President Asif Ali Zardari gave his assent to the anti-terrorism bill (amendment), 2025, which empowers the security forces with prolonged detention powers, and was transmitted by the Parliament in the middle of the opposition stadium.
“The law is designed to ensure transparency and responsibility for detention, with a three -year -old sunset clause to limit its duration. It includes judicial surveillance and guarantees to provide an appeal against improper use and abuse of power, unlike past arbitrary practices, “said Secretariat President Press Wing in a statement published on Sunday.
On August 19, the Senate adopted the 2025 anti-terrorism law (amendment), restoring detached powers which allow the law enforcement organizations (LEA) and the armed forces to hold suspects for three months for national security reasons.
Read: The forces find the prolonged detention powers with the NOD of the Senate
The legislation, which led to the criticism of the opposition, modifies paragraph (1) of article 11EEE of the 1997 anti-terrorism law, allowing preventive detention in cases such as target murders, extortion and kidnapping for ransom, with surveillance provided under article 10 of the Constitution.
According to the amendment, “the government or, when the provisions of article 4 have been invoked, the armed forces or the civil armed forces not exceeding three months and after having registered reasons, emit order for the preventive detention of any person”.
The Amende law stipulates that people suspected of activities against national security, including target murder, ransom and extortion, can be held for three months, adding that it applies to which sufficient reasons exist from its concern, for investigation purposes “.
The detentions extending beyond this threshold will be subject to article 10 of the Constitution, which provides guarantees with regard to arrest and detention.
Find out more: Ata rearmed by the preventive detention clause
According to the Landeuse law, previous powers under article 11EEE, which were unleashed in 2016 due to a sunset clause, were to be “reintegrated to empower the government, the armed forces and the 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.
This decision aroused criticism from the Pakistan Human Rights Commission (HRCP) and other rights organizations, which have raised concerns about the potential improper use of these radical powers.
The law was adopted in the Senate in the middle of the opposition demonstration, with the lawyer for Pakistan Tehreek-E-insaf (PTI), Ali Zafar, stressing that the Supreme Court had examined the provisions of the existing terrorism law and had 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 can have 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?”
