Military courts expire on Jan 7, 2017

Back to square one

All cases will be transferred to Anti-Terrorism courts

ISLAMABAD: Upon the expiry of the 21st Constitutional Amendment early next month, all the terrorism cases against civilian suspects pending before the military courts will be transferred to the Anti-Terrorism Courts.

The 21st Constitutional Amendment, which had paved the way for setting up the military courts to try civilian suspects of terrorism for two years, will become ineffective in the first week of January 2017. The military courts could survive only through another constitutional amendment aimed at extending the two-year deadline in the self-contained sunset clause of the 21st Amendment.

A leading legal mind of the PML-N government told The News that it is highly unlikely that in the present divisive political environment, the government and the opposition could agree on extending the life of military courts.

The source said that in its discussion on the subject, the government has decided in principle that all the cases pending before the military courts will be transferred to the special courts already working under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

Within a few weeks of the Peshawar Army Public School massacre, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed by both the National Assembly and Senate on January 6, 2015. The president gave his assent to the amendment on January 7, 2015. The amendment had a self-contained sunset clause, which causes the amendment to expire on January 7, 2017.

Most of the political parties had reluctantly agreed to the setting up of military courts for a specific period to try civilian suspects of terrorism as the existing criminal justice system had failed to deliver and it was found that the terrorism suspects were not punished. The military courts were part of the National Action Plan and were meant to provide an extraordinary solution for an extraordinary problem. It was decided by the political leadership that within these two years, the criminal justice system of the country would be overhauled.

However, the government has not yet taken any substantive measures to overhaul the criminal justice system for the speedy trial of criminals and terrorists.

Although, the overhauling of the criminal justice system requires the collective input from federal and provincial governments, judiciary and lawyers, the federal government has the fundamental responsibility to get the job done.

Depoliticisation of police and prosecution departments, cooperation of lawyers’ community to avoid adjournments, amendments to the Pakistan Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, etc, are some of the measures that were required to be taken by the federal and provincial executives.

Government sources claim that some bills, seeking amendment to prevalent laws, have either been moved before parliament or are under consideration of the federal cabinet. However, there is no answer when asked if any improvement had been made in the criminal justice system or whether the police either at the Centre or in the provinces had been depoliticised or the prosecution departments had been made independent and efficient.

The military courts, since their establishment, have convicted and hanged dozens of terrorists belonging to different known and unknown militant groups.

During this period, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s recent report, only 29 out of 426 people have been executed under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The vast majority of the 426 executions carried out have been for crimes unrelated to terrorism.