Imran petitions SC to declare amendments to secrets law, army act ‘null and void’

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Imran petitions SC to declare amendments to secrets law, army act ‘null and void’​

Haseeb Bhatti Published September 9, 2023 Updated about 3 hours ago




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Former prime minister and PTI chairman Imran Khan on Saturday petitioned the Supreme Court 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 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. Addressing a press conference after Alvi’s claim, caretaker Law Minister Ahmed Irfan Aslam had said the government had not received any of the two bills from the presidency thereafter, and thus both had become law.
The law ministry also released gazette notifications for the two laws the same day which said they were “deemed to have been assented by the president”.
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 today, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, prays for both the laws to be suspended until the case was ruled upon by the court.
It asserted that the president did not sign the Army Amendment Act and Official Secrets Act, which it said were in violation of Article 10-A (Right to fair trial), Article 8 (Laws inconsistent with or in derogation of Fundamental Rights to be void) and Article 19 (Freedom of speech etc) of the Constitution.
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.
Earlier, the Sindh Bar Council (SBC) also approached the Supreme Court on September 6 against both bills, contending that since both lack presidential assent, they remain bills and have not become law.
The petition was jointly filed by the SBC, its Vice Chairman Azhar Hussain, Chairman of the Executive Committee Naeemuddin Qureshi, and member Judicial Commission of Pakistan Syed Haider Imam Rizvi.