The process of setting up military courts has begun with the establishment of nine courts across the country, according to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). In a statement, the ISPR said that initially nine military courts are being established across the country; three courts each will be established in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, two in Sindh and one in Balochistan. "The courts will start functioning soon," the statement added.
Earlier, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior stated that the federal government, in collaboration with provincial governments and military leadership, is still busy in devising a full-fledged mechanism and a framework for the working jurisdiction of military courts.
At the moment, the spokesperson said the Interior Ministry is engaged with the provincial governments and military authorities to evolve a system as mandated in the 21st Constitutional Amendment. However, the number and scope of cases to be referred to the military courts and the level and stages of scrutiny in this regard are still being worked out. It will take a few days before these details are made public.
Regarding cases to be forwarded to military courts, the provinces have been asked to devise a multi-faceted scrutiny process which will further be fine-tuned by Ministry of Interior at a federal level before forwarding these cases to the Ministry of Defence, according to the spokesperson for the Interior Ministry. As per the National Action Plan, devised to counter terrorism in the aftermath of the December 16, 2014 Peshawar school massacre, the military courts would work for a period of two years to decide about the terror-related cases.