PM Imran asks interior ministry to expedite tabling anti-torture bill in NA

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Thursday that he had spoken to the interior ministry about expediting the tabling of an anti-torture bill in the National Assembly, adding that torture was "unacceptable in a civilised democratic society".

Taking to Twitter, the premier criticised the practice of torture, stating that it "goes against the spirit of Islam, our constitution & our international legal commitments".

"I have asked Interior Ministry to expedite tabling our anti torture bill in National Assembly. Torture is unacceptable in a civilised democratic society & goes against the spirit of Islam, our constitution & our international legal commitment," he tweeted.

In January this year, the Ministry of Human Rights said it would present a bill against torture.

Human rights minister Dr Shireen Mazari had expressed the federal government’s commitment to making the police citizen-centric and gender-sensitive by resolving legislative, infrastructural and attitudinal challenges of the police.

She had also committed to depoliticise the police by introducing a merit-based system and a modern police law replacing the 157-year-old colonial law of 1861.

The human rights minister had endorsed the fact that the police was an under-resourced institution and it needed to be equipped with all the required facilities and training to deal with victims or survivors of violence effectively.