President Asif Ali Zardari has given his consent to the draft anti -terrorism law (amendment), 2025, which empowers security forces with extended detention powers, and was approved by Parliament in the midst of the opposition.
“The law is designed to guarantee transparency and responsibility for arrests, with a three -year -old sunset clause to limit its duration. Includes judicial supervision and safeguards to provide an appeal against misuse and abuse of power, unlike past arbitrary practices,” said the Secretary’s Secretariat in a statement issued on Sunday.
On August 19, the Senate approved the Law of Anti -Terrorism (amendment) of 2025, restoring delayed powers that allow the agencies of application of the law (read) and the armed forces to stop suspects for up to three months for reasons of national security.
Read: The forces recover the extended detention powers with the head of the Senate
The legislation, which attracted the criticism of the opposition, modifies the subsection (1) of section 11eeee of the Law of Antiterrorism, 1997, which allows preventive detention in cases such as objective murders, extortion and kidnapping for rescue, with the supervision provided under article 10 of the Constitution.
According to the amendment, “the Government or, when the provisions of Section 4, the Armed Forces or the Civil Armed Forces have been invoked during a period that does not exceed three months and after registering their reasons, it issues the order for the preventive detention of any person.”
The ammended law establishes that the suspected people of activities against national security, including the death of objectives, the hijack of rescue and extortion, can be arrested for three months, and added that it applies “against whom there are sufficient reasons of having been so worried, for investigation purposes.”
The arrests that extend beyond this threshold will be subject to article 10 of the Constitution, which provides safeguards with respect to arrest and detention.
Read more: ATA rearmed with preventive detention clause
According to the Ammented Law, the previous powers under Section 11EEEE, which expired in 2016 due to a sunset clause, should be “re -inserted to empower the government, the armed forces and civil armed forces with the necessary authority to detain people who represent a significant threat to national security.”
The Government argues that the provision would allow preventive detention based on credible information or reasonable suspicion, which allows the authorities to interrupt terrorist plots before they mature.
The measure has caused criticisms of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission (HRCP) and other rights agencies, which have expressed concerns about the possible misuse of such radical powers.
The law was approved in the Senate in the midst of the protest of the opposition, with the lawyer of Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI) Ali Zafar pointing out that the Supreme Court had examined the provisions of the existing anti-terrorist law and decided that many of its provisions were against the Constitution. “It was only after the current law was approved, and therefore there is no place for any change in it. By adding any provision in the existing law and making it more draconian, it will only become unconstitutional.”
He regretted that the amendment proposes that even a show could arrest anyone for a three -month prison period, and the person in prison will not resort to court. “The government can call any terrorist in public order and imprison him,” he warned.
“We must ask ourselves: will this amendment make Pakistan safer or will weaken the constitutional rights that we swore an oath to protect?”
