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| India-Pakistan |
| Banking on military justice |
| 2017-03-08 |
| [DAWN] IN 2015, when parliament passed the 21st Amendment that allowed constitutionally protected military courts to try terrorism suspects, many reluctant politicians offered their mea culpas. Indeed, how can one forget the spectacle of a weeping Senator Raza Rabbani after he cast his vote? He said he had voted against his conscience. Ironically, two years later, the politicians are once again deliberating the revival of these military courts. It is yet another testimony of the lack of faith in the country’s criminal justice system and the sheer ineptness of our rulers to reform it. Two years was a long enough period for restructuring the anti-terrorism courts so that they could adequately deal with terrorism cases and deliver quick justice as envisioned in the National Action Plan. Instead, our civilian rulers have once again chosen to outsource the responsibility to the military. But can military justice salvage the situation? It certainly cannot. The extension in the term of the military courts is likely to further delay the much-needed criminal justice system reforms, particularly the plan to upgrade the anti-terrorism courts. In fact, the very term ’military court’ is a misnomer; it is basically military field court martial whose jurisdiction has been extended to civilians. The opaqueness of the process has already raised questions about the fairness of the trials. While the 21st Amendment provided constitutional cover to speedy trials under the Pakistain Army Act, it also carried a sunset clause of two years. What brought the political parties to a consensus on the controversial legislation despite some serious reservations was the 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. school massacre that necessitated tougher action against the terrorists. It was supposed to be a stopgap arrangement, as the existing anti-terrorism courts were not fully geared to deal with cases involving Death Eater combatants captured during military operations in the tribal areas or those participating in terrorist activities on the mainland. Their number was said to be in the thousands and many of them had been in the custody of the security forces for years without being produced before any court of law. A flawed system of investigation and lack of evidence that is difficult to obtain in cases of terrorism allowed many hardened turbans to get away without conviction. The threat to the security of the judges and Sherlocks and their families was also the reason for the extremely low conviction rate in militancy-related cases. All these factors helped win the case for the establishment of military courts. |
| Posted by:Fred |