Pakistan: Mr. Arif Alvi, President of Pakistan, has denied approving two controversial bills that seek to enhance the military’s powers. Mr. Alvi posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) that he returned the bills unsigned but that his staff “undermined his will.”
According to the two laws, it is an offense to expose the identities of military intelligence officers, and they also include provisions for imprisonment in cases of defaming the army. The President’s statement could call the legality of the two laws into question.
However, Pakistan’s interim law minister Mr. Ahmed Irfan Aslam told reporters that under the constitution, the President had the option of either giving assent to the bills or referring them to parliament with “specific observations.”
As God is my witness, I did not sign Official Secrets Amendment Bill 2023 & Pakistan Army Amendment Bill 2023 as I disagreed with these laws. I asked my staff to return the bills unsigned within stipulated time to make them ineffective. I confirmed from them many times that…
— Dr. Arif Alvi (@ArifAlvi) August 20, 2023
“Instead, Dr. Alvi purposely delayed the assent, and returned the bills with neither assent nor observations,” the minister noted. Mr. Aslam added that since the signed bills were not received from the president even after 10 days, they automatically became law. A gazette from the Senate Secretariat stated that they were “deemed to have been assented to by the president.”
The disputed bills were sent to Mr. Alvi before parliament was dissolved on August 9, with the aim of holding elections in November.
Earlier in August, the Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill and the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill provoked bitter debate in the National Assembly. The former bill recommends a three-year jail term and a fine of up to $34,00 for anyone who discloses the identity of an intelligence official, informant, or source, while the latter imposes a jail term of up to five years on anyone who discloses sensitive information relating to national security.
Both the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the coalition partners of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) called the government out for passing “draconian laws in haste” and without discussion. The laws have already been used to arrest some opposition members, including PTI vice chair Mr. Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
The PTI claimed that Mr. Qureshi was detained for holding a press conference where he challenged the postponement of the election. Authorities accuse him of leaking the contents of a secret diplomatic cable for political purposes.
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