Rights activists term MPO legacy of Raj

Say consecutive regimes since Ayub Khan’s Martial Law used it to gag voices of dissent

KARACHI:

Legal experts and rights activists have termed laws such as the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Act and the section 144 a legacy of the British Raj.

The colonialists used such laws to gag voices of dissent, said Human Rights Commission of Pakistan member Saeed Baloch talking to The Express Tribune.

Barrister Fayyaz pointed out that people are imprisoned on the direction of home department without trial and any action taken, order given, or issued under MPO cannot be questioned in any court, they said.

The two sections of the law including 3 MPO and 16 MPO are in news since the May 9 riots. The federal and provincial governments are using these two clauses besides the section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code to prosecute the protestors who went violent after the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan.

However, legal experts and human rights experts have different opinions on these provisions.

Though some say MPO is a potent tool to control sectarian hate speech and extremist narrative to restore peace, others believe that it is used for political victimization.

Martial Law’s creation

In 1960, MPO was promulgated as an ordinance for “preventing any person from acting in any manner prejudicial to public safety or the maintenance of public order” by the military dictatorship of Ayub Khan.

The ordinance read that if it is necessary the government may direct the arrest and detention of such person and may extend from time to time the period of such detention for a period not exceeding six months at a time.

In this regard, Hassan Sabir Advocate, an expert of Constitutional Law, said that section 16 of the MPO Act provides for action to prevent rumours as well as hate speech.

This provision of the Maintenance of Public Order Act is also popularly known as ‘16 MPO’. Under this clause, if a person makes a speech in words or writing which the government thinks is tantamount to spreading rumour, he can be arrested.

If such speech, writing or sound causes or is likely to cause danger to the public or any group of the public or is likely to cause danger to public order, such person shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, with fine or with both.

He said that this ordinance was first used by Ayub Khan’s Martial Law regime against dissidents and religious leaders whose speech was thought to disrupt peace.

In recent years many religious leaders have faced this gag order during sensitive days of Muharram and banned from entering a particular district.

Similarly, some former Jihadi leaders were barred from leaving the city by the same ordinance and told to visit the police station on a daily basis.

However, recently PTI Sindh President Ali Zaidi and former Sindh governor Imran Ismail were arrested under MPO.

Moreover, seven senior leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), including former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Secretary General Asad Umer, were booked under 16 MPO and sent to Adiala Jail after they were arrested from the federal capital.

Meanwhile, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had declared the arrest of PTI leaders including Fawad Chudhry, Shireen Mazari and Senator Falak Naz under 3 MPO as illegal. The PTI Karachi spokesperson has said that 190 party workers have been arrested under MPO.

Arrested and imprisoned without trial, the period of the detention of such people can be cut short if they submit a formal apology or an undertaking to abandon such acts.

Arbitrary arrest

Barrister Fayaz said that under the provision of MPO the government can arrest any person it thinks can cause disorder in the public through speech, whether the person belongs to a political or religious party or civil society.

Mostly the home department, rather than a court of law, issues one month detention order for such and it can increase the detention period too.

Barrister Fayaz said that any action taken, order given or issued under MPO cannot be questioned in any court.

Both the legal experts say that if a case is registered against a person and if his physical remand is obtained, 3 MPO and 16 MPO shall not apply to him because he must be brought before the court again after physical remand.

Sindh, Punjab, K-P and Balochistan governments use this ordinance in their own way. The head of a human rights organisation and legal expert Zia Awan Advocate said MPO has been used mostly for political victimisation in Pakistan.

There are human rights laws in the constitution which say that if a person is found guilty of a crime, he should be brought before this court but the government has the power to detain any person at any place as per this ordinance under vague explanation, “to improve peace under precautionary measures.”

Awan said that currently, people detained under MPO can secure their release if they abide by the court’s order to submit an affidavit with the deputy commissioner of their district that they would not be involved in any ‘malice’ anymore. In simple words, they would be required to abandon the party and its politics.

Zia Awan said that there is a Constitution and law in Pakistan but unfortunately, no one implements it. Legal experts say that apart from the sixteen MPOs, Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CRPC) empowers the district administration to ban meetings, demonstrations and gatherings in public interest for a specified time in any area. Therefore, the government uses Article 144 to control the situation and resolve other important issues.

Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Council Member Saeed Baloch said that laws such as 16 MPO, 3 MPO and Section 144 have their roots in the British colonial era.

Governments continue imprison political opponents through these laws. HRCP has always opposed these laws and has been demanding that these laws be scrapped. These laws are against human rights and a tactic to suppress freedom of expression, Baloch said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2023.