The Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control on Tuesday decided to incorporate some necessary amendments to the controversial Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2014 and send it to the Senate for reconsideration.
The committee strongly rejected the provisions particularly relating to 90-day preventive detention of any person who has been nabbed in any of the offences under the Anti-Terrorism Act as well as provision of additional powers to law- enforcement agencies (power to shoot the suspects at sight) and decided to send it to the Senate with some necessary amendments.
Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood, Chairman of the Committee, said that the bill will be sent to the Senate after incorporating the amendments proposed by the members of the committee. The bill was referred to the committee on March 7 last and if the upper house did not pass the bill till June 5, it will go to the joint sitting of parliament according to the constitution. The National Assembly has already passed the bill and it will complete 90 days in the Senate on June 5.
Senator Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi said that if the bill was passed in the present condition it will empower only law-enforcement agencies and weaken the innocent citizens. The government needs to ensure strict implementation of existing laws and accountability of the law-enforcement agencies, he said.
He said that the law-enforcement agencies need to use technology for interrogation. He said that the government wanted to bailout police who will become murderer of innocent people through this legislation and increase corruption in the police department. Such powers should only be given to officers of Grade-17 and above from police or army and such action should be taken in his presence, ha said.
Zahid Hamid, Federal Minister for Science and Technology and Special Committee on Law and Order Situation in Karachi, while giving briefing to the committee said the government had proposed the law as a result of the decision of the cabinet meeting held in Karachi. There were built-in safeguards in the law as internal inquiry would be held if security agencies would kill any suspect. Senator Rehman Malik said that some sections of this bill were good but before the passage "we need to keep in mind human rights". If the bill was passed in the present form it will be used against politicians, he said. He said that there was a dire need to define terrorism.