Dawn News

Terror and the law

THE criminal justice system of Pakistan stands on three pillars: investigation, prosecution and the judiciary. In a case registered under the Anti-Terrorist Act (ATA), 1997, the trial courts are the anti-terrorism courts (ATCs).


Terrorism has been exhaustively defined in Section 6 of the ATA, and the country’s superior courts declare any “action” an act of terrorism if it is “designed to” coerce the government or to incite sectarianism etc.

The ATA is a mixture of two kinds of law, substantive and procedural. The former lays out what to do. For instance, the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) identifies the punishment for offences — duration of imprisonment, etc. Procedural law, however, explains how to go about it, e.g. the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), 1898, stipulates the way the to carry out these punishments, etc. The ATA, 1997, includes both sorts of law.


However, whenever the ATA is silent on procedure, the law as applied in usual criminal trials and in the CrPC prevails. The ATA is not exhaustive in nature, and thus the CrPC and the Qanoon-i-Shahadat (the law of evidence) and judgments of the higher courts are used in aid of the ATA to reach decisions.

In Pakistan, two kinds of law are applicable: general law (the PPC, CrPC, the Code of Civil Procedure and the Contract Act, etc) which is applicable to the public at large, and special law which is applicable in special circumstances or meant for special ties between parties (family laws, civil service laws, rent-control laws, banking laws and the anti-terrorism law).




This means that when children commit crimes in the ambit of terrorism, they will be tried under juvenile courts rather than ATA courts. However, there are exceptions. Since many suicide bombers whose missions have been aborted are juveniles, they have been apprehended under the ATA rather than the law specific to juveniles. This needs to be reviewed.

Special courts such as the ATCs are competent to entertain a private complaint directly. A private complaint can be sent to an ATC by a complainant or a prosecution agency without first approaching a magistrate’s court. However, this rarely occurs in terrorist cases and most submissions (challans) to the court are submitted by the police.


Section 5 of the ATA gives power to police and the armed forces to use force against the terrorists to stop them, but the same power is subject to Article 14 of the constitution, which states that the dignity of man and the privacy of his home, subject to the law, are inviolable.


Section 7 of the ATA determines the punishment of the crime committed, and it is in the hands of the police to determine — after hearing out the complainant — whether the occurrence falls under Section 6, and under what category of Section 7 of the ATA it will be tried.


Perhaps some sort of judicial task force on reform and effective implementation of the ATA could be set up with a mandate to look into the flaws in Pakistan’s anti-terrorism laws and the difficulties in effectively implementing them.

The writer is a security analyst.


Comments (4) Closed

Jan 21, 2013 05:59am
Crime, punishment, and justice are interlinked with each other. Unfortunately is only for the poor and the commoners not for the oligarch. Supreme Court recently issued the order for our prime minister arrest. What was the out come nothing. The law of the jungle prevails in Pakistan, the corrupt one survives???
Zahid chadhar
Jan 21, 2013 05:14am
Well written article. under prevailing circumstances lagislative body of Pakistan need to make laws which are revlevant to our peculiar circumstances and ground realities, but i have all my doubts that our parlimentarians are doing this basic job for which they are sucking the nations blood in form of perks and privileges.
Jan 21, 2013 01:56pm
The legislative body can make as many laws. If not implemented, it is not the laws it is just a piece of paper.
Jan 21, 2013 05:33am
I fail to understand why all the terrorists are not tried under the ATA act?