Pakistan passes bill to revive military courts  

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Tuesday passed the constitution amendment bill envisaging extension in the military courts.

The Constitution (Twenty Eighth Amendment)-bill and the Pakistan Army (Amendment) were tabled in the lower house of the parliament on Monday amid opposition from two parliamentarians, Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Jamshed Dasti.  

Both the amendments were passed with two-third majority after months of discussions between the government and opposition parties.  

The Pakistan People’s Party had presented four points suggesting that accused will be produced before the court concerned within 24 hours, the accused will be informed about grounds of arrest within 24 hours, the accused will have the right to have lawyer of choice and provisions of Qanoon-e-Shahadat.

Pakistan had established the special military courts in order to expedite its war against extremism and terrorism, which expired earlier this year.

According to the 21st amendment, under which the military courts were created in January 2015 for two years, only the cases of those terrorists could be referred to these courts for trial who were involved in terrorism activities while using the name of “religion” or “sect”.

Now besides those belonging to “any terrorist group or organization misusing the name of religion or a sect”, those committing “grave and violent act of terrorism against the state” have also been added. This addition will cover all terrorists.

The country also put an end to a moratorium on capital punishment following a deadly militant raid at Peshawar's Army Public School in 2014.