President Asif Ali Zardari has given his consent to the Bill on Anti-Terrorism (amendments), 2025, which allows security forces for extended retention powers and was adopted through parliament in the midst of the opposition assignment task.
“The law is designed to ensure transparency and accountability in detention with a built-in three-year sunset clause to limit its duration. It includes legal supervision and protection measures to provide abuse and abuse of power, as opposed to previous arbitrary practice,” President Secretariat Press Wing said in a statement issued on Sunday.
On August 19, the Senate of Anti -terrorism (amendment) passed the law 2025, and recovered lapsed powers allowing law enforcement authorities (LEA) and the armed forces to detain suspects for up to three months due to national security.
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The legislation that drew the opposition criticism changes subsection (1) of ยง 11EEEEEE in the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, enabling preventive detention in cases such as target killings, extortion and kidnapping for ransom, with supervision under Article 10 of the Constitution.
According to the amendment, “the government or, where the provisions of section 4 have been invoked, the armed forces or civilian armed forces issued for a period of no more than three months and after registration of reasons thereof, issuing preventive detention of any person”.
The breastfeeding law states that persons suspected of national security activities, including target murder, kidnapping for ransom and extortion, can be detained for three months, adding that it applies to “against which there are sufficient reasons that he has been so concerned with the purpose of investigation”.
Prisons extending beyond this threshold will be subject to Article 10 of the Constitution, providing protection measures with regard to arrest and detention.
Read more: ATA bred with preventive detention clause
Under the breastfeeding law, earlier powers under section 11eeeee, which lapsed in 2016 had to be lapsed due to a sunset clause, “deployed to strengthen the government, armed forces and civilian armed forces with the necessary authority to detain individuals who pose a significant threat to national security.”
The government claims that the provision would allow for preventive detention based on credible information or reasonable suspicion, enabling authorities to disrupt terrorist spaces before maturing.
The move has criticized the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and other rights bodies that have raised concerns about potential abuse of such sweeping powers.
The law was passed in the Senate in the middle of the opposition protest, where Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI) Attorney Ali Zafar pointed out that the Supreme Court had investigated the provisions of existing anti-terrorism, and decided that many of its provisions were contrary to the Constitution. “It was only after the current law was passed and therefore there is no room for any changes in it. By adding any provision in the existing law and making it more draconic, it will only become constitutional.”
He complained that the amendment proposes that even a SHO could withhold someone for a period of three months in prison and the person in prison will have no use of the courts. “The government can call anyone a terrorist because of public order and imprisoned them,” he warned.
“We have to ask ourselves: Will this amendment make Pakistan more secure, or will it weaken the constitutional rights we swore an oath to protect?”
