Torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment continue to be reported in Pakistan's detention facilities despite the enactment of the country's anti-torture law in 2022, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said, attributing the persistence of abuse to poor implementation, weak safeguards, and a structural absence of accountability. The findings were presented at a roundtable in Islamabad on 31 July, organised as part of the HRCP's ongoing 'Against Torture' campaign.

What the Roundtable Found

The session brought together legal experts, government representatives, and civil society organisations to assess the state of detention conditions across Pakistan. HRCP Council member and former chairperson Hina Jilani underscored that psychological torture deserved equal attention alongside physical abuse. 'Preventing and addressing other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment — including psychological torture — was equally important, given that its consequences could be just as severe and long-lasting as physical torture,' she said.

Jilani further stressed that the law could not be implemented effectively without clear procedures and practical guidance for law enforcement agencies on how to identify, investigate, document, and respond to cases of torture and ill-treatment.

UN Committee's Concerns Echo Across Years

Pakistani lawyer Asad Jamal drew attention to the findings of the UN Committee against Torture (CAT), noting that many of the concerns raised during Pakistan's last review in 2017 were reiterated at the country's 2026 review. In May 2026, the CAT expressed grave concern over reports of 'torture and ill-treatment and other forms of retaliation against human rights defenders, civil society activists, journalists, lawyers, political opponents, protesters and other critics of the government' across Pakistan.

Jamal said this pattern demonstrated that the underlying structural problems enabling torture had yet to be addressed. He called on Pakistan to establish clear protocols against arbitrary detention, amend Prison Rules in line with human rights principles, and align its legal framework with international standards.

Internment Centres and the OPCAT Gap

HRCP Council member Farhatullah Babar raised specific concern over the use of internment centres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, warning that these facilities should either be abolished or brought under the civilian prison system with independent civilian oversight. He also called on Pakistani authorities to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), which would enable a national preventive mechanism to conduct regular, unannounced inspections of all places of detention.

HRCP's Letter to Prime Minister Sharif

Last month, marking the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the HRCP wrote directly to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, warning that Pakistan's legal framework remains inadequate to prevent such acts. The rights body cautioned that the absence of systematic monitoring and reporting has left the scale of torture and ill-treatment in detention facilities largely unknown to policymakers and beyond the reach of civil society and international accountability mechanisms.

What Needs to Change

Experts at the roundtable collectively argued that legislative enactment alone has proven insufficient — implementation requires institutional reform, independent oversight, and a credible complaints mechanism accessible to detainees. With two successive UN reviews raising near-identical concerns, the pressure on Islamabad to move from law on paper to practice on the ground is mounting.