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GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS
ANTI-TERRORISM ACT (‘ATA’) 1997 – explicitly enacted in response
to a bomb attack earlier that year, the Act broadened the previous
definition of ‘terrorism’ and created special anti-terrorism courts
(see below).
ANTI-TERRORISM COURTS – special courts created by the AntiTerrorism Act 1997 for the hearing of terrorism cases.
COMPROMISE – a Sharia law principle, as introduced into Pakistani
law in 1990. The victim of a crime against the human body, or their
legal heirs, may agree to expunge the perpetrator’s criminal
sentence, either in exchange for monetary compensation (Diyat – see
below) or without this.
FIRST INFORMATION REPORT (‘FIR’) – the initial written document
prepared by police when they first receive information about the
commission of an offence.
QISAS AND DIYAT – two forms of punishment under Islamic (or Sharia)
penal law, as introduced into Pakistan’s criminal law in 1990, under
which crimes against the human body are seen as offences against an
individual, not society or the state. Diyat (‘blood money’) allows the
legal heirs of a murder victim to agree a compromise (see above)
with the perpetrator, either in exchange for monetary compensation
or without this. Qisas (‘retribution’) entails the right of the victim or
their legal heirs to inflict comparable injuries to the perpetrator as
he or she inflicted to the victim, including – in the case of murder –
causing his or her death. The permission of a court is required in all
cases.
SHARIA LAW – the Islamic legal system, derived from the Quran (as
the word of God), the example of the life of the Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh), and fatwas (the rulings of Islamic scholars).
TERROR ON DEATH ROW
THE ABUSE AND OVERUSE OF PAKISTAN’S ANTI-TERRORISM LEGISLATION