Abstract
The paper assesses the anti-terrorism legislation of Pakistan in the wake of
the post-9/11 scenario with an argument that it has remained ineffective to curb
the menace of terrorism by bringing the terrorists to justice. The paper also
argues that the anti-terrorism legislation in Pakistan is not a new phenomenon. It
has a long history of evolution according the changing nature of the threat, faced
by the country since its independence in August 1947. Various governments, since
then, have crafted several legal frameworks to deal with the crimes that could not
be tried under the regular judicial system of the country. However, the intense
level of sectarian violence in Pakistan in the 1990s, compelled the government to
promulgate Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), with an aim to carry out speedy trials of the
suspect terrorists. Being the cornerstone of Pakistan’s anti-terrorism legal
framework, the ATA 1997 mainly dealt with the threat of sectarian violence in the
country. In the aftermath of the 9/11 incident, amid changing nature of the threat
posed by the Al-Qaeda/Taliban-linked home-grown militant Jihadi and sectarian
groups, Pakistan not only had to amend the anti-terrorism regime as devised
under the ATA, but also to introduce new legislations to make the regime more
stringent as per requirement of the regional and international obligations. The
paper also identifies various drawbacks in the existing anti-terrorism laws of
Pakistan, and emphasizes upon the need of their effective implementation.
Naeem Ahmed. (2015) Combating Terrorism: Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Legislation in the Post-9/11 Scenario, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume 52, Issue 2.
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