The government had to face a huge embarrassment in the Senate on Friday when it introduced a bill in the House, proposing amendments in Protection of Pakistan Act (PoPA), 2014. The government tabled Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2016 in the House that proposed amendments in Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), the Police Act, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Qanoon-e-Shahadat and the Protection of Pakistan Act, 2014 with the aim to strengthen the criminal justice system of the country under the National Action Plan (NAP).
Soon after the State Minister for Interior Baleegur Rehman introduced the bill, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar objected that the bill also contained amendments in the PoPA that had already lapsed in July 2016. "How a law can be amended that has already expired," he questioned, adding, "This was embarrassing that amendments were being introduced in the Senate in a lapsed law".
The State Minister admitted the error but said that PoPA was intact when the National Assembly had referred the bill to the Senate. The National Assembly has already passed the bill.
He added that the bill also contained amendments in other laws, including PPC, Police Act etc and thus the house should consider it. After that, the government withdrew the amendment in the bill regarding PoPA and presiding officer refereed the bill to the standing committee concerned. The statement of objectives and reasons of the bill says that "in the extraordinary circumstances, the leadership of all the parliamentary parties have resolved upon for taking the special measures to root out the evil of terrorism from the country with an exemplary deterrence". "This noble objective cannot be achieved without strengthening the criminal justice system, the police act and the law of evidence," it added.
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