Imran petitions SC to declare amendments to secrets law, army act ‘null and void’
Voice of America :
Former prime minister and PTI chairman Imran Khan on Saturday petitioned the Supreme Court to declare “null and void” the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act 2023 and Official Secrets (Amendment) Act 2023, contending that since both lack the presidential assent, they remain bills and have not become law.
In late July, both houses of Parliament passed the bill to amend the Army Act, 1952, which proposed up to five years in jail for those who disclose sensitive information pertaining to the security of the country or the military.
On August 1, the PDM government also got the bill to amend the century-old secrets act approved by the National Assembly in a bid to grant blanket powers to intelligence agencies, empowering them to raid and detain any citizen, even under suspicion of them breaching the law.
The bill was referred to the relevant standing committee of the Senate the next day after it faced fierce opposition from both sides of the aisle when taken up for passing.
On August 6, the upper house of the Parliament finally approved the bill, followed by the National Assembly passing the same bill for a second time after making some alterations to the original draft, chiefly among which was the removal of a clause that would have granted agencies the power to arrest suspects or conduct searches without warrants.
On August 19, President Arif Alvi was said to have assented to both the Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill 2023 and the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill 2023, allowing the pieces of proposed legislation to become acts of parliament.
However, in a startling turn of events the next day, the president publicly claimed that he had not signed the two bills since he disagreed with them and had asked his staff to return them unsigned within the stipulated time to make them ineffective, but his staff had “undermined” his will.