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Pakistan abolishes military courts
 [AA.TR] Pakistain’s controversial military courts will no longer be functioning from Saturday after completing their two-year term, officials said. "The military courts’ two-year term has been completed on Friday. The government has no plans to extend their tenure," Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ...Currently the Interior Minister of Pakistain. He is the senior leader of the Pak Moslem League (N) and a close aide to Nawaz Uncle FesterSharif. He is noted for his vocal anti-American railing in the National Assembly. However (comma) Khan told the U.S. ambassador that he was in fact pro-American but he and the PML-N would have to be critical of US actions in order to remain publicly credible. Khan cited his wife and children's US citizenship as proof, which means he's lying to one side or the other and probably both. He wears a wig, but you probably guessed that. since hair doesn't grow naturally in that shape or texture... was quoted as saying by local channel Geo TV. The military courts were instituted because the civilian courts were a) slow b) subject to witness intimidation c) subject to judicial intimidation. Pakistain being what it is, I'm guessing none of those problems have been rectified. Pakistain had established military courts in January 2015 through a constitutional amendment following a gruesome gun-and kaboom on an army-run school in northwestern Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. city in December 2014, which killed over 140 people, mostly students.  All the terrorism related cases, which were being tried in the military courts, will now be taken up by the anti-terror courts, the interior minister said. The army courts -vehemently opposed by the human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... and lawyers associations- were set up to try the hardcore Lions of Islam who, according to the government, otherwise avoid punishment due to weak and cumbersome judicial system. The country’s Supreme Court, while rejecting the appeals from human rights organizations against army courts, had also upheld the government’s decision. The military courts tried some 275 cases in last two years, in which 161 Lions of Islam were handed down death penalties, while over 150 were given varying jail terms. Only 12 out of total 161 death row prisoners were executed during this period, while others’ appeals against their convictions are pending in the supreme and high courts. Pakistain also lifted a 6-year long de facto ban on capital punishment in December 2014 following the deadly attack on a Peshawar school. Over 300 convicts have been executed since December 2014, whereas nearly 7000 death-row prisoners are languishing in jails. Posted by: Fred 2017-01-08 |
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