Senators raise alarm over political use of special operations

Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tors Faris Al-Rawi and Dr Mar­garet Rose have raised con­cerns about the Prime Min­is­ter’s sug­ges­tion that spe­cial op­er­a­tions could be con­cen­trat­ed in ar­eas con­trolled by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), warn­ing that the pow­ers un­der the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion must not be ap­plied ac­cord­ing to po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion.

Speak­ing with re­porters out­side Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day, Al-Rawi de­fend­ed the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) crit­i­cism of the Prime Min­is­ter’s an­nounce­ment, de­scrib­ing it as one of the most ir­re­spon­si­ble ad­mis­sions about how the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill could be used.

He said se­lec­tive use of the leg­is­la­tion could re­sult in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty be­ing con­cen­trat­ed in PNM-rep­re­sent­ed ar­eas.