TBM Report
Separate legislative bills aimed at sweeping structural amendments to the Narcotics Control Act and the Cyber Security Act were formally introduced in the Jatiya Sangsad (National Parliament). Responsible cabinet ministers moved the bills during Saturday’s (June 27, 2026) legislative session. Despite procedural objections raised by opposition bench members regarding the timeline of the notices, the depository motions were sustained, and both statutory drafts were routed to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs for comprehensive scrutiny.
The proposed statutory revisions introduce major structural shifts in judicial administration. The narcotics amendment seeks to re-incorporate provisions for establishing specialized “Narcotics Crime Suppression Tribunals” to fast-track long-standing adjudications. Concurrently, the cyber security amendment aims to completely decouple online gambling and cyber-wagering infractions from the primary cyber code. These offenses will be migrated into an independent legislative framework currently being codified as the “Gambling Prevention Act.”
Moving the Narcotics Control (Amendment) Bill during the supplementary order of business, Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed underscored that saturated backlogs in general courts have severely impeded the velocity of narcotics adjudications. “The absence of swift judicial deterrence has allowed criminal networks to deepen their operational roots,” Minister Ahmed noted in his statement of objects and reasons. The draft preserves the baseline jurisdiction of existing courts while deploying specialized tribunals in high-risk zones, alongside expanding the authority of the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) to requisition firearms and establish specialized canine squads to counter cyber-enabled drug trafficking.
Parallelly, Minister for Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology Fakir Mahbub Anam introduced the Cyber Security (Amendment) Bill, which was advanced with a directive to return a standing committee report within three working sessions. However, the unexpected introduction triggered absolute resistance from Opposition Leader Shafiqlur Rahman, who questioned the legislative urgency and demanded a comparative analysis of the statutory variances. Defending the state’s methodology, Home Minister Ahmed clarified that the bill is currently at its introductory stage rather than absolute passage, ensuring that a comprehensive comparative index will be generated following committee-level refinements.
. Responsible cabinet ministers moved the bills during Saturday's (June 27, 2026) legislative session. Despite procedural objections raised by opposition bench members regarding the timeline of the notices, the depository motions were sustained, and both statutory drafts were routed to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs for comprehensive scrutiny.){kind=link}