Lack of accountability, outdated methods contribute to rights violations by Pakistan’s Police Force, says HRW

Pakistan’s government has ceded significant constitutional and decision-making authority to the armed forces. The military – which has muzzled the media and critical voices – assumed control of implementing a national plan to address terrorism, largely without civilian oversight. Enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and torture take place with impunity. Violent attacks by extremist Islamist groups or mobs on religious minorities, fostered in part by draconian “blasphemy laws,” are frequent. Sectarian violence and the government’s confrontation with militant groups continue to feed instability. The government ended an unofficial ban on the death penalty, executing more than 300 in 2015.
The Pakistan’s police system enables and even encourages serious human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today, and called for an overhaul of the police system dubbing it as crooked.
HRW report say Pak Police is under-staffed and under-equipped. Successive Pakistani governments have for decades failed to reform police force or hold abusive police to account.
“Pakistan faces grave security challenges that can be best handled by a rights respecting, accountable police force,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead, law enforcement has been left to a police force filled with disgruntled, corrupt, and tired officers who commit abuses with impunity, making Pakistanis less safe, not more.”
The 113-page report titled, “This Crooked System: Police Abuse and Reform in Pakistan,” documents arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture, extrajudicial killings and a range of human rights violations committed by the Police routinely.
Human Rights Watch also indicted the provincial police. They (Police in the four provinces of Pakistan) face improper pressure from politicians and local elites, a dearth of ethical and professional standards, and increasing demands and public expectations, said the report.
The findings are on interviews with more than 30 police officers of varying ranks, 50 interviews with victims of police abuses, their families and witnesses to police abuse, and discussions with scores of policing experts and civil society activists.
Human Rights Watch found that police in Sindh, Punjab, and Balochistan frequently use torture and other ill-treatment against people in custody, particularly during criminal investigations, at times resulting in the death of suspects. Those from marginalized groups – refugees, the poor, religious minorities, and the landless – are at particular risk of violent police abuse.
Methods of custodial torture include beatings with batons and littars (leather straps), stretching and crushing legs with roola (metal rods), sexual violence, prolonged sleep deprivation, and mental torture, including forcing detainees to witness the torture of others.
Senior officials justified physical force and recourse to coercion and confessions saying that the police are not trained in methods of professional investigation and forensic analysis.
Several police officers openly admitted to the practice of false or faked “encounter killings.” Such killings, they said, are carried out because of pressure from higher command or local elites, or because the police are not able to gather enough evidence to ensure convictions.
Police are rarely held accountable for these killings and families of victims are deterred from filing complaints against police out of fear of harassment or being falsely accused in retaliatory trumped-up cases.
Colonial-era police laws enable local politicians to interfere routinely in police operations, sometimes directing police officers to drop investigations against suspects with political connections, including known criminals, and to harass or file false charges against political opponents.
Abysmal work conditions contribute to the climate where violations are tolerated or encouraged, Human Rights Watch said.
Low-ranking officers are required to be on call 24 hours a day, every day. Instead of having scheduled shifts, many work long hours, sometimes living in run-down barracks at the police station. Many are separated from their families for long stretches of time. They often lack necessary equipment, including vehicles, investigative tools and even paper on which to record complaints and make notes.
“The rule of law won’t become a reality in Pakistan unless the law enforcement forces tasked with imposing the law are also held to it,” Brad Adams said. “For this to happen, the government needs to bring changes within the system and address the improper influences outside of it.”