Pervaiz punished by military court 45 years ago

ISLAMABAD: In a unique turn of events, the history of the country on Saturday witnessed an astonishing change after 45 years when Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid presented the draft of the constitutional amendment for the establishment of military courts in the country in the National Assembly.
It was in the last week of December in 1970 when a special military court was installed in the Adiyala Jail of Rawalpindi in the room of the Superintendent Jail.
That military court comprised one major, a colonel and a session judge who were hearing the case of a 20-year-old young man accused of delivering a hate speech against Martial law Administrator General Yahya Khan at Lal Kurti Bazaar of Rawalpindi.
The trial of the young man was conducted at the barracks at the Cantontment of Rawalpindi at Westridge and the military court itself reached the Adiyala Jail to announce the sentence.
Khursheed Hasan Mir, who was the PPP deputy secretary general at that time, was the lawyer of the young man, and was given a sentence of six years rigours imprisonment.
Now after 45 years, the same young man, who was awarded punishment of six years, is a seasoned politician and Minister for Law and Justice, and has presented a constitutional amendment to widen the scope of the military courts to deal with the menace of terrorism in the National Assembly.
The responsibility of getting approval of the constitutional amendment and amendment in the Army Act was also on the same man who was awarded six years rigorous imprisonment by the military courts 45 years back.
It was a similar cold and chilly day 45 years back when Senator Pervaiz Rashid was spending his six-year imprisonment in the jail and at that time no one, lot even the military officials who awarded the sentence to him, had imagined that one day the same person will justify the establishment of military courts.
At that time the military courts were established against the democratic struggle and gag the voice for freedom though this time these courts are being established to deal with the menace of the terrorism.
In his democratic struggle of 45 years, Pervaiz Rashid was not alone as Mairaj Muhammad Khan, Tariq Aziz, Maulana Kausar Niazi, Ali Ahmed Talpur, Afrasyab Khattak, Raja Anwar, Jehangir Badr, Qazi Sultan Mehmood, Haji Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, Dr Abdul Hayee Baloch and many other democrats and many unnamed heroes of the democratic struggle were also along with him.
Pervaiz Rashid, who is now information minister and also minister for law and justice, at that time was president of the NSF, is supporting these courts as these are born from parliament and the law and will work under the ambit of the Constitution. Today’s military courts will not punish for criticising anyone or delivering any speech but will punish those who attack schools, mosques and places of worship.
Pervaiz Rashid and his friends have faced difficulties during the dictatorships of General Yahya Khan, General Ziaul Haq and General Pervez Musharraf and now it is its benefit that the national leadership has agreed to military courts to tackle threats to national security.