Islamabad:
After its adoption in the National Assembly, the Senate approved Tuesday the anti -terrorist bill (amendment), restoring the powers which allow the law enforcement agencies and the armed forces to hold suspects for three months, a decision which sparked a heel of the opposition benches.
The Minister of State in the Interior and the control of drugs Muhammad Talal Badar has tabled the bill, which modifies paragraph (1) of article 11EEEE of the 1997 law on terrorism.
According to the amendment, “the government or, when the provisions of article 4 have been invoked, the armed forces or the civil armed forces … for a period not exceeding three months and after having recorded reasons of it, to issue a pre-trial prescription of any person.”
The bill declares that people suspected of activities against national security, in particular target murder, ransom and extortion, can be held for three months, adding that it applies “against which sufficient reasons exist from its concern, for investigation”.
The detentions extending beyond this threshold will be subject to article 10 of the Constitution, which provides guarantees with regard to arrest and detention.
Under the new arrangement, if a detention order is made by the army or civil forces, the investigation will be processed by a team of the joint investigation. “The investigation will not be carried out by any police officer below the rank of police superintendent, intelligence agencies, civil armed forces, armed forces and other law enforcement organizations,” added the bill.
While the Senator of Jui-F Kamran Murtaza tried to move changes, they were rejected by majority vote while the Chamber adopted the law clause by clause. According to his statement of objects, current security perspectives require “a robust response that goes beyond the existing legal framework”.
The bill explains that previous powers under article 11EEEE, which were unleashed in 2016 due to a sunset clause, had to be “reintegrated to empower the government, the armed forces and the civil armed forces with the authority necessary to hold people who constitute an important threat to national security”.
The Government maintains that the provision would allow preventive detention on the basis of credible information or reasonable suspicion, allowing authorities to disrupt terrorist plots before ripening.
“The urgency should not overshadow wisdom”
Defending the legislation, the minister of Law, Azam Nazeer Tarar, told senators: “Currently, the country is faced with the threat of terrorism and the modifications proposed by Syed Naveed Qamar have already been incorporated to make it more effective.”
He stressed that the bill had made a judicial examination and included a three -year sunset clause. He also specified that by virtue of article 2 of the amendment, the detainee would have presented before the magistrate within 24 hours.
However, PTI’s lawyer Syed Ali Zafar urged prudence, declaring: “Some of his clauses are against the law and the Constitution, the bill must therefore be referred to the committee.”
“Today, we are invited to modify one of the most powerful – and controversial – laws of our law: the anti -terrorism law,” said the opposition legislator, adding that the law was first in extraordinary circumstances to protect Pakistan from extraordinary threats.
“But as legislators, we must always remember: each extraordinary power given to the State can both be used and used to badly,” he warned.
He recognized that the anti -terrorist law was made to get rid of the threat of terrorism, which had destroyed the peace of the nation.
“There is no doubt that we must eradicate the country’s terrorism and punish terrorists. There is also no doubt that we will fight against terrorism until the last and that together, we will win this battle.”
However, he warned that “the urgency should not overshadow wisdom”.
Lawyer Ali Zafar also stressed that the Supreme Court had examined the provisions of the existing anti -terrorist law and decided that many of its provisions were against the Constitution. “It is only after the current law has been adopted, and therefore there is no room for changes.
He deplored that the amendment proposes that even a Sho and holds anyone for a period of three months in prison, and the person in prison will have no recourse to the courts. “The government can call anyone a terrorist on the ground of public order and imprisoned them,” he warned.
“We must ask ourselves: will this amendment make Pakistan safer, or will he weaken the constitutional rights that we have sworn to protect?”
“Our duty is twofold: on the one hand, to protect the life of our citizens from the scourge of terrorism; on the other hand, to defend these constitutional freedoms without which Pakistan cannot remain a democratic state,” he said.
“We have to balance. Security will have to be balanced against freedom and power against responsibility,” he added.
“No sweetness towards activism”
The senator of PML-N Irfanul Haque Siddiqui argued that no sweetness could be shown towards armed militancy. “We do not want terrorists to wander freely while innocent people are slaughtered … These acts weaken our federation and create distrust between people and the state.”
He said legislators must either go to the activists or legislate to resist them, saying that such measures can “prevent crime and also slow down forced disappearances and arbitrary detention”.
Siddiqui called to see anti-terrorist legislation in good faith rather than a political stick, stressing the need for transparent communication of government opposition with the public and the media.
