Members say a portion of Section 11 needs improvement. PHOTO: FILE
National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control on Tuesday deferred proceedings on the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2013 – a bill aimed at strengthening provisions related to terrorism financing.
The panel expressed reservations over a subsection of Section 11 and directed the ministries concerned to further improve the bill within seven days.
Committee’s chairman Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Rana Shamim Ahmad Khan said that in the present situation, anti-terrorism laws had to be further strengthened to cope with terrorists effectively.
The Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) bill, 2013 (Ordinance No VIII) is targeted at strengthening counter-terrorism financing regime and to bring it at par with international standards.
Khan said the bill addresses the shortcomings related to the provision of terrorist financing in the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 which were highlighted by Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – an international body that sets international standards on anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNA Dr Arif Alvi said a portion of Section 11 that empowered law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) to issue orders of preventive detention of any person for up to three months, had to be improved.
Alvi said over 10,000 people had been arrested in Karachi under the ordinance. He further alleged that 9,000 out of the total had been released by security agencies after taking bribes.
Meanwhile, senior officials, briefing the committee, pointed out that freezing properties and accounts of people or organisations that had provided financial assistance to terrorists would help the cause.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) MNA Salman Khan Baloch termed the bill, ‘a violation of human rights’ and added that LEAs would misuse it if the law was approved.
“Over 40 party workers have been arrested by the LEAs under the law,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 1st, 2014.
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