The National Assembly on Wednesday passed the anti-terrorism (amendment) Bill 2024 with a majority vote passed it in the law after rejecting opposition proposals in the midst of protests in parliament.
The house suspended its routine agenda to take up the bill. Speaker Ayaz Sadiq ordered a number of employees on the bill’s passage, which showed 125 votes in favor and 45 against. Opposition members protested and shouted slogans during the process.
PTI -President Attorney Gohar Ali Khan claimed that the bill violated Article 10 of the Constitution and Fundamental Rights by allowing detention without trial for up to three months expanded by three more.
He said no law could be adopted in violation of the Constitution or Supreme Court’s decisions and noted earlier cases of prolonged detention without proper process.
Read: HRCP urges Govt to scrape anti-terror bill
Maulana Fazlur Rehman questioned the need for such a law and remembered similar measures in the Musharraf era, which he said treated citizens as “born criminals.”
The opposition maintained that the law could be abused while the government insisted that it was necessary to tackle the prevailing security situation.
Oil reserves
Separately, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) legislators sought clarification from government over US President Donald Trump’s previous comments on large oil reserves in Pakistan.
On July 31, Trump went to social media to advertise a new US -Pakistan agreement for the joint development of Pakistan’s “massive oil reserves”.
PPPS Dr. Nafisa Shah questioned why the government had not provided information if such reserves existed. “The US president tells us about oil reserves in Pakistan, but why is the government in Pakistan not informing us?”
Read more: Trump wins his deal, Pakistan sees the future
In response to the call for attention message, the federal minister of Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik said that Pakistan had recently granted oil research rights to companies from Kuwait, Turkey and other countries.
He confirmed the presence of reserves, but said that their exact size could only be determined after the investigation work began.
He added that three large gas fields – Larger than the SUI field – had been discovered and the investigation had begun in Hyderabad.
Malik noted that countries such as China and the US had the technology to verify the presence of oil and gas quickly.
Dr. Shah also questioned whether Trump’s remarks, including that Pakistan one day, could export oil to India, was intended to push India for concessions, considering that Pakistani ministers claimed that they did not yet know the reserve’s size.
PPP -Laws Syed Naveed Qamar asked if the investigative options would be open to countries beyond the United States.
Malik replied that rights would be available to more companies.
