Arif Alvi, Pakistan’s President, denied signing two contentious laws that expand the military’s authority. He said that although he returned the bills unsigned, his staff “undermined my will” in a post on X (previously known as Twitter) on Sunday.
The two laws make it illegal to disclose the names of military intelligence officers and call for jail time for those who criticise the military.
The validity of the two statutes may be questioned in light of Alvi’s assertion.
However, according to Pakistan’s temporary law minister Ahmed Irfan Aslam, the president could either assent to the laws or submit them to parliament with “specific observations” in accordance with the constitution. Alvi instead “purposely delayed the assent” and returned the bills without assent or observations, he said.
Aslam continued by saying that the signed laws immediately became law because the president had not yet delivered them even after ten days. They were “deemed to have been assented to by the president,” according to a gazette from the Senate Secretariat.
In order to hold elections in November, the controversial laws were delivered to President Alvi before parliament was dissolved on August 9. Elections have been delayed until February, according to the electoral commission, because new election boundaries must be established to match recent census data, a process that takes months. A caretaker administration is currently in charge of the nation.
The Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill and the Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill sparked a contentious debate in the National Assembly earlier this month.
The former bill calls for a three-year prison sentence and a fine of up to $34,000 for anyone who divulges the identity of an intelligence official, informant, or source; the latter imposes a five-year prison sentence on anyone who divulges sensitive information pertaining to national security.
Both the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) criticised the government for passing “draconian laws in haste” and without debate.
Human rights organisations have seen an increase in the number of enforced disappearances each month, and the Pakistani intelligence agencies are frequently accused of holding opposition members, politicians, activists, and journalists without legal justification.
