Chairman PTI moves Apex Court against Army Act, Official Secrets Act amendments
ISLAMABAD, Sep 09 (SABAH): Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Saturday petitioned the Supreme Court of Pakistan to declare “null and void” the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act 2023 and Official Secrets (Amendment) Act 2023, contending that since both lack the presidential assent, they remain bills and have not become law.
In late July, both houses of Parliament passed the bill to amend the Army Act, 1952, which proposed up to five years in jail for those who disclose sensitive information pertaining to the security of the country or the military.
On August 1, the PDM government also got the bill to amend the century-old secrets act approved by the National Assembly in a bid to grant blanket powers to intelligence agencies, empowering them to raid and detain any citizen, even under suspicion of them breaching the law.
The bill was referred to the relevant standing committee of the Senate the next day after it faced fierce opposition from both sides of the aisle when taken up for passing.
On August 6, the upper house of the Parliament finally approved the bill, followed by the National Assembly passing the same bill for a second time after making some alterations to the original draft, chiefly among which was the removal of a clause that would have granted agencies the power to arrest suspects or conduct searches without warrants.
On August 19, President Dr. Arif Alvi was said to have assented to both the Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill 2023 and the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill 2023, allowing the pieces of proposed legislation to become acts of parliament.
However, in a startling turn of events the next day, the president publicly claimed that he had not signed the two bills since he disagreed with them and had asked his staff to return them unsigned within the stipulated time to make them ineffective, but his staff had “undermined” his will.
The law ministry had rebuked the president’s claim and asserted that the bills were received by the presidency on Aug 2, 2023, and Aug 8, 2023, respectively.
The president’s denial of giving assent to the bills had put a question mark on their status and opened up a debate whether they had indeed become laws or were still proposed pieces of legislation — exactly what the PTI chief has challenged in the apex court.
The plea filed on Saturday for both the laws to be suspended until the case was ruled upon by the court.
Based on President Dr. Arif Alvi’s statement on social media, the petition argues that the passage of these laws was unconstitutional and moves the court to expunge said amendments as due process was not followed.
It further draws the court’s attention to amendments introduced in the Official Secrets Act, which empower “secret agencies to raid and detain any citizen or enter and search any person in any place without obtaining a search warrant from any court of law,” terming them “unethical” and in violation of the Constitution.
The petition contends that the amendments are in violation of Articles 4, 8, 9, 10, 10-A, 19, 19-A of the Constitution, which guarantee civil liberties, including right to liberty, dignity, free speech, fair trial and due process under the law, among other fundamental rights.
President Dr. Arif Alvi, the National Assembly secretary, the law ministry, and the interior ministry were listed as respondents in the petition filed by lawyer Shoaib Shaheen on behalf of the PTI chief. The petition has not been fixed for hearing yet.
A similar petition was filed by the Sindh Bar Council earlier this week, challenging both amendments and moving the court to declare civilian trials under military courts unconstitutional.
The SBC, in its petition, stated that the charging the accused persons in relation to the various acts of violence during the May 9 and 10 attacks throughout Pakistan under the Official Secrets Act 1923 and the Pakistan Army Act 1952 is, apart from being unconstitutional, patently beyond the scope of the said acts and is a colourable exercise of power and without jurisdiction.
Another petition filed two days after the president’s tweet prayed the court to suspend both laws till further light is shed on the president’s denial of having signed the proposed amendments into law.