CAT/C/PAK/CO/1 (c) Take immediate measures to ensure the establishment and effective operation of effective police oversight bodies, particularly public safety commissions, at the district and provincial levels throughout the State party; (d) Consider creating a mechanism that is independent of the police hierarchy and has the capacity to receive complaints, investigate and address all allegations of torture; (e) Strengthen the independence of the district standing medical boards and ensure that the authorities promptly open criminal investigations into all cases in which medico-legal boards find evidence that a person has been subjected to torture in custody. Impunity for acts of torture by military and paramilitary forces and intelligence agencies 10. The Committee is deeply concerned at reports that members of the State party’s military forces, intelligence forces, such as the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, and paramilitary forces, such as the Frontier Corps and the Pakistan Rangers, have been implicated in a significant number of cases of extrajudicial executions involving torture and enforced disappearances. The Committee is also concerned about the possibility provided in the State party’s laws for retroactive immunity for acts of torture committed by members of the military and paramilitary forces after the February 2008 events, under provisions of the Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulation of 2011 and the 2015 amendment to the Army Act, which grants all personnel associated with military courts complete retrospective immunity from prosecution for actions taken in “good faith”. The Committee is further concerned by the exclusive jurisdiction of the military justice system over soldiers accused of offences against civilians. It regrets that the State party provided no information on members of the military, intelligence services or paramilitary forces who had been prosecuted and punished for acts amounting to torture, as defined by the Convention. It also regrets that the State party did not provide the information it had requested on the status of investigations or prosecutions concerning cases it raised with the delegation, including: (a) the alleged involvement of army officers in the enforced disappearance in 2012 of 35 persons from an internment centre in Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province; (b) the alleged involvement of members of the Frontier Corps in the enforced disappearance and killing in 2009 of Baloch political figures Ghulam Mohammad Baloch, Lala Munir Baloch and Sher Mohammad Baloch; and (c) the death in May 2016 of Aftab Ahmad in the custody of members of the Pakistan Rangers (arts. 2, 12-13 and 16). 11. The State party should: (a) Take all necessary measures to ensure that all allegations of torture or ill-treatment are promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigated by a fully independent civilian body, that perpetrators are duly prosecuted and, if found guilty, convicted with penalties that are commensurate with the grave nature of their crimes; (b) Amend the Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulation and the 2015 amendment to the Army Act to eliminate retrospective immunity and clarify that anyone committing acts of torture, or otherwise complicit, acquiescent or participating in torture, will be subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, appropriate penalties; (c) Ensure that military personnel are tried in civil courts for acts of torture and similar offences; (d) End the State party’s use of paramilitary forces to carry out law enforcement tasks and ensure that complaints of torture made against members of such forces are investigated and prosecuted. Torture in the context of counter-terrorism efforts 12. While recognizing the State party’s ongoing efforts to protect its population from violence by certain non-State terrorist groups, the Committee is deeply concerned that its counter-terrorism legislation, particularly the Anti-terrorism Act, 1997, eliminates legal 3