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‘PPO a licence for trigger-happy law enforcers to create havoc’
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ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) stated on Wednesday the Protection of Pakistan (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014, (PPO) is not meant to protect the country against militants, rather it is a licence for security agencies to continue with kidnapping people and dumping their bodies.
In a statement issued here, the spokesperson for the PPP asserted that the ordinance was a device to remove the inconvenience law enforcers felt from being questioned by the courts or Parliament in cases of enforced disappearances and would be strongly opposed in the Senate.
According to Senator Farhatullah Babar, the ordinance violates the fundamental rights and is a declaration of war against “our international obligations under the various UN conventions signed by Pakistan, such as the Convention against Torture and the Convention for the Protection of Civil and Political Rights”. He said that by making the so-called confessions before police admissible in the courts, the ordinance opened floodgates of torture in violation of Pakistan’s obligations under the UN Convention against Torture.
The spokesperson further said the absolute powers to law enforcers to shoot at sight, kidnap and dump with impunity, break open into bedrooms without search warrants and altering the paradigm from firing in self-defence to fire anyone anytime merely on the basis of suspicion had not been counter-balanced with even a semblance of check. “It is the recipe to make the matters worse in Balochistan, Karachi and elsewhere where the trigger-happy law enforcers have already created a havoc.”
Babar said there were already tough laws to check political violence and the government needed to focus on implementing those laws instead of making further legislation thoughtlessly.
“The government needs to faithfully implement those laws like the one enacted in March last year disallowing banned outfits from resurrecting under different names.”
Unfortunately, some resurrected banned groups instead of being stamped out had been receiving official largesse in the name of charity, added the PPP leader. Babar also rejected the notion that advanced democracies had also enacted tough laws to fight hardened criminals and militants, saying in advanced democracies, the powers were scrupulously balanced with accountability and oversight, but in Pakistan, law enforcers stoutly resisted questioning and accountability.
Giving an example, he said, last year the security establishment had the audacity to ask a parliamentary committee not to enlarge the scope of freedom of information law without a nod from it – a command that the committee promptly rubbished.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk