ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s Parliament on Wednesday approved sweeping new powers for the country’s security forces, with an antiterrorism measure that the government says is needed to combat the Taliban, but that rights activists warned could result in state-sponsored human rights violations.
The Protection of Pakistan Bill 2014 allows the security forces to shoot suspects on sight, arrest suspects without a warrant and withhold information about where detainees are being held or what they are being charged with.
It comes at a time of great public trepidation in Pakistan. The military is engaged in a large-scale offensive against the Pakistan Taliban and allied jihadist groups in the North Waziristan tribal district. Many Pakistanis fear violent militant reprisals in the country’s main cities.
In presenting the measure, one cabinet minister, Zahid Hamid, said it would “send a message that the government stands with the military in the operation against terrorists.
The bill offers “statutory cover to armed forces which are fighting against the enemies of the country for the revival of peace and stability,” Mr. Hamid added.
But rights groups and civil rights activists said the legislation risked curbing civil liberties in a country with an already abysmal record of human rights violations.
“It is an attack on the rights of the people,” said I. A. Rehman, a veteran activist with the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. “It is very difficult to swallow.”
Military and some civilian leaders have long complained that flaws in the country’s criminal justice system have hampered their ability to fight militant groups.
Militants are rarely convicted in court, often because witnesses refuse to testify or judges are afraid to hear such cases, and there is no witness protection system to speak of. Trials move at a sluggish pace, often taking several years.
But the new legislation, critics say, provides legal cover for practices that have more frequently been denounced as human rights abuses and have often embarrassed the military in the news media. Thousands of people have been illegally detained at the hands of the country’s powerful intelligence agency, often on suspicion of involvement in militancy, or in the insurgency in the western province of Baluchistan.
The major opposition parties originally opposed the draft bill, which was presented before Parliament early this year, as a draconian measure.
But the amended bill that passed Wednesday contained provisions for judicial oversight and review, and was supported by the largest opposition party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, as well as the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Party, which dominates in Karachi.
The new measure doubles the maximum prison sentence for those convicted of terrorism offenses, allows security forces to hold suspects for up to 60 days and empowers senior police and armed forces officials to issue “shoot on sight” orders.
The security forces are allowed to search a building without a warrant, provided they justify their actions to a special judicial magistrate within two days. Intercepted cellphone communications will be admissible in court as evidence.
Several conservative opposition parties refused to endorse the new legislation. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which is led by the former cricketer Imran Khan, abstained from the vote. Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s biggest religious political party, opposed the legislation.
During Wednesday’s parliamentary session, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a former minister and opposition politician, suggested that the law could be easily exploited by the country’s heavily politicized police force.
For all its stringent powers, however, one pressing question about the Protection of Pakistan law is whether the country’s weak judicial system can enforce its provisions.
Law enforcement agencies have struggled to fully carry out the existing antiterrorism law, or even basic provisions of the criminal code.
For instance, the antiterrorism courts in Karachi, which has a history of militant and sectarian violence, have yet to see a case dealing with terrorism financing because the police lack the resources and training for such an investigation.
Specialized antiterrorism courts in the city have obtained convictions in a small number of high-profile cases, including local leaders of the banned anti-Shiite militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. But legal experts say the system has done little to stem the broader surge of militancy in Karachi.
“The existing law wasn’t utilized properly, and now they’ve brought a new one,” said Abdul Maroof Maher, a prosecutor based in Karachi. The government would have been better, Mr. Maher said, to improve the existing laws and improve the shoddy courts infrastructure.
But the new legislation has the backing of the country’s civil and military leadership.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made a rare appearance in the national assembly when the legislation was presented on Wednesday. Pakistan’s president, Mamnoon Hussain, is expected to sign it into law this week.
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