Senate adopts bill to amend Army Act

Turns down opposition’s demand seeking public opinion

ISLAMABAD:

The Senate on Tuesday turned down the opposition’s demand seeking public opinion before passing the bill to amend Pakistan Army Act 1952 to try terrorists accused in military courts which it said was inconsistent with the recent judgment of the Supreme Court (SC) in the 21st Amendment case.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar raised the issue when Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif moved the bill seeking approval of the upper house of parliament but it was turned down through a voice vote. Babar said that the SC in its majority verdict of 13 to four had held that parliament could make constitutional amendments but such amendments were subject to judicial review. Out of these 13 judges a majority of eight judges held that military courts did not militate against the salient features of the Constitution in respect of independence of judiciary, he added.

Read: Army ordinance extended for four months

However, these eight judges also opined that trial by military courts were subject to certain safeguards including a) a reference to military courts by the federal government was subject to judicial review b) the military courts were bound to provide the accused with fair trial and reasonable procedural safeguards and c) the judgments of the military courts were subject to judicial review by the superior courts, he said.

The PPP senator said that the existing practice of military courts pronouncing death penalty against unnamed accused by un-named judges sitting at an undisclosed location and without any mention of charges, the case of the prosecution, the defence plea and disallowing independent observers militated against the requirement of adequate procedural safeguards.

He called for soliciting public opinion from a wide spectrum of society to address these concerns in the proposed bill.

He said the issue was not the setting up of military courts, rather the issue was the parameters within which these courts will be allowed to function.

On the other hand, Khawaja Asif said that this law derives strength from the 21st Amendment and had wide range of endorsement, [All Parties Conference, National Assembly and Senate Standing Committee] and after SC decision there was no impediment in its passage. After the brief argument the bill to amend Pakistan Army Act, 1952 [The Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill, 2015] was put before the house for voting and was passed.

Notices issued

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani issued notices to Secretary Finance and Inter-provincial coordination and asked them to appear before the privilege committee on August 13 (tomorrow) for absence of senior ministry officials during a debate on National Finance Commission (NFC) Award.

Read: Military consulting legal aides on SC decision

He said that “prestige of the Senate has been violated” as only one deputy secretary was taking notes of the debate. “This is not acceptable… these are not dummies who are speaking,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2015.