Protection of Pakistan Bill: PM could also be arrested under the law, says Bilawal

Altaf also opposes ‘draconian’ law, warns of protests.

Pakistan Peoples Party patron-in-chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that if the Protection of Pakistan Bill is passed, even the prime minister can fall victim to the proposed law and face possible arrest.

On Thursday, he tweeted, ‘I hope the senate does the right thing and does not let it pass.’ The government succeeded in passing the bill from the National Assembly, thanks to a comfortable majority it enjoys in the lower house. However, the real test of the government will begin when it tables the bill in the Senate, where the opposition has an overwhelming majority as far as the number game is concerned. It may be noted that under this bill, security forces are able to shoot suspects on sight and detain those in custody for up to 90 days without charges.

The PPP – the largest party in the 103-member Senate – issued a statement on Wednesday stating that it opposed the bill in its current form but it didn’t favour challenging it in a court of law.

“The PPP is also opposed to moving the court at this stage as it is within the domain of parliament to debate, modify or reject a [proposed] law. It is unwise to take a parliamentary battle to other forums and invite their interference in matters that fall within the domain of parliament alone,” PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar had said in a statement.



Additionally, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Altaf Hussain weighed in on the bill, saying his party would not accept the ‘illegal and inhuman black law being implemented in the name of protection of Pakistan’. He reiterated that the party would protest the bill as long as necessary. Addressing an MQM Rabita Committee meeting simultaneously held in Karachi and London, the party chief appealed to all political and religious parties, non-governmental and human rights organizations to call for a round table conference to devise a common strategy against the bill’s passage.

The MQM leader said the federal government has passed the draft using its majority in the National Assembly and described it as a ‘draconian, dictatorial, inhuman, blood-sucking, devilish and ruthless law’. The government’s support for the bill is reflective of its mentality, he remarked.


Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th, 2014.