NA passes amended anti-terror law bill

ISLAMABAD:

In a rare display of unity on a matter of national interest, the government and most opposition parties on Wednesday came together to pass the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2020 with a majority vote – another legislation that is crucial for the country’s removal from global watchdog Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list.

Law Minister Farogh Naseem presented the bill during the session chaired Speaker Asad Qaiser. The Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) raised objections over the legislation but it was supported but the majority of the house, including the major opposition parties.

The bill proposes prohibiting the provision of loans or financial assistance to those associated with banned organisations and restricting all banks and financial institutions from issuing credit cards to individuals on the proscribed persons list.

It further states that arms licenses already issued to such individuals would be revoked and their weapons confiscated.

No new licenses will be issued to such people and they will be penalised for carrying weapons.

A person will be committing an offence if they facilitate the travel of an individual for the purpose of perpetrating, participating in, assisting or preparing for a terrorist act or for providing or receiving training for terrorist activities.

The state will also have the power to freeze the accounts and travel documents of those found to be involved in terrorist activities.

JUI-F MNA Shahida Akhtar Ali said her party supported the bill and the government and the opposition were united when it came to the protecting the country’s interests.

“Terrorism has no religion,” she said, noting that the term terrorism should be properly explained and defined. “Our objection was on the procedure of the lawmaking. Legislation should be transparent so that questions are not raised later," she added.

"We will support in the legislation for the sake of the country," said the JUI-F lawmaker, hoping that Pakistan would be removed off the FATF’s grey list.

The PML-N also withdrew its earlier reservations over the bill saying that the government had incorporated their recommended amendments. "The law minister had already incorporated 80% of the amendments proposed by the opposition in the ATA amendment bill,” said PML-N lawmaker Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha, adding that his party wished for the country to taken off the grey list.

“Pakistan, instead of treasury or opposition, must win.”

Federal Law Minister Farogh Naseem expressed his gratitude to the opposition parties for supporting the bill.

"Pakistan's economy should be white listed instead of being blacklisted. It is essential for country's survival that it has strict laws to curb money laundering," he said. The minister emphasised the need for making it clear that Islam and terrorism were poles apart.

BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal raised the objection that bill needed to first specify what terrorism was and define the term terrorist.

"Does lodging an FIR against someone make them a terrorist? Someone who breaks a mirror may be declared a terrorist but the one breaking the Constitution of Pakistan is not.”

The BNP-M chief also said his party was not taken on board when the government and the opposition reached a consensus on the bill.

“We neither support nor oppose the bill,” he said. Mengal recalled that he along with PML-N’s supreme leader Nawaz Sharif, PPP’s Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and several politicians were booked under the anti-terrorism law.

Apart from the ATA amendment bill, the lower house of the parliament passed four other bills – the Limited Liability Partnership (Amendment) Bill, the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Control of Narcotic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and Islamabad Capital Territory Trust Bill, 2020.

The house also unanimously passed two resolutions; one demanding that “Khatamun Nabiyeen” should be written with the name of the Hoy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) in all official and unofficial documents while the other sought making Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s August 11 speech on minorities part of the curriculum.

At start of the proceedings, PPP’s Naveed Qamar maintained that laws were misused in the country instead of achieving the objective they were made for.

“We have seen the NAB [National Accountability Bureau] law. It was made to eradicate corruption from the country but it has been misused in different ways … either for political engineering or for the filling pockets of NAB officials,” he added.

Similarly, he said, legislatures should not leave loopholes in the instant bills so that they could later be used for personal gains.

“Such legislation creates problems for the common people and businessmen. We have to watch out for that,” he warned.

Qamar said the bills on the agenda had several flaws and were bulldozed at the standing committee stage. “This doesn’t lead to better laws. It might help you achieve a target but leaves loopholes in the law.” PML-N’s Khawaja Asif seconded Qamar.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the positive contributions of the opposition were incorporated in the bills through long and tedious negotiations.

However, the opposition lawmakers started protesting when Qureshi accused them of linking the FATF legislation with the passage of their proposed amendments to the accountability law.

They also asked the speaker to expunge the words ‘young and immature’ that Qureshi had used for a PPP legislature, Agha Rafiullah.

Qureshi, subsequently, withdrew his words.

Later, Parliamentary Sectary for Law and Justice Maleeka Ali Bokhari read out the amendments to the anti-terrorism law clause by clause.

During the session, NA Speaker Asad Qaiser proposed to the Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood to work on a design for a “knowledge city” or “education sector” in the federal capital as was the case in several other capitals of the worlds.