President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday approved the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2025, marking a significant step in strengthening Pakistan’s fight against terrorism while ensuring greater legal oversight and accountability.
President Asif Ali Zardari has assented to the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2025. The law strengthens security agencies’ ability to counter terrorism, ensures transparency in detentions with a 3-year sunset clause, and introduces judicial oversight & safeguards.
— The President of Pakistan (@PresOfPakistan) August 31, 2025
The legislation, recently passed by both the National Assembly and Senate, empowers law enforcement agencies to detain suspects for up to three months, provided judicial oversight safeguards are strictly observed throughout.
According to the official statement, the law also carries a three-year sunset clause, ensuring its duration is limited and subject to parliamentary review, thereby preventing unchecked or indefinite applications.
The amendment emphasizes transparency and accountability in detentions while preventing arbitrary misuse of power, addressing long-standing concerns regarding past practices that often lacked proper judicial and legal scrutiny.
Furthermore, the bill allows preventative detention based on credible information or suspicion, aiming to disrupt terrorist plots before execution and giving law enforcement agencies stronger operational and intelligence-gathering powers.
In addition, the law supports the use of Joint Interrogation Teams, composed of different law enforcement and intelligence agencies, to gather actionable intelligence and conduct coordinated counterterrorism inquiries across the country.