ISLAMABAD: Vice President Pakistan Peoples Party and parliamentary leader of PPP in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman, on Monday condemned “institutionalised abuse” in rehabilitation centres and called for immediate institutional, legal, and regulatory reforms to address what she described as “institutionalised coercion and abuse.”
Speaking at the launch of the report “Caged in Care: Investigating Human Rights Abuse in Rehabilitation Centres”, hosted by the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR), alongside Chairperson NCHR Rabiya Javeri Agha, Senator Rehman said the testimonies and findings presented were “overwhelming” and represented “a horrifying normalisation of abuse, detention, and coercion under the guise of care.”
“These are not care centres,” Senator Rehman stated. “They are centres of coercion. In many cases, they appear worse than prisons — darker versions of lockups operating with impunity.”
Drawing parallels to the Victorian-era practice of confining women deemed “inconvenient” or “hysterical,” she warned that vulnerable individuals, particularly women, were being subjected to unlawful confinement, abuse, forced medication, and deprivation of liberty through systems enabled by weak oversight and legal loopholes.
“The architecture of our laws is clearly not up to the standard required to protect citizens from this level of abuse,” she said. “Doctors, nurses, and paramedics cannot become jailers of inconvenient family members. Registration and licensing mechanisms are being criminally abused.”
Senator Rehman stressed that the issue extends far beyond licensing failures and reflects a broader collapse in governance, accountability, and implementation.
“We have ratified international conventions, passed women’s protection and empowerment laws since 2002, and normalised human rights discourse in principle — yet implementation remains alarmingly weak,” she said. “Only five per cent of crimes against women result in convictions, while acquittal rates remain at 64 per cent. “This reflects obvious lacunae in both prosecution and enforcement.”
Calling the rehabilitation centres “a chamber of horrors normalised by registration,” Senator Rehman urged immediate involvement from the ministries of Health, and Law and Justice, licensing authorities, and regulatory bodies to review oversight frameworks governing rehabilitation and psychiatric care facilities.
She proposed the introduction of stronger criminal negligence provisions, including penalties under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), in order to ensure accountability for unlawful detention, abuse, and medical misconduct.
“These rehab centres are actually private detention centres which are making money out of confinement, drugging, and abuse,” she warned. “Ignorance is not a plea in court. Licensing authorities must be held answerable where institutional impunity has been normalised.”
Senator Rehman also called for a rigorous and methodologically sound investigation process that cannot be challenged, emphasising the need for transparent monitoring systems and enforceable safeguards for patients’ rights and dignity.
“We are in a position to do something about this,” she concluded. “Our commitment must be to our own people, especially the vulnerable individuals mostly women whose rights and freedoms are being denied behind closed doors.”
