An end to military tribunals

The government has chosen to allow the special powers given to the army to establish tribunals for the trying of civilians on terrorism charges to lapse. They were given to the army under the 21^st constitutional amendment in January 2015 and were controversial from the outset. There has been no formal statement from either the military or the government other than a comment from Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Friday 6^th January that the government had no plans to extend the military tribunals. Sources within the Interior Ministry say that henceforward terrorism cases would be taken up by antiterrorism courts that had a mandate to conduct trials expeditiously. At one level this is undoubtedly a welcome development, but at another level there have to be concerns about the efficacy and consistency of the civilian courts to deliver fast and consistent decisions in respect of people presented before them accused of terrorist offences.

The ‘sunset’ clause that has triggered the lapse of the legislation was put in place in order to give the government two years to reform the criminal justice system, close loopholes in the law and generally bring it into the 21^st century. Judges, witnesses and prosecutors were to be afforded greater protection. To the surprise of nobody that has not happened, and as with so much that is associated with the National Action Plan formulated in the wake of the Army Public School massacre there is considerably more talk than action.

During the two years the tribunals were operating they had heard 275 cases, sentenced 161 terrorists to death and 116 to jail terms of varying length. Of those awarded capital sentences 12 have been executed to date. About 27 convicts have challenged their convictions and claimed that they have not had a fair trial, as guaranteed under Article 10A of the Constitution. Their appeals are pending. The tribunals had a 90 per cent conviction rate but lacked any transparency, a consistent criticism throughout their life. Justice has to be seen to be done, and if not seen then inevitably doubts arise as to the quality of justice being meted out. With the long-term goal of revision of the justice system generally not having been achieved the state reverts to a system that is open to political influence and outright corruption as well as partiality on a sectarian basis.

This begs the question as to what extent the state is truly committed to the eradication or even control of terrorism in all its aspects. The military have fulfilled its part of the compact and rolled back extremist groups in both the mountainous north and Karachi. The development of a national counterterrorism policy should have been made in tandem with military activity. It was not, and there is a gaping hole through which terrorism and extremism are free to walk in the fabric of defence wrapped around the state. And walk they will. The perpetual state of political delusion in respect of extremist penetration in Pakistan has created a vulnerable underbelly. Those that wish ill to the state may be more quiescent, there are fewer terrorist incidents and fewer fatalities to be sure — but neglect of civil defences has created a space that is open to population by those that can afford to bide their time.

The military tribunals have convicted people from a broad range of terrorist groups, some of them banned by the government others not. There are reports that the government is ‘working’ on drafting new anti-terror legislation but it is some way off being on the statute books. The militarisation of any justice system anywhere in the world is never good news. Justice becomes arbitrary, invisible and with the rules of evidence imperfectly applied or ignored. We welcome the handing back of the scales of justice to a civilian judiciary, and utterly deplore the composite failure of the government to protect and preserve the people of Pakistan. All the people.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2017.

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