How Pakistan faces threat from civil dictatorship
On April 18, 2015, in Karachi a member of a religio-political group, Tariq Mehboob died in the custody of paramilitary forces called Rangers. He was arrested from a residential area of Karachi by Rangers with other party and family members. This is not the first custodial death happened in the commercial hub of Pakistan, Karachi. Liberal political force Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM), which represents the urban areas of Sindh province in the Parliament of Pakistan, has filed several complaints in the court of law against the force disappearance and custodial killings of their workers by law enforcement agencies in Karachi. Law enforcers deny all the allegations but certain laws recently approved by democratic elected Parliament in Pakistan, have granted the permission of force abduction, disappearance and torture for investigation to the armed forces in Pakistan.
In 2013, Pakistan's Parliament approved a law, "Pakistan Protection Act, 2013 (PPA)." The Bill came out as a law to counter the terrorism and to punish the elements that are raising arms against the state. But many clauses of the PPA are contradicting to the citizens' rights to acquire justice. Like in Clause Three of the PPA, armed forces and civil armed forces are allowed to use necessary force after giving a prior warning to arrest a person who was likely to commit crime. The PPA also grants security forces the permission search the property of arrestee without any warrant. In Clause Five of the PPA, the arrestee is cognisable and unbailable, which is an absolute denial of the rights of citizens of a democratic society.
In January 2015, after attack on Army Public School in Peshawar, Pakistani military leadership forced civil government to pass the law in favour of military courts. Pakistani Parliament passed 21st Amendment in the Constitution which was called "Army Act Amendment". According to this Act, the military courts will start doing the speedy trials and executions of those people who are in jails in Pakistan. This Act gives absolute power to the federal government of Pakistan to transfer the case of any person who according to the government is using religion or sect and is threat to Pakistan. The PPP (Bhutto's party) parliamentary leader in the senate, Raza Rabbani, termed the Army Amendment Act as "death day" for Parliament. In reality the killer of former governor of Punjab (Pakistan) Salman Taseer, Mumtaz Qadri is still sitting in jail without any chance of getting executed. He killed the slain governor Taseer in broad daylight in Islamabad in front of dozens of people. But the workers of opponent liberal political party Mutahhida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which dominates the major vote bank of Karachi, are getting arrested without warrants and tried in anti-terrorism courts set up by armed forces under this law.
Now Pakistan's Parliament standing committee of information technology and communication has approved a bill to control the cyber crime. The committee's chairperson is member of national Assembly and son-in-law of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, (retd) Captain Safdar. The bill is yet to table before the National Assembly Pakistan. The bill faced sever criticism when its detail came out in public. The convener of internet service providers association, Wahajus Siraj described the bill as "draconian", and the board member of Pakistan software houses association, Afaq Ahmad termed it "wrong and senseless". According to many analysts, many clauses of this bill are the rejection of the Article 19 of the Constitution of Pakistan, which is about "Freedom of Speech and Press".
The Cyber Crime Act, which may be called as "Electronic Crime Acts 2015" will be implemented after the approval from the Pakistan's elected Parliament. According to the bill, the word "intelligence" has been defined as any speech, sounds, data, signals, writings, images or videos. The police, FIA or any other agency will have permission to arrest or search any person without any warrant. The Clauses 17, 18 and 19 of the bill are considered against the "freedom of expression" for the citizens who use social media to raise voice against any wrong doing or corruption against any institution or government of Pakistan (whether federal or provincial). According to the above mentioned clauses, the political debate, criticism, analyses, blogs, commentary, cartoons and caricatures will be considered as criminal acts. It will be federal government of Pakistan which will decide whether the information shared through "intelligence" is false or not. According to Clause 26, 27 and 28, the ISPs, restaurants, hotels and other public places will have to keep the data of their customers for last three months, an assigned officer will have permission to raid and arrest any person related to above mentioned businesses. The Clause 31 allows government to block or remove access to any website or online information if it is deem to inappropriate in the interest of the glory of Islam, or the integrity and security of Pakistan.
According to board member of software houses, Ahmed said, "In its current form, the bill is a disaster. It was not made by an expert draftsman with adequate knowledge of the nuances of language, a comprehension of technicalities and technologies, someone who understands international laws. This is a hard combination to find".
Such Acts which are drafted by parliamentarians of Pakistan and granting absolute power to try, and control the freedom of speech and expression of public to armed forces are not the steps towards a liberal and democratic Pakistan, but a civil dictatorship. Pakistan which has already suffered more than half of its life ruled by military dictators is lacking a true democratic leadership which can liberate Pakistan from the clutches of terrorism and dictatorship through right steps. Instead of improving the judicial system of Pakistan for free and fair trial, the current Sharif federal government has transferred the power of the judiciary to the armed forces. Given Pakistan's history of repression, legislations that enable suppression points of view is definitely a call for concern.