Anti–Terrorism (Amendment) Bill: PPP resents govt yet to share amended draft of bill

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Thursday resented that the government had not so far shared the amended draft of Anti–Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2020 with the opposition parties.

The amended draft of Anti–Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2020 relates to the FATF conditions and proposed changes in the NAB laws.

During a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Legislative Business on Thursday, the government had promised with the opposition of sharing the amended draft of the bill on Friday.

“We were in the Parliament in the day to examine and to formulate its amendments if needed, but so far the government has not shared the amended draft of the bill,” PPPP Secretary General Farhatullah Babar told this reporter.

The PPP and PML-N have already declared the Anti–Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2020 in its original shape as draconian and extreme in nature and doubted that the FATF was looking for such extreme laws.

Sources said the opposition parties would jointly examine the draft amendment to formulate a joint stance of the opposition on the bill.

Earlier in a day, Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also consulted the party’s top parliamentary leaders including Senator Sherry Rehman, Naveed Qamar, Senator Mustafa Khokhar, Senator Farooq H Naek, and Farhatullah Babar to discuss the party’s suggestion for the new NAB laws.

Sources said the PPP wanted that the government should adopt its bill for amending the NAB laws that were already in the Senate for consideration.

The bill was drafted by Senator Farooq H Naek and is pending with the Senate despite passage by the relevant standing committee.