LAHORE, Nov 1: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Thursday strongly denounced the proposed move to provide for new grounds for court martial of civilians and increased powers of detention to intelligence agencies under the figleaf of law.

In a statement issued here, HRCP chairperson Asma Jahangir said: “For several days reports of government moves to clip citizens’ right to due protection of law have been appearing in the Press.”

Some of the proposals mentioned in these reports sounded much too outrageous to be believed. Now that the government’s designs have been confirmed by the Attorney-General, the proposed assault on the rights of the people must be unreservedly condemned. Any move to legalise the intelligence agencies’ practice of picking up and detaining citizens will gravely undermine the rule of the law, it said.

It will increase and justify the cases of disappearance of which the Supreme Court has been seized of nearly a year and which are causing serious distress to a large number of families. The havoc the intelligence agencies have wrought has given rise to a unanimous public demand for an end to their illegal activities and a drastic curtailment of whatever legal functions they have been assigned.

Any suggestion for an increase in agencies’ powers is like a slap in the nation’s face. Even more sinister is the reported move to amend the Army Act to provide for additional grounds for court martial of civilian offenders/ suspects. This will amount to creation of summary military courts against which the Supreme Court had issued a firm bar some years ago. The court martial proceedings against civilians can only be termed state terrorism by abuse of law, the statement said.

“What is now being proposed is an extremely retrogressive measure that will reduce Pakistan to a land without the umbrella of law. The proposed move must be given up and efforts made to combat terrorism without abandoning justice and good sense.”