The term of military courts expired on January 6, 2019 and the Ministry of Law and Justice has already forwarded a summary to the federal cabinet for an extension, sources in the Law Ministry told Business Recorder. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government however faces an uphill task to get parliament to approve an extension to military courts given the stated opposition of the two major opposition political parties, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
The expansion of the jurisdiction of military tribunals was a key point of the 20-point National Action Plan (NAP), initiated in the wake of December 2014 Army Public School (APS) terrorist attack in Peshawar empowering the army to try civilians charged with terrorism.
The military courts were set up under the Constitution (Twenty First Amendment) Act, 7 January 2015, to try terrorists attached to militant outfits using religion or sect as a justification for violence for a period of two years.
An extension was given by parliament to these courts in March 2017 through Constitution (Twenty-Third Amendment) Act, 2017, and the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act, 2017 for a period of two years with the Act deemed to have taken effect on and from January 7, 2017, the sources added.
The PTI and its coalition partners with a total of 182 members lack the support of the required 228, two-third majority, in 342-member National Assembly, to grant an extension; it is heavily dependent on the opposition political parties which have 156 seats with PML-N 85, PPP 54, MMA [Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal] 16 and ANP [Awami National Party] 1.
PTI sources said the government was making an effort to muster support of all political parties including PML-N and PPP for the proposed constitutional amendment seeking an extension in the tenure of the military courts. However, they said that so far there had been no progress in that regard.
Talking to Business Recorder, PPP secretary-general Farhatullah Babar said the central executive committee (CEC) of the party which met on December 26, 2018 on the eve of Benazir Bhutto's anniversary adopted a number of resolutions including the one related to military courts in which the party has opposed giving another extension to these courts.
"Four years of military courts have been long enough and the parliament should not too readily give extension to the military courts," he said.
In reply to a question about the disadvantages of military courts, Babar said all exceptional provisions, like the military courts, tended to become regular features of the law over a period of time.
Secondly, he added that there was a linkage between the enforced disappearances and military courts, adding: "when people are missing and a court applied pressure we found that they were in the custody of security agencies tried under military law in the military courts". The parliament should look into that, he added.
Senior PML-N Senator Javed Abbasi who is chairman Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice said the party was yet to initiate any discussion on the matter of supporting an extension to the military courts or not.
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