Federal Minister for State and Frontier Regions Lt Gen (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch said on Tuesday that Civil Powers Regulation Act is proving helpful in preventing extra-judicial killings and is also playing an important role in normalising the situation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
In an interview with BBC, he said that criticism of international organisations’ diverted towards this law was unreasonable. We have no intention to completely abolish this law.
Baloch said this law was drafted to maintain peace and prevent severe crimes in the tribal area and to prevent extra-judicial killings.
He further said that this law ensured justice for those involved in attacks on security forces, adding it had justified there presence in jail for longer times. For them it is better to remain in jail than to die in an encounter, he said.
During the interview, the minister said that the above mentioned law also helped in avoiding confrontation with the military personnel, whose colleagues and friends have died while fighting militants.
While rejecting the point of view of international organisations’ on this law, he said judging this law according to the set international standards was an illogical approach.
Their comparison of this law to that of the laws they have in their countries was illogical because people were not shot dead after queuing them up in their countries, the minister stressed. They neither behead their security forces nor attack places of worship, he added.
Furthermore, Baloch said it cannot be denied that this law could be exploited at an individual level or misused in other ways.
To minimise such happenings and investigate complaints of this nature, a Human Rights Board had been established for the purpose, he said.
Though the minister admitted the fact that this law was affecting innocent people as well, but quickly added that the government was working on a strategy to minimise this collateral damage.
On an ending note, Baloch said that the government was ready to open up to suggestions that could improve this law, but they had no intention to abolish this law completely.