough that the rules are being brokenby the upholders of law.
Salahuddin Ayubi, a man who robbed an ATM in Faisalabad and stuck histongue out at the camera was killed in police custody after being arrestedfor 2 days. Initially, the police blamed the death on his health condition.However, there was an uproar when a video of him went viral where he wasseen asking his tormentor ‘Who taught you to torture people?
Salahuddin was mentally unfit, he had his address engraved on his hand byhis family so he could be sent home wherever found. If this did not stopthe tormentors from torturing him then how can we determine if theseofficers are mentally stable themselves? Ayubi’s case is in court and wecan only hope that justice will be served on his custodial killing.
Ayubi’s case should have alarmed the legislators regarding the lack oflegislation present for custodial killings and brutality. Sadly, thetorture bill has not been passed for years and is still pending on themercy of bureaucrats. Along with comprehensive laws defining torture, weare in a dire need of implementation.
Unfortunately, corruption, poor public dealing, misuse of power, politicalinterference, bribery and impunity by powerful politicians have plagued thepolice system in such a way that rogue elements in the department feeluntouchable. Due to repeatedly using torture, many of these officers havebecome mentally unfit. Along with other measures, we need yearly mentalhealth evaluation for every serving officer.
Dr Wajahat Khan while discussing Ayubi’s case says that we have to check ifthese abusive police officers have become sadistic. Are these officersinflicting pain in order to gain satisfaction? Sometimes being in power andbeing dominant can blur the lines between right and wrong. He says that ourpolice department needs to upgrade its techniques and resort to a moregentle way of extorting truth.
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One more important reason why custodial torture is rampant is because ofthe lack of public awareness regarding their legal rights and basic humanrights. For every crime, there is a due process and subjecting anyone totorture is uncalled for.
It is the responsibility of the state to ensure that police reforms takeplace. Instead of banning use of mobile phones for officers during dutyhours, IG Punjab should ban torture cells and barbarity, fake encounters inthe name of ‘interrogation’.
Furthermore, the state should also make sure that it gives qualitybenefits to its officers and they are not overloaded or exhausted withwork. If action is not taken, this menace will only grow. If the trustdeficit of the masses is not eradicated, dedicated, honest and decentpolice officers will always be overlooked and never be fully recognized bythe masses.
A pavlovian response to every custodial killing case that surfaces is tosuspend the DSP and other cops. While it might help with calming the noiseof the masses, it is not a permanent solution. There are hundreds ofunreported cases because families are too scared or harassed to keepsilent.
The public look up to the police for security and help. Police stations andofficers should be a safe place for citizens to report crime as soon as ithappens, not the last. When the new government formed under Imran Khan, hehad specifically promised to depoliticize police and work towards majorPolice reforms.
A system that has been corrupted and protected by unprofessionalindividuals will only collapse to the depths of dread. We have yet to seemajor reforms and improvements that are not improvident. The people havehad enough of clamorous condemnations and empty promises, it is time to actand make reforms.
The writer tweets at @TubaAtweets
