ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Protection Ordinance (PPO) is not meant to protect the country against militants, rather it is licence to the security agencies to continue kidnapping people and dumping bodies, said PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar.
"It is a device to remove the inconvenience felt by law enforcers from being questioned by courts or parliament in cases of enforced disappearances which will be strongly opposed in the Senate," said PPP Senator in a statement against recently passed bill PPO 2013 in the National Assembly (NA).
He further said that the Ordinance violated the fundamental rights and was a declaration of war against international obligations under various UN conventions signed by Pakistan.
About the clauses of the bill, he said the absolute powers to law enforcers to shoot at sight, kidnap and dump with impunity, break open into bed rooms without search warrants and altering the paradigm from firing in self-defence to fire anyone anytime merely on the basis of suspicion had not been counterbalanced with even a semblance of check.
"It is recipe to making the matters worse in Balochistan, Karachi and areas where the trigger happy law enforcers have already created havoc", he added. He said there were already tough laws to check political violence and the government needed to focus on implementing those laws instead of thoughtlessly making further legislation.
Babar also rejected the notion that advanced democracies had also enacted tough laws to fight hardened criminals and militants. He also said that the PPP also opposed moving the courts at this stage as it was within the domain of the parliament to debate, modify or reject the law. "It is unwise to take parliamentary battle to other forums and invite their interference in matters that falls within the domain of the parliament alone," he said.