Terrorist act needs to be defined in detail: SC

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Asif Saeed Khosa on Tuesday observed that there was obscurity in anti-terrorism law, which needed to be defined in detail.

A seven-member larger Supreme Court bench headed by the CJP reserved its judgment in a case pertaining to the definition of 'terrorism'.

The CJP observed that criminal cases had also been included into the category of terrorist acts. Attacks on political gatherings also fell into the category of terrorist acts according to the anti-terrorism law. Whether there was a category of undemocratic political processions, he asked.

He remarked that creating a sense of insecurity among the masses deliberately also came under the definition of terrorism.

The CJP observed that even the United Nations (UN) and the United States of America also could not define an act of terrorism so far. There seemed to be psychological matter as any criminal incident  surfaced through media was shifted to teh anti-terrorism courts or military courts, he added.

The CJP said every criminal act did not fall into the category of terror act. It was the government's responsibility to control police for checking crimes, he added.

The bench later reserved its judgment.