New anti-terrorism law must not violate privacy: Rabbani
The proposed anti-terrorism law must not be allowed to undermine people’s privacy, urged the head of a bi-partisan parliamentary panel on national security on Wednesday.
Senator Raza Rabbani, who chaired a meeting of the parliamentary committee, told reporters that while the country needed new legislation to counter terrorism, it must not be used to put the fundamental rights of people at stake.
His remarks came in response to criticism over the new law, which some fear may allow the country’s security agencies to operate with impunity .
The Fair Trial Act, which has already been tabled in the National Assembly, allows the state to tap phones and intercept all other private communications in order to arrest terror suspects. Emails, SMSs, phone calls and audio-visual recordings will be admissible evidence, while suspects will be held for six months after a warrant issued by the courts.
The new law is being enacted in the wake of strong criticism over the lack of comprehensive counter-terrorism laws, which allow several suspects to go unpunished.
Military authorities have raised concern over the lack of prosecution of terror suspects and have urged the government to amend existing anti-terrorism laws.
The proposed act provides security agencies and other related institutions with modern techniques not only to arrest suspects but also ensure their successful prosecution.
“We must strike a balance between adopting modern techniques of investigations and the fundamental rights of the people,” cautioned Barrister Zafarullah Khan.
The parliamentary committee was also briefed by Lord Alexander Charles Carlyle, a British lawyer and an expert on anti-terrorism law.
Lord Carlyle briefed the committee members on Britain’s counter-terrorism laws.
Senator Rabbani said it was important to learn from the experiences of other countries since Pakistan was in the process of introducing the legislation.
The proposed law was introduced in the National Assembly on October 8.
The law, if passed in its current form, would apply to Pakistanis in the country and abroad.
A sessions judge would be authorised to issue a warrant for surveillance of a citizen in the country to a government entity, including the Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence and the police.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 1st, 2012.
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I respect senator Raza Rabani and his leadership in developing consensus on the 18th Amendment deserves due credit. But he is being disingenuous if he says "The proposed anti-terrorism law must not be allowed to undermine people’s privacy."Being able to legally monitor people's emails, SMS, phones is an invasion of prvacy. It is not as though this does not happen today but when it happens without court authorization, the infomration used cannot be used for prosecuting people for plotting acts of terror. Around the world, there is no government that has not compromised on some privacy - albeit with controls such as necessity of court orders - in order to deal with the problem of terrorism. In the end it is a tradeoff between life and liberty and increasingly people around the world are choosing life over liberty.
In case you didn't know it your security agencies act with impunity already -- so why not put some laws on the books that will keep terrorist in jail?
Yes , Hina too value privacy a lot and even .,,,,,, ..,....mr president has granted it to her so there is no need to remined it , at this point .
How about electric bracelet for that 6 months instead of holding them in prison on public money?