- PM says military courts will be formed with political consensus within constitutional ambits
- Says entire political leadership support National Action Plan against terrorism, military courts will only try terrorism cases for a limited period
During Wednesday’s Senate session, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif rubbished criticism over the establishment of military courts, stating that his party’s government could not even “think of taking any step in violation of the Constitution”.
“How can I deviate from the law and the constitution when I myself have led a struggle for the independence of judiciary?” the premier said, assuring that no extra-constitutional step would be taken in the process.
About reservations expressed by PPP’s Mian Raza Rabbani regarding possible misuse of military courts, the prime minister said that the terrorist attack in Peshawar had proved that the country was passing through an extraordinary situation and the crisis demanded the nation to rise up to the challenge and take extraordinary steps to curb the menace of terrorism.
“Cases of serious crimes are pending with normal courts for 20 to 30 years. We are in a state of war. Is it not extraordinary that innocent children are shot at and killed? Their books were washed in their blood? We will take revenge for the massacre of the innocent school children,” the prime minister said.
“More than 50,000 Pakistanis have lost their lives in the war against terror. It is now a question for survival of the nation and safety of our future generations. If we don’t act now, the situation would aggravate further and may go beyond handling,” he added.
PM Sharif hoped that military courts will actively pursue cases against terrorists, adding that these courts will only function for a limited period of time.
AMENDMENTS AFOOT:
The premier said that the political and military leadership had taken decisions to counter the menace of terror, and under the same accord, constitutional amendments were to be presented in the parliament for approval.
PM Sharif said that the parliament and the entire leadership of the country is firmly standing behind NAP against terrorism and its implementation has begun.
“The decision to make these constitutional amendments lies with the Senate and the National Assembly. These decisions are not made by just one man. We are working within the ambit of the Constitution when taking these actions,” he said, adding that the power to pass the legislation and establish military courts was the sole domain of the parliamentarians.
The premier also lauded the efforts of the Action Plan Committee for forming a NAP in a timely manner, adding that the committee “spent 10 hours formulating the 20-point action plan, which all stakeholders agreed to”.
In this regard, he specifically referred to the work done by the parliamentary committee assigned with the task of formulating recommendations for the NAP within the stipulated timeframe of one week. He also spoke highly of leader of the opposition in the Senate Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan for his input in drafting the proposed amendments.
The premier said that sub committees formed to prepare recommendations on 20 points of the NAP have started submitting their reports and these are being implemented.
The prime minister said he is personally reviewing the progress on daily basis.
Creation of Military courts would probably be the best decision of his current tenure in government, once proven guilty and by their own admission what is the point of keeping the criminals alive? It is a strain on the countries resources to keep these murderers locked up and a temptation for the prison guards to release the Scum for a bit of bribe! The murderer of Salman Taseer should be hung without any delay.
In any case why should the government listen to PPP this is the corrupt party led by Mr 10% who allowed Taliban to infiltrate the country unchecked including Karachi. Zardari, Bilwal and Rehman Malik should stay out of this sensible government decision and do the right thing by owning up to the murder of BB. Z A Bhutto was the only decent person in Pakistani politics since the creation of the country, the current PPP scum should take a leaf out of his book.
Not 1 political party is sincere. Gen zia nurtured this monster, Gen M cultivated it along with MMA parties for 4 years in NWFP ( now KPK ), & PPP govt harvested this menace, while S Punjab flourished with extremists & jihadist elements right under the nose of PML N. Z A Bhutto was responsible for breaking up East Pakistan by not agreeing to hand over power to the majority party & Z A Bhutto was also responsible for nationalization of country`s assets & not implementing land-reforms, although that was a good move, but succumbed under pressure from the feudal class, he himself being one of the feudal lords…So, name 1 sincere & patriotic leader this country has produced ? Now, after Peshawar APS , NS / PML N govt has woken up. why ? after loosing more than 60, 000 people & jawans…where not those 60, 000 killed get same amount of attention, passion, compassion & sympathy ? were they not human too ? we are all responsible for the mess we are in today, not only the political parties…Shan. We cannot absolve ourselves from our responsibilities, as we too vote. We have blood of the innocent people on our hands too….
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