BEATINGS, rape, sleep deprivation, electric shocks, and even waterboarding have all been used by the Punjab Police while ‘interrogating’ suspects. Individuals detained — inevitably those with little or no money or influence — are barely considered human beings, let alone citizens with constitutionally protected rights. As a result, many people are broken in both body and spirit after being detained by law enforcement, and some succumb to the brutality. In this shady environment, where violations of the right to due process are common, the police leadership has launched a pilot project in the Faisalabad district modeled after the ‘Miranda Warning,’ which has been in use in the United States since 1966.
When taking someone into custody in that country, cops are required to give them the Miranda Warning/Rights. These notify the accused of their right to remain silent and refuse to answer self-incriminating questions. According to a senior police official quoted in this paper yesterday, the impetus for implementing the procedure in Faisalabad is to address the practice of custodial torture and deaths.
Faisalabad is unquestionably an appropriate location to launch such a project. A Yale University and Justice Project Pakistan study of 1,867 medico-legal certificates from the district between 2006 and 2012 confirmed 1,424 allegations of police torture with physical evidence. Despite this, not a single case had been investigated or the cops responsible prosecuted by the time the findings were made public in 2015. This impunity reflects a sociocultural acceptance of torture as a legitimate investigative tool.
While the decision to implement Miranda Warning/Rights is a step in the right direction, it is unlikely to tip the scales significantly. Torture is endemic because it stems from a mindset shaped by an authoritarian subculture within law enforcement; additionally, policing politics are based on law-enforcement agencies’ institutional weaknesses. Perhaps most importantly, torture has yet to be explicitly criminalized in Pakistan.
It is not mentioned in either the PPC or the CrPC. While the Police Order 2002, under which the Punjab Police operates, stipulates penalties for police officers who inflict “violence or torture” on anyone in their custody, there is no definition of torture, which is a critical omission. Torture must be made illegal by lawmakers, with severe consequences for those who use it.
