ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) have strongly condemned proposed amendments to the Official Secrets Act, 1923 that will give extraordinary powers to intelligence agencies.
The council said in a statement released on Thursday that the amendment bill is unethical and goes against the standards of justice since it would allow secret agencies to raid and detain any citizen or enter and search any person in any location without first getting a search warrant from a court of law.
These amendments, it said, are also in violation of Articles 8, 9 and 10 of the Constitution.
Expressing their concerns, PBC Vice Chairman Haroon-ur-Rashid and the chairman of its executive committee, Hassan Raza Pasha, hoped that the relevant standing committee of the Senate would reject the proposed amendments in the act.
After the PBC, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) also issued a statement, strongly denouncing the proposed amendments to the Official Secrets Act, 1923.
