The National Assembly passed a bill on Tuesday to amend the Official Secrets Act, 1923 which proposes up to three years in jail for anyone who discloses the identity of members of intelligence agencies, informants or sources.

The bill, titled “Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill, 2023”, was moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Murtaza Javed Abbasi.

The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the bill says, “It is imperative to amend the Official Secrets Act, 1923, and make it more effective in view of the changing social milieu to ensure the safety and security of official documents.”

The bill, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, proposes adding Section 6-A (unauthorised disclosure of identities) to the act, under which “a person shall commit an offence who intentionally acting in any manner prejudicial to public order, safety, interests, or defence of Pakistan, or any part therefore, discloses in such a manner that exposes the identity of such undisclosed persons in any manner the identity of the members of intelligence agencies, informants or sources thereof”.

It proposes imprisonment for a term of up to three years and a fine extending to Rs10 million.

The bill says that any person who “abets, incites, conspires or attempts to commit the offence […] shall be liable to the same punishment”.

The bill added an additional definition for “enemy” in Section 8-A, which would mean “any person who is directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally working for or engaged with the foreign power, foreign agent, non-state actor, organisation, entity, association or group guilty of a particular act tending to show a purpose that is prejudicial to the interest and safety of Pakistan”.

It also proposed substituting Section 9 (attempts or incitement to offences), by stating that anyone who “incites, conspires, attempts, aids or abets the commission of an offence would be punished with the same penalty and liable to be proceeded against in the same manner as if they had committed the offence”.

Moreover, the bill added subsection 2-A to Section 11 (search warrants) which said that intelligence agencies may now “at any time, enter and search any person or place, without warrant, and if necessary, by use of force, and seize any document … or anything which is or can be evidence of an offence committed, or suspecting of been committed”.

It further suggested adding Section 12-A (investigations) to the law. The proposed amendment states that an investigating officer under the act “shall be an officer of the Federal Investigating Agency” who would be designated by the FIA director general for investigation.

“If the FIA DG deems it suitable, he may constitute a Joint Investigation Team, convened by such officer and consisting of other such officers of intelligence agencies.”

It added that FIA would have to complete the investigation of cases “triable by the court established” within 30 working days.

The bill also proposed including Section 12-B (admissibility of material collected) under which “all material collected during the course of inquiry or investigation, including electronic devices, data, information, documents, or such other material which facilitates the commission to any offence under this Act, shall be admissible”.

Other bills approved in NA

Apart from the Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill, 2023, the NA passed two other bills — the Toshakhana (Management and Regulation) Bill, 2023 and the Pakistan Airports Authority Bill, 2023.

The Toshakhana Management and Regulation Bill 2023 passed by the House envisaged that the existing and future gifts received in the Toshakhana department shall be disposed of through an open auction.

The proceeds of such an auction shall be kept in a separate account and will be utilised to promote female primary education in the most backward areas of the country.

Three private members’ bills were also passed by the House. They included the Promotion and Protection of Gandhara Culture Authority Bill, 2023, the Margalla International University Bill, 2023 and the Thar International Institute Bill, 2023. All three bills were sponsored by MNA Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani.