Special Operations Bill rewrites ZOSO

Akash Sama­roo

The Gov­ern­ment has sig­nif­i­cant­ly rewrit­ten its con­tro­ver­sial Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSO) leg­is­la­tion, re­plac­ing it with the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill, 2026.

The new bill, which will be de­bat­ed to­day, changes who can de­clare se­cu­ri­ty ar­eas and cur­fews, re­struc­tures po­lice and mil­i­tary op­er­a­tions and in­tro­duces new safe­guards. It al­so re­moves the con­sti­tu­tion­al over­ride con­tained in the pre­vi­ous leg­is­la­tion. Here are 15 of some of the biggest changes: