SOUTH ASIA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

2290public humiliation. Some magistrates help cover up the abuse by issuing investigationreports stating that the victims died of natural causes.Police personnel continued to torture persons in custody throughout the country.In June a local newspaper reported that prisoners waiting to appear in court routinelyare held in fetters in police vans, even on extremely hot days. In 1999 70 prisonersawaiting or undergoing trial at Karachi prison, all MQM members, chargedthat they had been arrested illegally and tortured to induce confessions. Accordingto MQM officials, police arrested over 700 MQM members during the past 2 years(see Section 1.d.); many of these persons reportedly were tortured in custody. In November1999, Rana Sanaullah Khan, a PML member of the suspended Punjab provincialassembly, was arrested for criticizing the Musharraf Government; he reportedlywas tortured in custody.In March a judge sentenced two prisoners convicted of murdering almost 100 childrento be executed by having their bodies cut into 100 and 98 pieces, respectively,and then having the pieces dissolved in acid. Legal experts criticized the judgment,and the case was under appeal at year’s end.Despite some cases during the year in which police officers were investigated orcharged in connection with abuse of detainees, the failure of successive governmentsto prosecute and to punish abusers effectively is the single greatest obstacle to endingor reducing the incidence of abuse by the police. The authorities sometimestransferred, suspended, or arrested offending officers, but seldom prosecuted or punishedthem. Investigating officers generally shield their colleagues. However, in FebruaryDeputy Inspector General Fayyaz Ahmed Leghari stated that in 1999 Sindhpolice penalized 28,000 officers for malfeasance, and discharged or compulsorily retired1,100 out of a total provincial force of 85,000. In February two police inspectorscharged with killing an MQM activist in custody in 1998 were denied bail after theSindh High Court determined that they falsified precinct records and appeared tohave committed the crime (see Section 1.a.).The 1997 Anti-terrorist Act allowed confessions obtained in police custody to beused in new ‘‘special courts.’’ Human rights organizations and the press criticizedthis provision of the law because police torture of suspects is common. Police generallydid not attempt to use confessions to secure convictions under this law andthe Government agreed to amend the law after the Supreme Court in 1998 invalidatedthis and other sections of the Anti-terrorist Act. Due to greater scrutiny byNGO’s and the media, including prison inspections in the Punjab and Sindh, the incidenceof torture and abuse in prisons may be decreasing. In Karachi the CitizensPolice Liaison Committee (CPLC) brought cases against police who make false arrests,practice torture, or take bribes. Cooperation between the CPLC and the policehuman rights complaint cell resulted in the dismissal of 216 policemen and the demotionor fines for 1,226 others between November 1998 and July 1999.Police corruption is widespread. Police and prison officials frequently use thethreat of abuse to extort money from prisoners and their families. Police acceptmoney for registering cases on false charges and may torture innocent citizens. Personspay police to humiliate their opponents and to avenge their personal grievances.During the year, the Government took some steps to reduce police corruptionand transferred several senior police officers to other provinces to circumvent theirlocal ties. The Government also deployed army officers to police stations.In the past, successive governments recruited police officers in violation of considerationsof merit and the department’s regulations. In some instances, recruits hadcriminal records Police corruption is most serious at the level of the Station HouseOfficer (SHO), the official who runs each precinct. In 1998 300 new SHO’s recruitedon merit began a long-delayed special training course; the new SHO’s have beenhired and observers believe that they might improve police performance greatly.Some SHO’s widely are believed to operate arrest-for-ransom operations, and establishunsanctioned police stations to collect illicit revenue. An August news reportlisted seven such stations in Karachi. SHO’s are powerful; some are believed to havekilled superior officers who tried to inhibit their corruption. Senior government officialshave confirmed that police stations, and assignments therein, are sold to interestedparties who then proceed to recoup their investment though illicit activities.Actions taken to redress police abuses often have mixed results. In urban Sindh,the CPLC committees helped to curb some excesses, but complaints of large-scalepolice abuse persist.Special women’s police stations were established in 1994 in response to growingnumbers of complaints of custodial abuse of women, including rape. These stationsare staffed by female personnel, but receive even fewer material and human resourcesthan regular police stations. For example, at the beginning of the year, theKarachi women’s police station was housed in an unsafe building that had no bathingfacilities and only one toilet for staff and inmates to share. Alerted to these con-VerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:46 Sep 20, 2001 Jkt 071555 PO 00000 Frm 00134 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6621 F:\WORK\COUNTRYR\S71555\71555.036 HINTREL1 PsN: HINTREL1