Punjab’s dangerous new line

The Punjab government is preparing to enact a law that would give the executive extraordinary powers over citizens’ lives. Under the Punjab Control of Habitual Offenders and Anti-Social Behaviour Bill, 2026, the state could freeze bank accounts, seize property, confiscate phones, remove social media accounts, restrict movement, and place individuals under electronic surveillance.

Under the bill, a person can be pushed into this framework on the recommendation of an intelligence committee. These committees are to be established across different divisions of Punjab and will be composed of bureaucrats and police officers who ultimately answer to the provincial executive. In effect, powers that should belong to courts of law are being placed in the hands of administrative and police officials.

The bill weakens the idea of a fair trial at its foundation. A person may be declared a habitual offender if a criminal case has been registered and a police report has been submitted. A person may also fall within the scope of the law if they have been arrested more than once in connection with scheduled offences.

The state does not need to prove guilt before imposing consequences that can disrupt a person’s life. It can move first, restrict first, and act first. The citizen is then left to challenge the action after the damage has already begun. That is the line this bill crosses. It shifts the burden from proof to suspicion. It allows the government to point a finger at a person and push them into a process that affects their money, property, identity documents, devices, movement, and digital presence.

A frozen bank account is not a minor inconvenience. It can shut down a household, paralyse a business, block payments, and destroy livelihoods. A confiscated phone is not simply a device taken away. It is access to work, banking, communication, records, and personal life. A social media account removed from cyberspace is not symbolic. It is the erasure of a person’s public voice.

This is not Punjab’s first attempt to blur the line between administration, policing, and adjudication. The Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority provided a similar roadmap for the provincial government to assume powers that should remain carefully separated. This new bill moves further in the same direction. It gives the executive more power, more surveillance, and more control over citizens.

The government has a duty to address crime. But crime must be dealt with through investigation, evidence, prosecution, and trial. The answer to weak law enforcement cannot be to bypass due process.

The incumbent government should also remember that power is temporary, but laws remain. Once such powers enter the statute book, they do not belong to one chief minister, one party, or one political moment. They belong to the state. And sooner or later, the state changes hands.