Former interior minister Rehman Malik has said that the Supreme Court (SC) should order for hearing Benazir Bhutto assassination case on day to day basis and this case be tried in military court if the government feels the need to do so.
“It is requested to the apex court to hear the Benazir Bhutto assassination case on day to day basis and give decision on it as soon as possible. If the government feel the need, then the case should also be tried in military court,” said the Pakistan People’s Party leader Malik while addressing a press conference outside the Parliament House Friday.
He said that military courts have been set up to gear up trials in terror-related cases. A bill will be passed in the Parliament to give military courts a legal shape, he added. A parliamentary committee will oversee the military courts, said Malik, adding that the politicians have chartered out a mid way for hearing the terror-related cases by lending support to military courts.
Military courts do not mean that we do not trust the other courts of the country, said Malik, adding that military courts have been set up to “accelerate the pace of trial in terror-related cases”.
The terrorist case can be tried in civil courts, sessions court and high courts if security is provided to judges, prosecutors and witnesses, he observed. Judges and witnesses have previously been killed in broad day light, therefore, security should be provided to them, he demanded.
Tracing the links of the Peshawar school carnage to Afghanistan, Malik said, “Mullah Fazlullah monitored the Peshawar attack,” adding that Fazlullah had been “giving instructions to terrorists”.
He stressed that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani should hand over Fazlullah to Pakistan within 24 hours.
Malik also lauded the role being played by the army “in these hard times”.
He stressed that concessions be extended to “backward areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa”, adding that terrorism could be scaled down if jobs were provided to jobless people.
