National Assembly opposition leader says PPP favouring establishment of military courts for security of Pakistan’, hopes armed forces would follow constitution
National Assembly (NA) Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah has said that the 21st Constitutional Amendment was aimed at protecting people and making Pakistan a prosperous country as envisaged by the country’s founder Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Delivering the opening speech of the NA session on Tuesday in which the Lower House adopted amendment in the Army Act and constitution, the veteran Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader said, “We have not been in favour of military courts in the past but the Pakistani public’s safety is our priority and it is the government’s responsibility to keep the masses safe.”
“Though PPP always opposed military courts and talked about independence of judiciary, the lives of innocent people and protection of their property are more important for the party,” said Shah.
He said that the leadership decided to support the amendment “to safeguard the bright future of our coming generations”.
Expressing hope that the armed forces would follow the constitution, the opposition leader said, “The Parliament is going to vote to save Pakistan. The bitter pill of this new law is being swallowed for the security of Pakistan. Murdering one person is like killing all humanity.”
The opposition leader said he was proud of the democratic system which was indebted to PPP leadership Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
The country has been a victim of terrorism for a long time, said Shah, adding that the whole nation was united against terrorism and wanted to eliminate the menace of terrorism from the country.
“There will be no discrimination between any terrorist,” said Shah.
“No matter who it is, no one can speak against religion. It is a sin for us to even pass laws here which go against the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).” Islam is a religion of love and there is no room in Islam for any kind of terrorism, said Shah.
He added that the 21st amendment was an important amendment and during the last few days it had been debated on all television channels, all across the country.
The proposed law is against those who carried out a suicide attack against late Qazi Hussain Ahmed and against those who had recently carried out three suicide attacks against Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rehman.
He also demanded of the Punjab government to take action against those who sabotaged the dua ceremony on the death anniversary of slain Punjab governor Salman Taseer.
