Prior to this, loopholes in laws were helping the terrorists to walk away unpunished. There have been many cases in which the accused were acquitted because of lack of evidence. The primary reason for the low conviction rate was the lack of convincing evidence.
It is evident that the country is confronting the challenge of deteriorating law and order situation for last 10 years, the current legislation came at a time when three months are left in the expiry of incumbent government's tenure. Pakistan's terrorism problem is, perhaps, more complex than that faced by many other nations. The country is confronted with a full-blown Taliban insurgency in the tribal areas and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There is a direct connection between the insurgency and terrorist attacks in the rest of the country. Most militant attacks target the symbols of the state: military bases, offices of intelligence agencies and the government, and defence installations. This situation requires extraordinary measures.
Looking into the merit and demerit of the newly passed law "The Investigation for Fair Trial Bill, 2012" one could jump to the conclusion that the country is entering into a new era, where potential threats to fundamental rights of the citizens are very much there. Personal privacy of the public could be endangered in the name of terrorism as there is no mechanism to differentiate good and bad.
Parliamentary parties, including the opposition PML-N and government's coalition partner MQM also expressed grave concerns over the legislation. They said they were not against the law but in its present form it could be misused infringing the fundamental rights of citizens. The main concern about the Bill was that the spy agencies would get legal permit to bug telephone calls of any individual they want, as they were already secretly using the instrument prior to the passage of the bill.
Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, expressed similar concerns over the Bill. He said that the house has started legislation on such a sensitive issue, which is directly linked to the fundamental rights of the citizens. It is feared that law enforcement agencies could misuse the powers given to them through the bill.
Although the Prime Minister ,Raja pervaiz Ashraf and treasury benches were seen very enthusiastic during the passage of the Bill from the lower House, but they forgot that the spy agencies had bugged the telephones calls of the Prime Ministers and parliamentarians in past too.
They hoped that the government would possibly overcome the rising terrorist activities by empowering the spy agencies to intercept emails, SMS, internet protocol detail record, call detail record and any form of computer based or cell phone based communication. Prime Minister, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, while speaking on the floor of the house admired the efforts of lawmakers for passing the Bill. He was of the view that legislation was carried out with the objective to eradicate the menace of terrorism by empowering law enforcement agencies to counter criminal elements effectively.
Such measures are not uncommon since the rise of terrorist threats across the world in the post-9/11 landscape. Countries facing serious terrorism challenges like the US, the UK and India strengthened their laws long ago. Despite some valid criticism of human rights violations and excesses, the tough anti-terrorism laws have helped smash terrorist plots and minimised the chances of attacks in those countries.