Rampant extortion
INCREASING incidents of extortion are an added challenge law enforcers are confronting. It’s an organised crime and a parallel taxation mechanism administered either by non-state actors or organised criminals. Extortion…
Military justice?
AS the world observed the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Supreme Court faced questions of law that will have far-reaching consequences for whether the hundreds of ‘missing…
Contrary provisions
Normally, sizing up an employee is supposed to entail an objective assessment of the individual’s ability to perform satisfactorily at the workplace. The exercise takes into account factors such as…
Curse of the IEDs
Pakistan has been in the grip of brutal and senseless attacks by militants using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) for some time now. In the latest attack, 27 security personnel were…
Bindings of a legal system
Legal regime of a country consists of primary rules which create rights and obligations, the secondary rules which authorises the recognition of rights and obligations, the change in the primary…
Questionable law
The prime minister has done well to seek the opposition parties’ support for parliament’s endorsement of the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance. It would have been better if he had also…
Restructuring intelligence
The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) of the UK ‘monitors communications worldwide for intelligence purposes’, and works under the foreign secretary. The British parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee oversees the functioning…
An interesting crossroads
The phrase ‘may you live in interesting times’ is a Chinese curse heaped on an enemy. Frederic Coudert quotes an unknown British diplomat in 1936: “No age has been fraught…
Terror and the law
The criminal justice system of Pakistan stands on three pillars: investigation, prosecution and the judiciary. In a case registered under the Anti-Terrorist Act (ATA), 1997, the trial courts are the…
Damsel in distress
On Friday, President Asif Ali Zardari signed the Women Protection Bill into law. This law, passed by the Senate and National Assembly about a week ago, relates to harassment of…
