Dar asks NA speaker to convene parliamentary body meeting on Feb 23

Military courts’ extension

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar has called for extending the tenure of military courts and asked Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq to convene the parliamentary committee meeting on Feb 23 instead of Feb 27.

Ishaq Dar continued telephonic contacts with more parliamentary leaders on extending the tenure of military courts here on Sunday. The leaders contacted by the minister included Farooq Sattar of the MQM, Ghulam Ahmed Bilour of the ANP, Sahibzada Tariqullah of JI, Shah Jee Gul Afridi of Fata, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed of AML and others.

In the wake of recent terrorist attacks, the political parties are all set to forge unity for extending the tenure of military courts to deal with terrorists. Earlier, there were political parties that were opposing the military courts but after the recent terrorist attacks, the political parties might go ahead with an extension in the military courts as early as possible.

Ishaq Dar asked the political leaders’ consensus, which in this matter was very important.The minister also made a telephone call to Ayaz Sadiq seeking facilitation for early convening of the meeting of special parliamentary committee on the subject of military courts. He said the meeting of the sub-committee of the main parliamentary committee was scheduled for February 22 and it would be preferable to convene a meeting of the main committee the following day i.e. February 23 instead of February 27 as called earlier.

The minister, in his conversation with different leaders, reiterated that the recent spate of terrorist attacks across the country called for a coordinated and fitting response. He said an early decision on extension in functioning of military courts was very important as it would strengthen all anti-terror efforts.