Controversial law: Opposition hoots and jeers as PPO tabled in Senate

Proposed law referred to select committee after PPP, ANP, MQM and PML-Q senators criticised it.

ISLAMABAD:

The controversial Pakistan Protection Ordinance (PPO) was introduced in the upper house of parliament on Friday, amidst hooting and cries of protest from members of the opposition and treasury benches. After it was opposed, the bill was referred to a select committee and each member of the house was assured that they would be able to give their recommendations on the bill.

In the absence of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the PPO was introduced in the house by Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid. As the bill was moved, the Senate hall resounded with voices shouting, ‘Question’. Hamid maintained that since the bill was opposed, it should be sent to the committee for further deliberation.

Calling the PPO a ‘black law’, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani said its passage was tantamount to declaring Pakistan a ‘national security state’, adding that the proposed law trampled the fundamental rights of citizens. The PPO, he said, is in direct contravention to the Constitution.

Citing the Annual Human Rights and Democracy report published by the United Kingdom’s government and Office of the Commonwealth, Senator Rabbani said the PPO was an impediment to trade concessions offered by the European Union as 27 conventions pertaining to human rights were being affected by this particular law.

In his reply, Zahid Hamid stated that the report mentioned by Senator Rabbani concerned the PPO’s original draft. The present draft has been considerably modified, he said, and clauses related to detention of suspects were subject to Article 10 of the Constitution. He described the proposed law as similar to the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.



ANP Senator Haji Adeel described the PPO as politically motivated and said the clauses related to detention were ripe for abuse. Instead of sending the bill to the select committee, a larger committee of the house should examine the PPO and suggestions should be included to another draft, he said.

MQM Senator Col (retd) Tahir Mashhadi, one of the most vociferous critics of the bill, described it as reminiscent of the Nazi era in German history.

“It is an amalgam of all laws that have been abused for victimisation,” he said. In the presence of so many existing laws, no known terrorists were convicted and even those who were in custody were being released, he said.

PML-Q Senator Kamil Ali Agha expressed his reservations against the select committee to which the bill was referred, saying the output of the committee was not satisfactory. Although there was a need for a law with particular reference to terrorism, passing a law without consensus and in which the burden of proof lies upon the person charged, will result in pandemonium, he added.

Additionally, on a point of order during the Zero Hour, PPP Senator Saeed Ghani demanded that the investigation report by a committee of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) that probed the happenings and names of those involved in helping Pervez Musharraf to declare a state of emergency on November 3, 2007 should be presented in the house.

Opposition parties staged a walkout in protest when Senator Kamil Ali Agha drew the attention of the house towards a protest in Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan, where more than 20 political parties were protesting against the government’s decision to end the subsidy on wheat.

The decision had caused a shortage of flour, said Senator Agha. If the government could provide a daily subsidy of Rs1.23 billion for the metro bus service, why a similar amount couldn’t be provided in this case, he asked.

The Surveying and Mapping Bill 2014, which was also to be laid before the house was deferred on the government request.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2014.