Senate Committee to table Bill on state agencies powers

The Human Rights Committee of the Senate Wednesday decided to give one last chance to the Defence Ministry to furnish its views June 30 on the draft legislation that seeks to vest in them legal powers to the state agencies and balances the same with a measure of civilian and parliamentary oversight.

It also decided that if the Ministry continued foot dragging the Committee will proceed with its work by laying the draft Bill in the Parliament.

The Committee took this decision today after expressing serious reservations over the continued refusal of the Minister and Secretary Defence to either appear in person before it or submit their recommendations on the draft legislation proposed by the Human Rights Committee. The meeting presided over by Chairman Afrasiab Khattak was attended by Senators Raza Rabbani, Farhatullah Babar, Suriya Ameruddin, and Farhat Abbas all of PPPP and Nasreen Jalil of MQM.

Senator Farhatullah Babar dissented with the proposal to give one more chance and pleaded that the draft legislation be placed before the Parliament without further delay.

Arguing, he said that nearly six months had passed that the draft had been circulated to all but the defence ministry was avoiding and resorting to delaying tactics.

He said that the issue of missing persons had assumed alarming proportions and it could no longer be delayed without grave consequences to the nation and the state. Previously confined to KPK the phenomenon of enforced disappearances and extra judicial killings had spread to Balochistan where FC was accused and Karachi where the Rangers were being accused. This he said was evident from the specific issues that had been brought before the Committee.

Farhatullah Babar recalled the unanimous resolutions passed separately by National Assembly and the Senate in March last year calling for legislation to address the issue. He said that the President in his address to the joint session of the parliament two days ago had also referred to the issue of missing persons and called for addressing it.

He said that the Supreme Court had also observed from time to time that the functioning of the agencies must be regulated by law. The Commission on Enforced Disappearances has also recommended legislation remarking also that it was the only way to put to an end to new cases of enforced disappearances, he said.

Giving reasons Farhatullah Babar said that the Human Rights ministry had endorsed in principle the draft legislation with some amendments but the defence ministry was evading it. He said that it was intriguing that the human rights ministry, after endorsing the Senate Committee’s recommendations, had been disbanded and merged with the law and justice division as an attached department.

More intriguingly, he said, the law and justice ministry had been placed under a person who also served as General Musharraf’s law minister during which period the agencies assumed unbridled powers without oversight. How can one expect the erstwhile law minister of General Musharraf to advance the human rights agenda, he asked.

Is it merely an unwise and thoughtless decision of the government in the flush of its electoral victory or is it a calculated decision with a questionable motive, he asked?

The Committee then firmly decided not to extend the June 30 deadline. The meeting also discussed the kidnapping and torture of five citizens in Karachi allegedly by the Rangers and sought report from the relevant departments within three weeks. It took special note of the custodial death of one Ajmal Baig Mirza and the progress made in the case registered against some para military soldiers in the murder of one Ghulam Haider on June 4. The Committee took strong exception that neither the DG nor any representative of the Rangers had come to attend the meeting and gave three weeks to the Rangers and Sindh government to furnish latest investigation reports.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Jun 12 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.