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Business News/ News / World/  Pakistan authorizes military trials for terrorism after massacre
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Pakistan authorizes military trials for terrorism after massacre

Both houses of parliament on Tuesday approved the change in jurisdiction for a two-year period

File photo. ‘The bill is important to eliminate terrorism and armed militias from the country,’ Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told Senators on Tuesday before they voted. Photo: AFPPremium
File photo. ‘The bill is important to eliminate terrorism and armed militias from the country,’ Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told Senators on Tuesday before they voted. Photo: AFP

Karachi/Islamabad: Pakistan’s parliament authorized army trials for individuals charged with terrorism offences, ceding new powers to the military after Taliban militants massacred children at an army-run school last month.

Both houses of parliament on Tuesday approved the change in jurisdiction for a two-year period. Proponents of military courts for terrorism trials say they are faster than civilian ones because there isn’t a backlog of cases, decisions can’t be challenged and judges can’t be easily intimidated.

“The bill is important to eliminate terrorism and armed militias from the country," Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told Senators on Tuesday before they voted. “We will continue this fight until the last terrorist is standing."

Sharif has worked in tandem with military leaders to root out militants since the Pakistani Taliban killed 152 people, including 134 students, at an army-run school in Peshawar last month. The government resumed executions of convicted terrorists and increased ground and air attacks on militant bases in the tribal areas along the Afghan border.

Schools in Pakistan extended winter holidays and universities ended classes early after the Taliban threatened more attacks on army-affiliated organizations. Militancy has killed more than 50,000 people since 2001 and constrained growth in South Asia’s second-biggest economy.

“Nobody could have thought a few months back that there would be a change in rules to allow military courts," interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told parliament on Monday. “Military courts are made globally at the time of war or post-war. We are in a state of war."

Democratic setback?

No lawmakers in either house of parliament voted against the bill. It passed each body with a two-thirds majority.

Critics see the measure as ineffective and a step toward greater authoritarianism in a country where the army has ruled for more than half of its history.

“Military courts didn’t end terrorism" when they were used to fight militancy in the 1980s and 1990s, Shaikh Mutahir Ahmed, chairman of the international relations department at the University of Karachi, said by phone. “This is disastrous because your democratic forces, which includes the judiciary, have lost their grip and take you toward militarization." Bloomberg

Faseeh Mangi in Karachi contributed to this story.

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Published: 06 Jan 2015, 08:07 PM IST
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