{"id":86369,"date":"2025-09-01T00:54:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T04:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=86369"},"modified":"2025-09-01T13:03:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T17:03:16","slug":"why-is-the-npp-govt-in-a-hurry-to-replace-the-pta-within-a-short-period-will-the-counter-terrorism-act-draft-and-anti-terror-bill-be-the-blueprints-for-the-npp-govts-new-counter-terror-or","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=86369","title":{"rendered":"Why is the NPP Govt in a hurry to Replace the PTA Within a Short Period? Will the Counter Terrorism Act Draft and Anti -Terror Bill be the Blueprints for the NPP Govt\u2019s new Counter Terror or Anti-Terror Legislation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Kishali Pinto- Jayawardene<\/strong><\/p>\n

The announcement by Sri Lanka\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs late last week, that a new law to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) would be published in the gazette \u2018by the beginning of September 2025,\u2019 is akin to a bolt of lightning from sunny blue skies.<\/p>\n

Dazzled by a \u2018false dawn\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The month of September is notable, among other things, for the trek to Geneva where the Government periodically defends itself against probing questions on the State\u2019s human rights record stemming from various resolutions on the status of \u2018truth, reconciliation and accountability\u2019 that have become trite catchwords.<\/p>\n

This time around, that uncomfortable trek to expostulate, explain and elucidate the Government\u2019s stand comes in the wake of a \u2018democratic dawn\u2019 for the country as promised by the National Peoples\u2019 Power (NPP.<\/p>\n

Relevantly, this is in the context of the UN High Commissioner submitting an update to the Human Rights Council that was, much like the curate\u2019s egg, soft in parts and hard in other parts if I am to twist that popular idiom. <\/p>\n

The update observed that the combination of the Online Safety Act (OSA) and the PTA comprises a \u2018powerfully constricting legal framework\u2019 for Sri Lankan citizens. That led to an \u2018undue restriction of the right to freedom of opinion and expression,\u2019 the High Commissioner said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He added that, \u2018the new Government has continued to use the Act to arrest and detain individuals.\u2019 Meanwhile, pointing out that a committee had been appointed to repeal the PTA and to recommend a new counter-terror law, it was remarked that in May 2025, the Ministry of Justice had issued a \u2018very short two week time period of public notice for legislation of such importance, inviting comments and submissions from the public.\u2019<\/p>\n


\nWhy this headlong rush to enact a replacement for the PTA?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The September deadline to gazette new legislation was noted. The Foreign Affairs Minister meanwhile emphasised that the Government was awaiting the \u2018final committee report\u2019 to move ahead. Certainly the National Peoples\u2019 Party (NPP) Government\u2019s enthusiasm to repeal the PTA must be unreservedly welcomed. Its failure on this key campaign promise had been robustly critiqued in these spaces along with current state practices to repress and intimidate civilians under the PTA.<\/p>\n

Even so, the problem lies not in a September deadline to repeal the PTA. or the \u2018very short\u2019 time period of two weeks mandated for public submissions to the drafting committee. That period, it is understood, has anyway been flexibly applied by the committee. <\/p>\n

Rather, what gives to rise to deep anxiety is the possible enactment of a new counter terror law in little more than a few weeks.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In fact, what the United Nations High Commissioner should have emphasised is that there is absolutely no need to \u2018rush\u2019 this process of \u2018enactment\u2019 (as differentiated from \u2018drafting\u2019) without allowing time for public scrutiny of what exactly is proposed. And so we return to the earlier question, from whence comes the NPP\u2019s urgency in this regard?<\/p>\n

The anti-dissent flavor of the \u2018Wickremesinghe Bills\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even as the Foreign Affairs Minister claimed that there was no \u2018external pressure\u2019, the famous line, \u2018methinks the gentleman doth protest too much\u2019 (to borrow somewhat unforgivably from the Bard), comes to mind. <\/p>\n

In other words, there is a worrying Catch-22 situation in play. <\/p>\n

First the Government is obviously not inclined to take on board those irrepressible optimists who protest that Sri Lanka does not need a counter-terror law at all.That stand is understandable given that scarcely six years have lapsed since the 2019 homegrown jihadist attacks on churches and hotels in this country on Easter Sunday 2019. <\/p>\n

Second, the PTA is being used since there is no alternative, as the NPP has repeatedly said. But that too becomes problematic as the Government has assured internationally to the contrary. Consequentially and unfortunately so, the \u2018repeal and replace\u2019 the PTA has become a single continuing exercise.<\/p>\n

It is not an acceptable position to take that public scrutiny will be enabled after the Bill is published in the gazette. A very short time period runs from that point to being placed on the Order Paper of Parliament and then enacted with some Bills not being challenged in the Supreme Court due to this rush.<\/p>\n

Assuring that the draft will reflect recommendations of the Supreme Court on earlier drafts of counter terror laws is also insufficient.<\/p>\n

The \u2018bad\u2019 outweighed the \u2018good\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

These include (presumably) the Anti-Terrorism Bill (2023) and the Counter-Terror draft law (2018). Yet these draft laws were stamped with the highly autocratic and anti-dissent mentality of the Ranil Wickremesinghe led Government under whose regime, the Bills were proposed. As we may recall, the CTA draft was prevented from being enacted due to public agitation at the eleventh hour.<\/p>\n

The ATB escaped similarly intensive scrutiny as the CTA but that too was critiqued, including in these column spaces, as not enhancing national security. Rather, it was risking the contrary by incorporating vague definitions that did not draw a legally firm line between acts penalised under the ordinary criminal law and \u2018acts of terror.\u2019 <\/p>\n

To be clear, this is a policy line that the Government must take, not cower under the explanation that the Supreme Court has green-lighted one clause or the other.<\/p>\n

The Court\u2019s function is limited in scrutinising Bills for their constitutionality. True, the CTA Bill and the ATB had a few positive aspects. One was a welcome discarding of the PTA\u2019s permitting the admission of confessions by suspects to police officers of a particular seniority. That had been coupled with the burden being put on the suspect to prove that the confession was not voluntary; effectively an impossible burden to discharge.<\/p>\n

Potential to \u2018kill\u2019 and not just to \u2018chill\u2019 dissent<\/strong><\/p>\n

In sum, this meant that suspects could be kept indefinitely in detention for decades while various courts disagreed whether the confession was \u2018voluntary\u2019 or not. That point is not merely theoretical; years of comprehensive review of PTA detainees, some who are freed on being found to be innocent after years of unjustified detention, illustrate that problem very vividly.<\/p>\n

Then again, the new drafts improved safeguards against abuse to detainees and limited the periods of police custody. But these improvements paled into nothingness when measured against hugely excessive framing of the primary definition of the \u2018offence of terrorism.\u2019<\/p>\n

It was similarly so in regard to a litany of \u2018terrorism associated acts\u2019 and \u2018encouragement of terrorism\u2019 that has the potential to \u2018kill\u2019 and not merely \u2018chill\u2019 dissent. <\/p>\n

That would have impacted with far worse intent than the obnoxious PTA on freedoms of speech and expression regardless of \u2018good faith\u2019 protections.<\/p>\n

Open Sesame to State terror<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition, the ATB would have permitted the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence to detain a suspect until the conclusion of the trial. The only condition is if he is \u2018of the opinion that it is necessary or expedient to do so in the interests of national security and public order\u2019 (Clause 72).<\/p>\n

That detention can be in the custody of \u2018any authority\u2019 which is open sesame to terrorise and intimidate critics. It is again no answer to say that judicial oversight of that detention is a sufficient safeguard to prevent abuse. Is this clause retained in the forthcoming Bill? <\/p>\n

All in all, the CTA and the ATB should not be blueprints for an NPP counter-terror law.<\/p>\n

We devoutly hope that the committee tasked with drafting a replacement law has understood this. The International Monetary Fund (IMF)\u2019s prescription for Sri Lanka\u2019s economic ills, adopted by the Wickremesinghe regime has been unfalteringly followed by the administration of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.<\/p>\n

Is the NPP destined to follow suit in regard to Sri Lanka\u2019s \u2018replacement\u2019 PTA as well?<\/p>\n

Courtesy: Sunday Times<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kishali Pinto- Jayawardene The announcement by Sri Lanka\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs late last week, that a new law to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) would be published in the gazette \u2018by the beginning of September 2025,\u2019 is akin to a bolt of lightning from sunny blue skies. Dazzled by a \u2018false …<\/p>\n

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