The Senate approved a bill on Sunday to amend the century-old Official Secrets Act . Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said some changes had been made to the bill . He said the government decided to withdraw the clause seeking to empower intelligence agencies to arrest citizens without a warrant .
The bill has already been cleared by the National Assembly and was referred to the relevant standing committee of the Senate last time it was presented in the upper house of Parliament after resistance from both sides of the aisle . PPPs Raza Rabbani pointed out that the text of the bill did not disclose the necessity for amending the Secrets Act.
It said that those calling on others to show or use force propagating and publishing extremist material using all kinds of media for radicalisation or manipulating peoples beliefs or provoking sectarian strife would be guilty of violent extremism . The law minister also presented a motion today to withdraw a bill from the legislative agenda.
The fate of the Bill would now be left to the newlyelected government. Tarar was eventually allowed to present his amendment and the bill was subsequently passed without voting after taking sense of the House JamaatiIslami Senator Mushtaq Ahmed said changes to the legislation were minor in nature and its spirit was intact and same as before .
If there is a term for legal martial law it would come into force as a result of this legislation. If we pass this bill in its present state, the entire country would be … would be converted to the … would not be the … legislation, he said. If there was a legal martial .
.. it would not come into effect, he warned. It would come to the [Jamaati Islami senator Mushtaak Ahmed said. The bill was intact, he added. If you .
