LAHORE: The Lahore High Court held the other day that the police have no jurisdiction to investigate the cases pertaining to custodial torture, deaths, and rapes. The court asked the authorities concerned to transfer all such cases currently under investigation, and registered after the promulgation of the Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Act of 2022, to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The court further directed the authorities concerned to transfer all such cases, currently pending trial before any other court, to the sessions court for trial as per the spirit of section 6 of the Act of 2022.

The court also asked the police to refer in future the complaints regarding such cases to FIA to initiate proceedings in the spirit of the Act, 2022.

The court passed this order on a petition of Sarriya Bibi who approached the court for the recovery and production of Shahbaz and Muhammad Yar, her brother-in-law, and nephew respectively.

The Lahore superintendent of police informed the court that the detenues lost their lives during an alleged police encounter and their bodies were interred in the graveyard of Manga Mandi, Lahore.

The court observed that it was a harrowing situation where the detenues were killed in an alleged police encounter under suspicious circumstances, and their dead bodies were buried instead of being handed over to their legal heirs.

Such flagrant brutality on the part of the police officials could not be swept under the rug, the court added.

The court, however, disposed of the petition and directed to entrust the investigation of the case to the agency for its disposal under the court’s directions.

The court said complaints of custodial torture and deaths remained rampant in our country. Numerous attempts were made to introduce legislative reforms specifically addressing this issue, yet all these efforts had consistently resulted in failure in the past, the court added.

At long last, in November of 2022, the Act of 2022 was promulgated, the court observed and added with the enactment of the Act of 2022, Pakistan has embarked on a new era where the protection of human rights is genuinely assured.

However, despite the promulgation of the Act of 2022 in November 2022, the law remained largely on paper, with no practical implementation, the court said.

The court observed that the failure to implement a law due to negligence, inaction, or indifference by public functionaries, resulting in the violation of fundamental rights, cannot be ignored by this court.

The court, therefore, directed the government for immediate execution of the Act 2022 and advised to spare no effort to guarantee its implementation in letter and spirit.

The court also directed the government to undertake all necessary measures to ensure comprehensive publicity of the provisions of the Act of 2022 through the media to ensure widespread awareness among the public.

The court also asked the government to arrange training to ensure that officials are well-informed and adequately prepared to implement and uphold the provisions of the Act 2022.

The court also ordered to bring the issue of implementation of the Act of 2022 formally for the attention of the Chief Minister Punjab through the Principal Secretary.

Simultaneously, the issue shall also be presented to the Interior Ministry and the Government of Pakistan, the court added.

The court, therefore, directed the registrar LHC to issue this order to all the stakeholders designated under the Act of 2022, to ensure its strict compliance.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024