Pakistan's Senate approves extension of military courts

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan

Pakistani Senate approved the extension of controversial military courts for another two years by a two-thirds majority in the capital Islamabad Tuesday, according to state-run Pakistan Television.

A total of 78 out of 104 senators voted in the upper house of parliament in favor of the 28th constitutional amendment bill seeking of the courts.

Only three members had opposed the while remaining 23 either abstained or did not attend the session.

The right-wing political party, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, and the left-wing, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and Balochistan National Party opposed the bill.

The parliament’s lower house, National Assembly, had already passed the amendment last week with a two-thirds majority.

The bill will now go to the president’s office for final approval -- a move considered a mere formality in Pakistan, lawyer Ismat Mehdi told Anadolu Agency.

The issue of military courts, which were established in 2015 for a two-year period and abolished in January after completion of their term, had been a bone of contention between the government and the main opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

The PPP, apparently angry with persecution of its leaders on terrorism charges, had tabled nine demands for supporting the extension.

Among the demands were that the extension would be for only one year, and a parliamentary committee would be formed to oversee the functioning of the military courts.

However, the weeks-long deadlock was resolved after the PPP withdrew its major demand, and agreed to the two-year extension earlier this month.

Pakistan established military courts in January 2015 through a constitutional amendment following a deadly gun-and-bomb attack on an army-run school in northwestern Peshawar city in December 2014 that killed over 140 people, mostly students.

The military courts -- to which human rights and lawyers associations have been vehemently opposed -- were set up to try hardcore militants who, according to the government, otherwise avoid punishment due to judicial system weaknesses.

The country’s Supreme Court, rejecting rights groups’ appeals against military courts, had also upheld the government’s decision.

The military courts tried some 275 cases over the last two years, handing death sentences to 161 convicted militants and varying jail terms to over 150 others.

Only 21 of the death row inmates were executed during this period, while others’ appeals against their convictions are pending in the supreme and high courts.

Following the Peshawar school attack, Pakistan also lifted a six-year long de facto ban on capital punishment in December 2014.

Over 300 convicts have been executed since December 2014, while nearly 7,000 prisoners remain on death row.