ISLAMABAD: Azam Nazeer Tarar, minister of law and justice, revealed that the Prevention of violent extremism bill — seeking to “prevent” violent extremism and bar any organisation from contesting elections if they resort to extremism — was drafted by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government with every single clause, full stop, and comma placed by the party’s regime itself, The News reported.
“However, the current government has decided against introducing the bill,” he said, speaking in Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath’.
Tarar added that the prime minister also urged not to make this kind of legislation in haste.
In 2018, the minister stated, there was an agreement among all the political parties that the next elections would be held on the basis of a new census.
“If the Council of Common Interests approves the census, constituencies within the provinces can be changed, which will take one to one and a half months for the Election Commission of Pakistan. However, there is no possibility of an indefinite delay in the elections,” he added.
Senate chairman ‘drops’ highly-opposed bill
Meanwhile, the aforementioned bill was dropped by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani on Sunday and was halted from further proceedings following opposition by senators, who believed it could have significant and far-reaching repercussions on political parties.
The Senate chairman stated that the government could reconsider its stance on the bill, but he chose to ‘drop’ it for the time being.
The decision came after not only the PTI senators but also members of the ruling coalition, including Senator Irfan Siddiqui of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Senator Tahir Bizenjo of the Balochistan National Party, expressed their opposition to it.
The senators complained that such decisions are made at the behest of just two political parties — Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and PML-N — without any consultations.
They also termed the bill “dangerous for democracy”, citing the reason for their opposition.
The main reason behind the bill’s opposition, the senators said, was that it was being introduced to target a specific political party, but would also be weaponised against others in the future.
Senators said that such legislation would not be remembered well in history and damage democracy and democratic values in the country.
At the moment, the future of the bill is very distant. Following the bill being dropped by the Senate chairman, it is seemingly impossible for the bill to be approved, and there is a possibility it won’t be presented again.
If the government plans to table it again, it will have to take the coalition leadership and parties in confidence.
Prevention of violent extremism bill
According to the draft bill, violent extremism refers to inciting, supporting, threatening, and resorting to violence and hostility due to political, religious, and sectarian as well as ideological beliefs, including financing and providing protection of a scheduled individual or organisation involved in violent extremism — all of which is prohibited by law.
“….the state is committed to further strengthen the legal mechanism to counter promotion and propagation of acts of violent extremism and provide for mechanism for de-radicalisation and rehabilitation of affected persons,” the draft bill, a copy of which is available with Thenews.com.pk, reads.
It is necessary to provide for a mechanism to prevent violent extremism and for matters connected therewith and ancillary thereto, it added.
Following the bill’s approval, the government can add a person or organisation to lists 1 and 2 on violent extremism.
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