The government has finalised a draft bill that would merge Protection of Pakistan Act (PoPA) and Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) aimed at dealing more effectively with terror related cases. The PoPA expired on July 15 this year and was promulgated to give the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) special powers, provide protection to witnesses and accept evidence that was previously inadmissible in court under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
LEAs were allowed to detain any citizen for the duration of up to 90 days and obtain physical remand up to 90 days by producing the arrested accused before military courts set up under PoPA or any anti-terrorism court. The law was invoked for the duration of two years and expired on July 15 and as a result all special courts established under this Act became ineffective.
Sources said that the Ministry of Interior has finalised a draft bill to merge PoPa with ATA and also started consultation with Ministry of Law and Justice in this regard. According to the draft bill, all the provisions including providing special powers to LEAs and special courts will remain intact, they said.
They further said that according to the proposed draft, the LEA would detain a person involved in terror activities for 90 days and anti terrorism cases will be heard in military courts. The proposed law would not have a time limit and would be effective permanently, they further said. Sources further said that the proposed bill will be presented before the federal cabinet subsequent to final approval by the Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
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