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Seventy-eight years after independence, Punjab is moving with aplomb to legislate a law of such a draconian nature that it would make even the officers of the British Raj blush.
The Punjab Control of Habitual Offenders and Anti-Social Behaviour Bill, 2026, proposes a regime in which the executive can freeze a person’s bank account, seize their property, remove their online presence, confiscate their phone, and place them under electronic surveillance, all on the basis of an intelligence committee’s assessment of their conduct.
The 2026 Bill does not merely replicate the most sordid colonial-era repression, but rather turbo-charges it in what can only be described as a fitting celebration of the unbroken intellectual continuity of our bureaucracy from the colonial era.
The bill has cleared at committee and just needs the Punjab Assembly to vote for it to go live (expected Sunday). The bill was moved by Khalid Mahmood Ranjha of Mandi Bahauddin of the PML-N, a retired district and sessions judge.
