The Protection of Pakistan Ordinance (PPO) grants sweeping powers of arrest and detention to security forces. We have no mechanism to investigate offences forensically. As such, courts set free offenders for lack of hard evidence and lackadaisical prosecution.

Any citizen could be picked up, kept in custody incognito and termed a combatant or terrorist. Privacy is already a brutally-trampled area in Pakistan.

The legal make-up of our intelligence officers militates against their new role. They are silent soldiers and trained to shun limelight. How will they defend cyber evidence in courts? Look how ferociously the CIA guards the identity of their operatives. It is the FBI (fidelity, bravery, integrity) that takes care of cyber evidence and prosecution, not the CIA.

The above law should be kept pending until the Pak FBI is afoot, manned by young men, not retirees or such other people. Our young officers should learn profiling, negotiation with hostages, use of arms, so on. In no case the dust-bin of psychologists from selection boards should be dumped in Pak FBI.

Having an agency without a database is like having a horse without legs. Before hitting Osama, the FBI cross-checked his identity. The same was the case with Ramzi Yousuf. The FBI managed to verify his identity from the Sukasu Guest Home (Islamabad) records. Yousuf did not plead innocence as he knew that the incriminating forensic evidence was perfect.

Let us resist the temptation to put the cart before the horse. One professionally respected agency and not a plethora of agencies is the key we need. Our history bears out laws are always brutally misused. So please hold up.

Prometheus
Rawalpindi Cantt