Press Releases

To accept the concept of self-esteem and equal rights for the life is symbol of the independence and harbinger of peace in society. If we want that people do not indulge in any type of prohibited and wrong doings which can deface the society, it’s necessary that we uphold the sanctity of human rights.
Pakistan is one of those countries that have ratified it long ago. The UDHR is comprised of 30 Articles, setting out a broad range of fundamental human rights and freedoms to which all men, women and children every where in the world are entitled without distinction. According to the article 7 “all are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination”. Article 9 “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile”. Article 10 “Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him”. Article 11 “(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense”.
Police Department always has been a symbol of fright and terror. A symbol of terrible scare in the minds of common citizens giving rise to feelings of mistrust and helplessness is rather resulting in retrogression than progress. The most common methods of police torture include beating with a baton or whip, standing for hours with arms stretched to the side, hanging by the ankles, twisting the genitals, burning with cigarettes, and punches in the abdomen. Women are likely be raped in custody. The survivors suffer for years in many cases from anxiety, depression, a feeling of shame, guilt, impaired memory and concentration, headaches, and sexual problems. In the cases of police torture Punjab police excels others while Sindh police is on second number for perpetrating torture.
Gradual increase in violence of police shows serious negligence of concerned government departments particularly law enforcement agencies. Because of prevailing stigma and discrimination against victims and non-cooperation of Police, the corrupt officials and culprits remain at large, and this is a source of encouragement to criminal minded officials.

Madadgaar Helpline for women and children suffering from violence, abuse and exploitation has compiled a report. The database center monitors 26 newspapers published in English, Urdu and Sindhi languages from all over Pakistan on daily basis to gauge the magnitude and trends of violence in country for helping society and Government in taking viable steps to stop any type of violence.
Number of cases 2008 (Jan to June)
According to report in the mid of 2008 i.e. January to June nation wide 743 reported cases of police torture occurred. 51 boys, 13 girls, 176 women and 503 males were the victim of police torture.
The provincial break up of total figure indicates that 4 cases were reported from Balochistan, 29 NWFP, 406 Punjab and 304 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 79 cases of murders, 20 Rapes, 333 illegal detentions, 256 physical torture, and 55 harassment cases. The data shows that the graph of police torture/violence on people is increasing day by day.
A further analysis reveals that 416 cases occurred at police stations, 252 at work place, 66 at victims’ residence, and 52 at public places, 57 in private jails, 60 in jail and 92 cases were reported at abandoned places.
Major Cities of abuse (2008)
Lahore is on the top of the list with 177cases of police torture, while Karachi 45, Multan 63, Sialkot 37, Sukkur 32, Khairpur 29, Hydrabad 25, Melsi 18 and Gujranwala with 10 cases remained conspicuous for high rate of incidences of police torture.
Number of cases (2007)
Last year from January to December 2007 the nation wide reported cases of police torture were 1723.According to the reported events 1289 male, 193 females, 98 girls and 143 boys were the victim of this cruel act. The nature of abuse includes 365 cases of murders, 14 Rapes, 463 illegal detentions, 683 physical torture, and 198 cases of harassments.
National and province breakdown of Data (2007)
The provincial break up of total figure indicates that 35 cases were reported from Balochistan, 152 NWFP, 1017 Punjab and 519 cases from Sindh.
Nine Years Data with gender/province breakdown

According to the previous reports of Madadgaar Helpline Database, within last nine years from January 2000 to June 2008 there were 9364 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 while till the mid of current year January to June 743 cases of police tortured were already recorded by Madadgaar data base team.

According to report, 286 girls, 403 boys, 7425 males and 1250 females were the victim of police torture during the last nine years.
The provincial break up of nine years total figure shows that 100 cases were reported from Balochistan, 474 from NWFP, 5729 from Punjab and 3061 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 center. 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.

Issued by:
Madadgaar Helpline