Pass a law and the problem vanishes. That is how legislative politics usually plays out in Islamabad. When Pakistan enacted the Torture and Custodial Death Prevention and Punishment Act in 2022, it was hailed as a massive victory. Activists celebrated, politicians took credit, and the international community gave a cautious nod of approval. After all, Pakistan had ratified the UN Convention Against Torture back in 2010. It only took twelve years to put a specific domestic law on the books.
But a law on paper does not change reality inside a police lockup or an interrogation room.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan issued a sharp reality check aimed directly at Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Coinciding with the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the independent watchdog made it clear that the 2022 Act is essentially a shield with major cracks. Custodial abuse remains rampant across detention centers. The reason is simple. The law itself contains structural blind spots that protect the perpetrators instead of the victims.
If you think a legislative act magically wiped out systemic violence in the state machinery, you are wrong. The legal structure is broken in three specific areas.
The Blind Spot of Mental Agony
Read through the current legal definition of torture used by Pakistani courts. You will quickly notice something disturbing. It heavily favors visible, physical trauma. If a victim leaves a detention center with broken bones or severe bruising, the legal machinery might slowly grind into motion. But what happens when the abuse leaves no physical marks?
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan points out that the 2022 framework completely ignores psychological and mental suffering. This omission leaves some of the most common and devastating state tactics completely outside the scope of prosecution.
Under the current legal setup, these actions do not officially qualify as torture:
- Prolonged solitary confinement designed to break a person's sanity.
- Mock executions where a detainee is forced to believe they are about to die.
- Direct death threats and intense psychological intimidation.
- Coercion, deliberate humiliation, and stripping of basic human dignity.
- Explicit threats directed at a detainee's family members.
By omitting mental torture, the state effectively gives interrogators a manual on how to abuse citizens without breaking the law. If you can break a suspect's mind without leaving a mark on their skin, the legal system looks the other way. This gap completely undermines international standards, which explicitly state that mental anguish is just as destructive as physical violence.
Police Investigating Police
Even if a victim manages to lodge a complaint that fits the narrow legal definition, the investigation mechanism is fundamentally compromised. Under the current rules, the Federal Investigation Agency holds exclusive authority to investigate complaints of torture against public officials.
On paper, using a federal agency sounds independent. In reality, it is a conflict of interest.
The Federal Investigation Agency is staffed heavily by career police officers. Many of its senior officials come directly from the same police cadres they are supposed to investigate. You cannot expect impartial accountability when the investigator and the accused share the same institutional culture, wear similar uniforms, and climb the same career ladders.
This internal loop destroys public trust. A victim of police brutality is highly unlikely to walk into a federal office to report abuse when they know another police officer will handle the paperwork. It is an institutional brotherhood that protects its own.
Toothless Watchdogs and Ghost Data
The National Commission for Human Rights should serve as the ultimate independent check on state overreach. Yet, the current framework keeps its oversight responsibilities completely vague and ill-defined. The commission lacks the explicit, unhindered authority to inspect detention facilities unexpectedly or demand immediate access to classified state logs.
Compounding this weakness is a total lack of structured data. Pakistan has no comprehensive national monitoring or reporting system for custodial abuse.
Without centralized, verifiable data, policymakers are essentially flying blind. International observers cannot accurately measure whether the state is improving or worsening. This lack of transparency serves a purpose. It keeps the true scale of state violence hidden behind bureaucratic layers. When there are no numbers, there is no official crisis.
What Needs to Happen Right Now
Fixing this issue requires actual changes to the statutory framework, not more political speeches or vague promises of reform.
First, parliament must amend the Torture and Custodial Death Act of 2022 to expand the definition of torture. Psychological abuse, mental trauma, and family threats must carry the exact same legal weight as physical scars.
Second, the state needs to strip the Federal Investigation Agency of its exclusive investigative powers over these cases. An entirely autonomous, civilian-led oversight body with zero ties to the police apparatus must handle torture allegations.
Finally, the National Commission for Human Rights must receive absolute statutory power to conduct unannounced inspections of any state-run detention center, prison, or internment facility. Anything less simply maintains a system where human rights are treated as a luxury rather than a constitutional guarantee.
