ISLAMABAD: The federal government is all set to introduce a new law to provide legal cover to law enforcement agencies working against terrorism.
Interior Ministry sources told Daily Times that the Pakistan Protection Act would be merged with the Anti-Terrorism Act and then a new law would be enacted after the approval of parliament.
They said that a draft of the new purposed law had been prepared and consultation process was underway at the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights. They said that the draft law would soon be presented before the federal cabinet and then before parliament for passage.
They sources were of the view that terrorism-related cases would be forwarded to military courts, because it had been suggested that military courts should be given legal cover as well in new bill. After the approval of parliament, the new law would enable law enforcement agencies to keep accused in terrorism-related cases in their custody for a period of three months. It may be mentioned here that the Protection of Pakistan Act could not be extended due to the opposition of various political parties, so the federal government decided to strengthen the anti-terrorism act with certain amendments.
