No to draconian laws

The bill to extend detention powers raises concerns over potential misuse against dissent and political opponents.

The bill to empower the law-enforcement agencies with umbrella detention powers, and that too for a longer period of time without any recourse to lawful relief, is highly disturbing. Though the intention behind the bill - tabled by the government in the lower house yesterday - is to address the security lapses in the wake of severe terror backlash across the country, what makes it worrisome and point of concern for civil society is its anticipated misuse in the political realm, wherein dissent is ruthlessly crushed and political opponents are made to face the music.

At the moment, there is no dearth of laws and conventions to address the surging fissure of terrorism, but the government's desire to revive the sunset clause of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997 to detain a suspect for three months, with sweeping powers for more effective counterterrorism operations, is full of misgivings warrants a considerate debate. Any attempt to rush it down the bicameral and enforce it into a law, as is the precedent of the sitting dispensation, will come with a heavy societal cost and further parochialism in an already divisive society.

Amending Section 11EEEE of ATA, 1997, has incidentally come close on the heels of the controversial 26th amendment, and hints at an agenda under the guise of anti-terrorism efforts. The 26th amendment too had many such clauses intended at curbing the powers of the judiciary and making the system of lawful prosecution fall under the executive, but the same was thwarted as a consensus for sailing the draft through a majority-less parliament. Now revoking the same and pushing it under ATA 1997 is surely with mala fide intent, and must go through the process of checks and balances of any civil society. Empowering the LEAs with unbridled powers had failed in the US, India and many other countries, and the concept of internment centres has been used for victimisation.

Pakistan surely has a threat problem to address, and it is getting worse day by day. The rational approach shall be to embolden all the three organs of the state, and take decisions on the premise of ground realities.