The Pakistan plans amendments in laws-India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The Pakistan Parliamentary Committee on the National Security (PCNS) has decided to propose landslide amendments in laws governing the country's counter-terrorism campaign to address the burning issue of enforced disappearances, especially in Balochistan. The panel has decided to forward two separate sets of recommendations to the government - legislative and administrative - to sort out one of Pakistan 's most complicated human rights issues, reports The Express Tribune. The panel has decided to toughen laws not only to bring intelligence agencies under civilian control but also to make sure that detained terrorists could not escape due to weak prosecution or lack of evidence, sources said. On the administrative side, the committee would recommend what and how provincial governments should take measures to address a widespread dissent of the state in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, sources added. The committee's recommendations, which are likely to be finalised at a meeting on May 28, will be aimed at finding out how to trace thousands of people who had gone 'missing' in different parts of the country over the past few years. The decision to amend laws to control secret and law enforcing agencies came days after the Supreme Court observed that the Frontier Corps was behind more than 90% of enforced disappearances in Balochistan.

Proposed amendments may bring ISI under civilian control