Daily Times

The National Assembly on Monday passed Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill 2023 with a majority vote, a day after the upper house of parliament green-lighted the legislation after the coalition government removed contentious provisions, a private TV channel reported. The official secrets bill was re-tabled in the National Assembly earlier today after the legislation with controversial clauses already sailed through the lower house of parliament last week but failed to get Senate’s nod and was referred to the upper house’s standing committee after it drew strong criticism from parliamentarians.

Subsequently, Senate on Sunday passed Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill 2023 by a majority vote after the government made changes to the bill, removing a clause that sought to empower intelligence agencies to carry out raids or make arrests without warrants. The most significant alteration made in the now adopted bill was the removal of a clause that would have granted intelligence agencies the power to arrest suspects or conduct searches without warrants. This amendment was made by a Senate committee during the bill’s vetting process.

Another change was made to clause 5 of the bill, which earlier stated: “[A] person may be presumed to have been in communication with enemy or a foreign agent if he has, either within or without Pakistan visited the address of a foreign agent or consorted or associated with enemy or a foreign agent…”

Following the amendments, the word “knowingly” has been added to this clause which will now read “…if he has either within or without Pakistan ‘knowingly’ visited the address…”

The original amendments in the secrets act have broadened the definitions of military installations and bring digital and modern means of communication into the law’s ambit.

According to experts, this could bring vloggers and bloggers within the ambit of the law as well. The definition of a “document” has been widened as it now includes “any written, unwritten, electronic, digital, or any other tangible or intangible instrument” related to the military’s procurements and capabilities. Likewise, the definition of “enemy” introduced in the proposed law states: “Any person who is directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally working for or engaged with a foreign power, foreign agent, non-state actor, organisation, entity, association or group guilty of a particular act… prejudicial to the safety and interest of Pakistan.”

Experts term this section “against the principles of natural justice” as it treats unintentional contact at par with planned espionage. The proposed law is going to empower the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) to raid and arrest a citizen over the suspected breach of official secrets, while simply disclosing the name of a secret agent will also be considered an offence. Through an amendment in Section 11, the lower house gave vast powers to officials of intelligence agencies as they would be allowed to “at any time, enter and search any person or place, without warrant, and if necessary, by use of force, and seize any document, sketch, or like nature, or anything which is or can be evidence of an offence committed or suspecting of been committed, under this act”.

An amendment in Section 6 proposes a penalty on a citizen with a prison term of three years for disclosing the “identity of the members of the intelligence agencies or the informants or sources”. Moreover, clauses related to prohibited areas have also been amended and it would be an offence if “someone access, intrude, approach or attack any military installation, office, camp office or part of building”. At present, the offence is restricted to such movement during the time of war only, however, the proposed legislation has expanded this to peacetime as well. Section 3 is being renamed from “penalties for spying” to “offences”. With slight amendments to the existing offences, it has also added the photography through drone cameras of prohibited areas as a crime.

The amendments in Section 4 also term a visit to the address of a foreign agent within or outside Pakistan as an offence. The proposed law empowers the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the officials of intelligence agencies to investigate suspects for violation of the Official Secrets Act. It says: “An investigating officer under this act shall be an officer of the Federal Investigation Agency not below the rank of BPS-17 or equivalent. The said officer shall be designated by the Director General [of] FIA for the purpose of investigation. If the Director General [of] FIA deems necessary, he may constitute a joint investigation team, convene by such officer and consisting [of] such other officers of intelligence agencies as he may appoint.”