The former Oversight Committee exercised little to no oversight, and in the last five years, just one prison official—a menial dispenser at the jail—has been fired for breaching human rights. Pakistan does not have any official legislation that made torture illegal at that time.
After intense advocacy by the NCHR and civil society, Pakistan is now in accordance with its international and domestic legal obligations and has enacted the “Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act, 2022” as a stand-alone statute against torture.
For the existence of an act of torture to be shown, these conditions must be met, and the severity of the punishment must match the offense. Therefore, the Torture and Custodial Death Act, which was passed in November 2022 and explicitly defined and criminalized torture, was a significant step towards justice and responsibility. Sadly, though, it has been close to two years and the law is still inactive.Any act of physical or psychological abuse carried out by a public official, or at their request, with the intention of forcing a confession or achieving any other particular goal, is considered torture.
