Pakistan
Information transmitted to the Government
420. On 9 June 1993 the Special Rapporteur advised the Government that he had received information according to which supporters of the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDA) were arrested in different parts of the country on 17 November 1992 and on the following days, before and during a demonstration called by the PDA. Another mass arrest was reported to have taken place on 22 December 1992 in Islamabad. Several people detained for their participation in the protest movement were reportedly ill-treated in police custody. The individual cases described in the following paragraphs were transmitted to the Government.
421. Salman Taseer, information secretary of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), was arrested on 18 November 1992 in Lahore. While in police custody, he was allegedly kept hanging upside down for several hours. Then he was lowered and an iron bar was allegedly put on his legs; two plainclothes policemen sat on the bar and rolled it over his legs. The soles of his feet were allegedly beaten by rubber truncheons and batons. After his release, he attempted to register a First Information Report against the police officers who had tortured him; however, the Station House Officer in Dharampura police station reportedly refused to register it.
422. Sohail Malik, leader of the PPP-associated People's Student Federation, was arrested on 22 December 1992 in Islamabad. While in police custody he was allegedly kicked repeatedly with heavy boots and beaten with electric batons and pistol butts. A doctor of the Organisation for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims was said to have examined him afterwards and to have declared that he could be left impotent as a result of the torture. Malik Mukhtar Ahmed Awan, an ex-federal minister, and Shafqat Abbasi, an advocate, were also said to have been arrested in the same incident and subsequently subjected to torture. As a consequence, Mr. Awan had to be treated at the Federal Government Services Hospital and Mr. Abassi at the International Medical Centre.
423. The Special Rapporteur also received information on the case of Mohsin Abbas Raza, kidnapped on 15 February 1992 at Shahrah-e-Quaideen, Karachi, by agents of the "Rangers", a law enforcing agency, and taken to an unknown detention centre, where he was allegedly subjected to severe beating, threatened with death and given electric shocks. He was released without charge a few days later.
424. By the same letter the Special Rapporteur reminded the Government of allegations transmitted in 1992 regarding which no reply had been received.
Urgent appeals
425. The Special Rapporteur sent an urgent appeal on 28 April 1993 on behalf of Lisa Evelyn Rancore, an American citizen detained in a prison in Karachi. According to the reports Ms. Rancore, who was five months pregnant, suffered from dysentery, pneumonia and possibly hepatitis owing to the conditions prevailing in the prison. Little or no medical care and an insufficient quantity of food was reportedly being provided to her.
