Another meeting on military courts remains inconclusive

ISLAMABAD: Another meeting of parliamentary leaders on the issue of military courts remained inconclusive on Friday though the government came up with a new constitutional draft reducing the proposed period for these courts from three to two years.

National Assembly (NA) Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq chaired the meeting. Among others, PPP Parliamentary Leader in the NA Syed Navid Qamar, Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid, Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, PTI’s Shireen Mazari, Usman Kakar and Senator Mushahidullah Khan attended it.

The PPP attended the meeting after deciding to end boycott of the committee. Though the government denied that there is a deadlock on this matter, opposition parties vowed not to extend “unconditional support” to the government-proposed draft.

Sadiq later told reporters that a sub-committee would evolve consensus on this matter. He said Senator Saifullah and Senator Talha Mahmood had also been included in the sub-committee, headed by Law Minister Zahid Hamid and represented by all parliamentary parties. Sources said the government-proposed draft has now been sent to the sub-committee for review and feedback from political parties, adding that it had also held a meeting.

The sources said the opposition parties have objections to the government’s move to amend Article 175(3) of the Constitution which had allowed the military courts to hold trial of persons “belonging to any terrorist group or organisation using the name of religion or a sect”.

In the new draft, the government has removed the phrase “using the name of religion or sect”, creating apprehensions among political parties that the law could be used against them for “arm-twisting or political victimisation”.

Talking to newsmen after the meeting of the sub-committee, Law Minister Zahid Hamid said the government is ready to reduce the tenure of the military court from three to two years. “If political parties agree, tenure of military courts can be fixed for two years,” he added.

He said on the proposal of Maulana Fazalur Rehman, some new words were added in draft constitutional proposals while the phrase of “terrorist activities and violence against the State” has also been included in the draft.

The law minister said besides proposals for proposed constitutional amendment, the draft bill would also be sent to parliamentary leaders for their consideration so that their opinion is taken up in the meeting of the parliamentary leaders on Tuesday (February 28).

After the meeting, Navid Qamar told reporters the government has expressed its willingness to reduce constitutional tenure for military courts from three to two years and the phrase “terrorist activities against the State” has also been included in the new draft proposal. “We will present the new draft for the 23rd constitutional amendment before the leadership of our party for a final decision,” he added.

He said the PPP still stands by its demand for convening All-Parties Conference (APC) on this issue. It is expected that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Asif Zardari will jointly chair the APC for which invitation would be sent to all the political parties. The PPP has formed a team to formally extend invitation to political parties.

Navid Qamar has made telephonic contacts with parliamentary leaders to invite them to the APC. PPPP Secretary General Senator Farhatullah Babar told The News the PPP wanted to take all political parties on board as it is very sensitive issue.

The JUI-F chief told reporters that he supported the extension in the military courts if all political parties agreed on it. “If terrorism and religion were not separated, we will not accept the constitutional amendment,” he added.

He questioned why a message was being conveyed to religious madaris that the state was against them. “There should be no controversial words in the law,” he said and added that it seems that a conspiracy was being made to put religious parties and religious madaris against the State.

The JUI-F chief expressed surprise over the PPP stance saying that two years back, Asif Ali Zardari played a role for consensus on establishment of military courts, so what has happened now. “No good can be expected from the PTI but you may make a try to convince them,” he added.