SCBA, PBC denounce Secrets Act Bill

Lawyers' bodies express serious reservations over proposed bill granting unequivocal powers to intelligence agencies

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has strongly condemned proposed amendments to the Official Secrets Act, 1923 that will give extraordinary powers to intelligence agencies.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the council noted that the amendment bill that seeks to empower secret agencies to raid and detain any citizen or enter and search any person in any place without obtaining a search warrant from any court of law is unethical and against the norms of justice.

These amendments, it said, are also in violation of Articles 8, 9 and 10 of the Constitution.

Expressing their concerns, PBC Vice Chairman Haroon-ur-Rashid and the chairman of its executive committee, Hassan Raza Pasha, hoped that the relevant standing committee of the Senate would reject the proposed amendments in the act.

They also demanded that the federal government also immediately withdraw the Official Secrets Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023. “The legal fraternity [has] always struggled for supremacy of the Constitution and rule of law in the country and any such move will be opposed by tooth and nail,” the statement added.

After the PBC, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) also issued a statement, strongly denouncing the proposed amendments to the Official Secrets Act, 1923.

The SCBA said the proposed amendments are unlawful, undemocratic, and unconstitutional and a blatant violation of human rights, natural justice, and sheer violation of Articles 4, 8, 9, 10, 10-A and 14 of the Constitution.