by the National Assembly and concerned standing bodies.
On the bill, PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the Bill seeking to amend the Pakistan Army Act to try terrorism accused in military courts was inconsistent with the recent judgment of the Supreme Court in the 21st constitutional amendment and called for its wide circulation for eliciting public opinion — a suggestion that was turned down by the government through a voice vote.
Opposing the Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif’s motion to get the bill passed, Babar said that the apex court in its majority verdict of 13 to 4 had held that the Parliament could make constitutional amendments but such amendments were subject to judicial review.
“Out of these 13 judges a majority of eight judges held that military courts did not militate against the salient features of the Constitution in respect of independence of judiciary.
However, while giving this view these 8 judges also opined that trial by military courts were subject to certain safeguards. These safeguards included; one that a reference to military courts by the federal government was subject to judicial review, two, the military courts were bound to provide the accused with fair trail and reasonable procedural safeguards and three, the judgments of the military courts were subject to judicial review by the superior courts,” he noted.
On the admitted motion and report on 2nd biannual monitoring on the implementation of the National Finance Commission, the Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani ‘abruptly’ halted the discussion on finding out that only a deputy secretary from the Finance Division was present in the galleries. “They are not dummies.
The senators are talking sense on important constitutional matters. Who will respond? The prestige of the House has been violated by the secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination for not attending the related business. My ruling be deemed notice to them and they should be summoned by the House Privileges Committee on Thursday,” the visibly angry chairman said.
Senator Farhatullah Babar was speaking when the chair asked him to sit down and then wanted to know how many officials from the ministries concerned were sitting in the galleries.
Babar, Senator Usman Kakar of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and Sasi Palijo called for ensuring due share of the provinces under NFC and lamented they were being denied the same under one pretext or the other. Senator Babar charged the centre had been not fair in discharge of its fiscal responsibilities towards Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Contradictions and the alleged clumsy manner in which the federal government had prepared the report on NFC implementation were also highlighted by the senators.
Senator Sasi alleged that a financial one-unit continued to be imposed on Sindh, which was faced with load of population, terrorism and other issues but was not being given what was its share.