E/CN.4/1997/7/Add.2 page 25 responsibility is avoided by denial of detention, or by recourse to explanations such as that the deaths occurred in encounters or were committed by others. 98. This state of affairs is perpetuated by the virtual impunity from criminal sanction of the perpetrators of these grave crimes. Disciplinary punishments are not of themselves a sufficient or appropriate response. 99. It is the case that in Karachi some of the victims, notably some MQM activists, are themselves reliably suspected of being involved in atrocities, including torture and murder. But, as many of the Special Rapporteur’s official interlocutors were quick to accept, official crime is not justified by common or politically motivated crime. Indeed, nothing can be more corrosive of respect for the rule of law and legal institutions than for those charged with upholding them to resort to serious violations of the criminal law. 100. The jails visited by the Special Rapporteur were overcrowded and had inadequate medical facilities. Other jails are reliably said to be similar. More disturbingly, the prison regimes appear to be arbitrary, brutal and oppressive, a situation facilitated by the failure of the judiciary to discharge its obligation to monitor them regularly. Prisoners with access to financial resources are more likely to be able to secure decent treatment. As far as could be seen, women prisoners seemed to enjoy considerably better conditions of detention than men. 101. A renewed commitment by all involved in organized society, political parties, religious groups, communal groups, law enforcement agencies, to eschew resort to criminal violence in pursuit of their objectives needs to be declared and implemented. This should include the abandonment of violent political rhetoric. 102. Pakistan should become a party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its Optional Protocols. 103. Legislation should be adopted to abolish the remaining use of corporal punishment, namely, that provided for hadd and as punishment for prison disciplinary offences. Pending abolition, medical personnel should comply with medical ethics by refraining from cooperating in the execution of such punishment. 104. The use of bar fetters and similar instruments of restraint should be terminated. Other instruments of restraint should be resorted to only within the limits laid down by the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. 105. To the extent that further legislation is needed, the law should recognize as a criminal offence the unlawful detention of any person and the detention of any person in a place of detention not officially designated as such. Such legislation should be vigorously enforced.