PESH AWAR: Speakers at a daylong consultation on Tuesday called upon the government to make legislation in line with the UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT) to protect citizens from torture by the police and other law enforcing agencies as well as to ensure compensation for torture victims.

They said that presently no definition of torture was available in laws of the country and mostly cases of torture remained unnoticed. The speakers highlighted the need to bring Pakistan Penal Code in conformity with UNCAT and said it was important to promote education about prohibition of torture in society.

The consultation on `Prevention of Torture` was organized by Potohar Organisation for Development Advocacy (Poda) in collaboration with the European Union.

`Torture is a severe violation ofhuman dignity and all governments have a responsibility to protect people from it,` said Rukhshanda Naz, director Legal Aid and Awareness Service.

She said that no proper mechanism was available for checking torture in custody. She called for strengthening the law related to National Commission on Human Rights and to notify the commission at the earliest so that it could play role in checking torture incidents.

The purpose of the event was to highlight how torture is prohibited under the UNCAT, which Pakistan had signed in 2010 and agreed to implement it. Over 50 lawyers, teachers, civil society representatives, government officials and media persons attended the consultation.

The executive director of Women in Struggle for Empowerment, Bushra Khalig, said that those working for government had a greater duty to stop torture and torture-like practices in the country. She said that victims of torture were usually petty criminal suspects and poor people who mostly could not af ford a lawyer. She said that the government must revise laws to prevent torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment in custody in the country.

Javeria Younas, legal researcher, said that there was no systematic orwell known mechanism to monitor torture in police custody. She said that the new trend of judicial inquires by setting up commissions in any torture case was not enough. It is the prime responsibility of the government to come up with strategies to combat the use of torture by law enforcing agencies, she said.

She also shared findings of a study `Pakistan custodial torture: the ramifications and failure of institutions`, stating that custodial torture was not only disturbingly common rather they had been tolerated as a societal norm. She said that many senior lawyers and judges felt that torture was sometime necessary to deal with hardened criminals.

A technical adviser to Aitbar Project, Syed Zubair, said that that law enforcement officials in Pakistan should carry out their duties and stay in their legal bounds.

The participants passed a resolution, demanding enactment of laws against torture and the elimination of private torture cells by law enforcing agencies, including police.

Manager of programmes at PODA, Mohammad Zubair, said that education about harmful impact of torture should be given in schools, colleges and universities so that society was aware of its negative impact.