Set in motion: Military courts to take up a dozen cases next week

Cases sent to army after scrutiny at interior ministry

ISLAMABAD:

Military officers will formally begin hearing terrorism-related cases next week as the interior ministry has sent 12 cases for trial in the military courts, according to officials.

The move comes weeks after the government decided to set up military courts for speedy trial of suspected terrorists in the wake of the December 16 assault by Taliban gunmen on the Army Public School in Peshawar that had left over 150 students and staff dead.

The establishment of the military courts is part of the National Action Plan which also envisages a whole range of steps to eliminate terrorism from the country. Subsequently, parliament approved the 21st constitutional amendment to pave the way for the establishment of the military courts.

On Saturday, the chief military spokesperson confirmed that a dozen cases forwarded by the provincial apex committees to the interior ministry after due scrutiny have been sent to the army. “To begin with 12 cases assigned to military courts. Legal process kicks off,” Major-General Asim Saleem Bajwa, director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations, said in a tweet on micro-blogging site Twitter.

Another senior official told The Express Tribune that the military had already done its homework by setting up special courts under the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Branch of the Pakistan Army. The decision to formally begin trials was taken after the interior ministry sent 12 cases to the army, he said. He added that the army had set up nine military courts – three each in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, two in Sindh and one in Balochistan.



To ensure speedy and effective implementation of the National Action Plan against terrorism, four provincial apex committees were set up. And the official said that the apex committees are supposed to send to the federal interior ministry all the cases they want the military courts to hear. The interior ministry vets and scrutinises these cases before sending them to the military courts.

Army chief General Raheel Sharif has assured that only “jet-black” or hardcore terrorists would be tried in the military courts.

Colonel (retd) Inamur Rahim, who has served in the JAG Directorate, said that a military court is usually presided over by a colonel or a major while an appellate court is usually headed by a brigadier or a major general. “If a military court awards death sentence to an accused, then his/her case is sent to the chief of the army staff for confirmation,” he explained.

“Under Clause 24 of the Army Act, 1952, any accused (armed person and civilian) enjoys the right of defence as Article 10 of the Constitution gives this right to every citizen,” he told The Express Tribune earlier this month.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in his capacity as head of the Gilgit-Baltistan Council, has also empowered the military courts under Section 47 of the Empowerment Order 2009 to function in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B). The main opposition party, the PPP, was, however opposed to extending the 21st constitutional amendment to G-B. The official who spoke to The Express Tribune declined to comment on the procedure for the region.

Already, the legal fraternity has challenged the establishment of military courts. Late last month a Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, sought a concise statement from the federal and provincial governments within 15 days over a Lahore High Court Bar Association plea against the military courts.

A senior legal wizard of the government told The Express Tribune that the federal government would stress on Article 239 of the Constitution under which any act passed by parliament cannot be challenged in any court of law.

The attorney general would also satisfy the bench over the basic structure of the Constitution, particularly Article 8 in the first schedule of the Constitution that deals with fundamental rights.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2015.