- Voting on military courts’ revival postponed due to lack of attendance; JUI-F, PkMAP, BNP-M show resistance; Govt, Opp fail to pursue their senators to pass bill despite consensus
The Senate on Wednesday passed the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act 2015 Bill with a majority vote to give effect to the military courts for trying terrorists, but postponed voting on the bill seeking revival of the controversial military courts until the next week.
The bill moved to the House by Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid was opposed by three parties – the Jamiat Ulema Islam-F (JUI-F), Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and the Balochistan National Party-M (BNP-M).
In Senate, the two-third majority requires 69 out of total 104 senators. However, 67 senators were in the House which shows that both the government and the opposition parties even after joining hands couldn’t make the passage of most important amendment possible.
The law minister told the House that the military courts helped in ridding the country of terrorism. “Our national security is endangered by terrorism. Pakistan is facing extraordinary situation and we need to take steps to tackle them,” he told the house.
While, the passage of the amendment in the army act was a smooth sail, the senators hailing from dissenting parties showed their ire while discussing the 28th Amendment Bill. Senator Jahangir Jamal of BNP-Mengal said that the constitutional amendment doesn’t suit the democratic representatives.
“Now it has come to the credit of a democratic party that they have passed an amendment like this. The parliament should have full power. My party is not going to support any bill that reeks of some dictator’s philosophy,” he said.
Opposing the amendment, Senator Attaur Rehman of JUI-F said that despite being allies of the government, they were opposing the bill. “Words of religion and Islam have not been taken out of the bill,” he said. Usman Kakar of PkMAP said that they were compromising on the parliament, constitution and law of the land.
“By extending the military courts, we are violating constitution. Put an end to policy of terrorism and basic reasons, it will automatically end,” he said. Kakar also reminded political parties of drifting away from their manifestos and called all parties to unit for the supremacy of the parliament.
“Today, we are going to stamp the doctrine of necessity. We are only satisfying ourselves while it doesn’t affect terrorists. Our political system has failed,” said Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif of MQM. The law minister replied to the criticism by saying that the government wants that a constitutional amendment be passed in a similar fashion it was passed back in 2015.
“During previous amendment words of use of religion and sect were used, however, this time around we have added wrong use of religion and sect,” he said. After lack of necessary numbers of senators for an amendment, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani adjourned the session till Tuesday (March 28) when the re-voting on the bill will take place.
It is pertinent to mention here that beside the government, major opposition parties including PPP, MQM, PTI, and Jamaat are in favour of revival of the military courts. Previously, the PPP had serious reservations, however after talks with the government, the party joined the revival of the military courts bandwagon.
