President Alvi signs Army Act and Official Secrets Amendment Bills into law

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: President Arif Alvi has signed the Pakistan Army Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill, 2023 into law.

Both the bills, passed by the National Assembly and the Sindh, were forwarded to the president by the previous government of Shehbaz Sharif.

It may be mentioned here that the development came days after reports that the president had declined to sign over a dozen bills and sent back to the parliament for review.

The changes in the Official Secrets Act and the Army Act will likely affect the PTI leaders and supporters who face a string of cases for their alleged involvement in the May 9 violence.

The FIA this week had registered a new case against PTI chairman under Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act. He is being accused of leaking the diplomatic cypher at the heart of PTI’s claims about a US conspiracy to oust Imran Khan’s government.

The National Assembly has passed the Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill, 2023 on Monday last after making some alterations to the original draft — just like the Senate had a day earlier.

The original draft empowered intelligence agencies to arrest suspects or conduct searches without warrants. This clause was dropped in the final version of the bill.

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…”

The National Assembly had passed the Army Act (Amendment) Bill on July 31. The amended law proposed up to five years in jail for those who disclose sensitive information pertaining to the security of the country or the military.

The bill also proposed introducing Section 26-B, which forbids any person subject to the Army Act from engaging in any kind of political activity for two years from the date of their “retirement, release, resignation, discharge, removal or dismissal from the service”.