Pak president denies approving laws giving military more power

Christians will get compensation who lost homes in rioting over Quran desecration

FE Team | Published: August 21, 2023 21:47:36

Pakistan's President Arif Alvi

ISLAMABAD, Aug 21 (BBC/AP): Pakistan's President Arif Alvi denied approving two controversial bills which further enhance the military's powers. In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Sunday, he said he returned the bills unsigned but his staff "undermined my will".
The two laws make it an offence to reveal the identities of military intelligence officers and also propose jail terms for defaming the army. Mr Alvi's statement could call the legality of the two laws into question.
However, Pakistan's interim law minister Ahmed Irfan Aslam told reporters that under the constitution, the president had the option of either giving assent to the bills, or referring them to parliament with "specific observations".
Instead, Dr Alvi "purposely delayed the assent", and returned the bills with neither assent nor observations, he said. Mr Aslam added that since the signed bills were not received from the president even after 10 days, they automatically became law.
A gazette from the Senate Secretariat stated that they were "deemed to have been assented to by the president". The disputed bills were sent to President Alvi before parliament was dissolved on 9 August, with the aim of holding elections in November.
However, the polls have been postponed until February as the electoral commission says electoral boundaries must be redrawn to reflect fresh census data, a months-long process, before polls can be held. The country is currently under a caretaker government.
Earlier this month, the Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill and the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill provoked bitter debate in the National Assembly.
The former bill recommends a three-year jail term and a fine of up to 10 million rupees (£27,000 ; $34,000) for anyone who discloses the identity of an intelligence official, informant or source, while the latter imposes a jail term of up to five years on anyone who discloses sensitive information relating to national security.
Both the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the coalition partners of the the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) called the government out for passing "draconian laws in haste" and without discussion.
The laws have already been used to arrest some opposition members. PTI vice chair Shah Mehmood Qureshi was arrested over the weekend under the Official Secrets Act.
Meanwhile, authorities in Pakistan are promising two million rupees ($6,800) in compensation for each of nearly 100 poor Christians who lost their homes when a Muslim mob angered over the alleged desecration of a Quran stormed their neighborhoods, burning at least 16 churches and damaging houses, officials said Monday.
Police said they have arrested dozens more rioters in ongoing raids, bringing the total number of detainees to 160.
Mohsin Naqvi, the top official in Punjab province, made the announcement on X, previously known as Twitter, a day after he visited Jaranwala in Punjab, where hundreds of Muslims went on a rampage last Wednesday over allegations that a Christian man and his friend had desecrated Islam's holy book.
Naqvi held a Cabinet meeting at a burned church in Jaranwala to get approval for the compensation for the victims of last week's violence in the presence of local priests and residents.
Hundreds of terrified Christians who fled their homes have returned only to see destruction everywhere. They have been living outside their burned homes, fearing the structures may collapse.