SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Nine days after the consensus on a National Action Policy, things remain as they were despite a lot of look busy activities like holding meetings and issuing statements. When the representatives of the parliamentary parties met at the Prime Minister House on December 23, they vaguely agreed on a number of issues that were to become controversial later. The agreement on special courts headed by military officers was one, the decision on a special set of laws to monitor the running of religious schools, notably their sources of funding and the curriculum, being another. The government itself was not clear how precisely the courts were to be formed. This explains why there was no mention of constitutional changes in the prime minister’s address to the nation on December 24.
In the days that followed there have been enough heroics. What was missing however was a draft prepared by the government’s legal team specifying precisely how it intended to set up military courts for trying terrorists for which there is no provision in the constitution. Signals emanating from the government’s side that the courts might be formed through a constitutional amendment led to sharp reactions from the opposition, media, legal community and civil society. Another meeting, this time of the leaders of the parliamentary parties, has now been convened.Ch Nisar, who heads 11 committees, has already held a meeting of the NACTA.
Meanwhile Aitzaz Ahsan, Leader of the Opposition in Senate, has come up with a formula which, he claims, makes it possible to set up the military courts for the trial of terrorists without amending the constitution. The formula requires extending the scope of the military courts to include the offences of religious terrorism and sectarian violence for trial under the Army Act. No other criminal act besides the two specified categories would fall under the purview of these courts. There is a need to consider the formula as it helps achieve the aim without curtailing human rights. What is more, the law can be passed through simple majority.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
