ISLAMABAD: In a dramatic turn of events, Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi denied on Sunday signing Official Secrets (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill, 2023, claiming that he was shocked to know that his staff “undermined” his orders and failed to return the unsigned Bills within the stipulated time.
In the statement posted on his X account, Alvi, who belonged to jailed ex-PM Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party before assuming the post, claimed to have instructed his staff to return the Bills unsigned within the stipulated time to render them ineffective.
His statement comes a day after the local media reported that the president has signed the two Bills. The report emerged as ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, also a close aide of Imran, was arrested under the Official Secrets Act in connection with the leakage of a confidential diplomatic cable last year. There was no statement from the president’s house.
However, the Law Ministry in a statement expressed “grave concern” over the president’s post, saying that he should “take responsibility for his own actions”.
“As per Article 75 of the constitution, when a Bill is sent for assent, the president can either give assent or refer the matter to the parliament with specific observations. There is no third option. None of the two options were fulfilled,” said the ministry. The president “purposely delayed the assent”, it said.
“Returning the Bills without any observations or assent is not provided for in the constitution. Such a course of action is against the letter and spirit of the constitution,” it added.
The two Bills were among several laws passed by the outgoing national assembly and several of them were already returned by the president.
Section 6-A of the Secrets Act creates a new offence of unauthorised disclosure of the identities of members of intelligence agencies, informants or sources.
The offence would be punishable by up to three years in jail and a fine of up to Rs 10 million. The amended Army Act among other changes provides for the punishment of up to five-year rigorous imprisonment to any person guilty of disclosing any information, acquired in an official capacity that is or may be prejudicial to the security and interest of Pakistan or the armed forces.
The controversy comes as the government launched a case last week against Imran for violating the Secrets Act by using the cipher sent by its embassy in the US for political purposes. Qureshi was arrested in the same case on Saturday night. Imran has for long mentioned the missing cable as evidence of a “foreign conspiracy” to remove him as the PM. Khan, 70, is currently serving a three-year jail term after he was sentenced by a court in a corruption case.