By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A bill that would grant near-blanket powers to Pakistan’s top intelligence agencies, including the right to enter and search any person or place without a warrant, was blocked by protests from lawmakers in the upper house of parliament on Wednesday.
The bill, which was quietly passed by the lower house on Tuesday, is widely seen as an attempt by the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to stifle criticism of the military and its spy chiefs, who have faced growing accusations of meddling in politics and human rights violations by former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his allies.
The bill is expected to pass the Senate this week and then go to President Arif Alvi to be signed into law.
But on Wednesday, lawmakers from both, the ruling party and the opposition, raised objections to the bill, forcing the Senate chairman to refer it to a committee for further deliberation.
Senators from both the treasury and opposition benches strongly criticized the legislative process witnessed in the upper house of Parliament, before the bill to amend the Official Secrets Act was presented.
Jamaat-i-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmed said the legislative process had turned the house into a “joke” globally and on social media and “we are ourselves violating our rules and regulations”.
He questioned why a “floodgate of legislations” was opened in the government’s last days, and said that some of the bills were ‘strategic legislations that would have far-reaching effects on the country and history.
“The government, with few days left in its tenure, should not take up these bills,” he added.
Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Raza Rabbani’s criticism was more strongly worded, who said “new traditions” were being laid down.
He said he felt he was not in the Senate but a “princely state” where “I am blindfolded, handcuffed and I parrot whatever the ministers say or whatever comes after being passed by the cabinet”.
“My right as an individual member to move an amendment against a law according to my conscience and my dictate is being taken away from me for the last 10 days,” he added.
Echoing former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s words and actions at the United Nations Security Council where he tore up a resolution, Rabbani said he too was “wasting my time over here and I will tear up your bills”.
The veteran senator then ripped a copy of a bill amid the thumping of desks from some other members. The senators’ right to deliberate and vote on amendments should not be taken away, he said.
“Don’t take away this right. You are doing this today. Tomorrow, when your government will end and you will return to these back benches, what legacy will you bring?
“We are setting bad precedents … The matter here is not as much of the basic principle of amendments as much as it of the basic principle of the right of an individual parliamentarian,” Rabbani said.
“I leave it in your hands,” he concluded his speech, addressing the Senate chairperson.
Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl Senator Kamran Murtaza also took exception to legislations, saying that his party being a part of the ruling coalition did not mean that they could not voice their opinions.
“If there’s a restriction, we can go out of the house and they can represent [the government] and take responsibility for this legislation,” he added.
Murtaza said he had asked the parliamentary leader of his party in the National Assembly if had given his consent for the bill, but “he clearly said: ‘I was not consulted or told’” about the bills.
The Official Secrets Act bill proposes sweeping powers for two premier intelligence agencies, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), making it legal for them to raid and detain any citizen and seize any document, sketch, plan, electronic or modern devices or anything which can be evidence of an offence committed.
The bill also broadens the definition of ‘document’ to include ‘any written, unwritten, electronic, digital, or any other tangible or intangible instrument’ related to the military’s procurements and capabilities. Likewise, the definition of ‘enemy’ includes ‘any person who is directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally working for or engaged with a foreign power, foreign agent, non-state actor, organisation, entity, association or group guilty of a particular act… prejudicial to the safety and interest of Pakistan.’
Another amendment in the bill proposes a prison term of three years for disclosing the ‘identity of the members of the intelligence agencies or the informants or sources.’ It also terms a visit of a Pakistani citizen to the address of a foreign agent within or outside Pakistan as an offence.
The bill empowers the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and officials of intelligence agencies to investigate suspects for violation of the Official Secrets Act.
Legal experts and human rights activists have expressed alarm over the bill, warning that it could be used to curtail civil liberties and constitutional rights.
“The legislation may be enacted with a good will to protect the national interests, but the chances of its misuse seem to be massive,” said Taimur Malik, a lawyer based in Lahore. “Such legislations are not passed in functional democracies.”
He said the legislation would have ‘serious implications’ in the absence of checks and balances on the working of intelligence officials.
“If they are allowed to enter a premise or detain anybody without warrant, then at least they should have approval from the highest level to avoid any misuse of authority,” Malik added.
Abdul Moiz Jaferii, another lawyer based in Karachi, said the bill was an attempt to give legal cover to spy agencies operating with impunity.
“If the past of our agencies is anything to go by, then there are serious concerns of these powers being abused by the same agencies,” Jaferii said.
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