On 25th of February 2013, Pakistan’s Federal Law Minister Farooq H. Naek introduced the Anti-Terrorism Second Amendment Bill 2013 in the National Assembly. Later it was approved by the National Assembly on 13th March 2013. In the month of February, the government also legislated two bills named the Anti Terrorism Amendment Act 2013 and Investigation for Fair Trial Act 2013. After these legislations, Anti-Terrorism Courts, High Courts and the Supreme Court of Pakistan cannot grant bail to an accused of terrorism, which these courts currently exercise under the Anti-terrorism Act, 1997. A person arrested under terrorism charges can be kept behind bars for 90 days for further investigation. This detention cannot be challenged in any court and the detainee cannot ask for release on bail or file a petition for habeas corpus in any court of law. Furthermore the confessional statement of an accused in the presence of an investigating officer and any electronic data like SMS, emails and phone tappings, audio-visual recordings shall be admissible in evidence.
For this legislation the government presented its argument that under the current anti-terrorism laws, the accused terrorist easily gets bail or because of weak evidences the courts free them as innocent person. Therefore the purpose of these legislations is to bring terrorists under judicial accountability. But it is a barefaced lie because had this been the purpose, then these agent rulers would not have facilitated such a “respectful” escape of the murderer Raymond Davis and would not have allowed America’s network of terror to continue to operate in Pakistan, even after his departure. These traitors allowed thousands of American terrorists to enter Pakistan on valid visas. No custom officer is allowed to even touch the containers which these American terrorists bring in as their luggage. They are allowed to hover in and out the most sensitive military and civilian places without any difficulty so that they can plan, supervise and execute their campaign of bombings and target killings.
Moreover, government agencies even before the promulgations of these amendments had been abducting people and putting them in their dungeons for years, as they have done with Naveed Butt, the official spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Pakistan, who was abducted on 11 May 2012. It is a well known fact that these agencies also have a habit of tapping phones of judges, journalists, politicians, traders as well as the common folk.
The actual purpose of this legislation is to silence anti American voices and put behind bar those people who demands the establishment of Khilafah. After hectic efforts for almost twelve years, America and traitors with in the political and military leadership have failed to convince the people of Pakistan that the war against terror is not a war against Islam, that this war is not America’s war and that America is not the enemy of Pakistan.
Today, there is an unprecedented level of conviction amongst the people of Pakistan that the War on Terror is a war against Islam, America is an enemy of Pakistan, Muslims and Islam and only the establishment of Islamic system is a way forward for Pakistan. Therefore when agent rulers abysmally fail to intellectually convince people that this war is their own war and only the Western Kufr capitalist system will bring change in their live, these traitors thus started to follow the footsteps of their western masters America and Britain, as they introduced the draconian “Patriot Act” and “Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures” (TPIMs) respectively to choke the voices of their own people, in the name of national security. Even if someone dares to speak, they put aside all their laws and persecute the person mercilessly, with the sanction of American president. Similarly in Pakistan, traitors within the political and military leadership want to silence voices protesting against their treacheries, with the help of these amendments in Anti-Terrorism law.
Muslims of Pakistan should be mindful of the fact that Allah سبحانه وتعالى ordered the Muslims to hold their rulers accountable and strongly commanded them to challenge them, if they withheld the citizens’ rights, neglected their duties towards them, ignored any of the citizens’ affairs, violated the rules of Islam or ruled by other than that which Allah سبحانه وتعالى has revealed. Rasool Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم declared the accountability of the rulers as a struggle of great reward, saying, «أفضل الجهاد كلمة حق عند سلطان جائر» “The best of Jihad is a word of truth before a tyrant ruler.” (Ahmed).
As the Ummah is throwing off the fear of oppression and persecution of their traitor rulers all over the Muslim world, so Insha Allah these evil amendments will not deter the determination of the people of Pakistan and the Shabab of Hizb ut-Tahrir to get rid of these traitor rulers and their corrupt capitalist democratic system and will not extinguish their desire of establishing Khilafah in Pakistan as well.
Shahzad Shaikh
Deputy to Official Spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Pakistan