KARACHI, Feb 3: The MQM coordination committee has termed the recent amendment in the Anti-Terrorism Act contrary to all canons of law, justice and democratic principles.
According to the amended ordinance, the ATCs will consist of three members with at least one army officer of the rank of lieutenant. Besides police, other law enforcement agencies will also be responsible for carrying out investigations.
The committee said in a statement that posting of army officers, who were part of the administration, as judges was a sheer mockery of the constitution and law. It asked how justice would be possible with law enforcement agencies themselves nabbing people, investigating cases, and their officials acting as judges.
The committee said that the ATCs in cantonment areas had strengthened the impression that they were nothing but another form of military courts.
The committee maintained that if the purpose of the courts was to curb terrorists using the name of religion, those courts should first have been set up in the Punjab where the central offices of all the so-called religious and Jehadi organisations were located and which was the biggest centre of terrorism in the name of religion. The committee said that the MQM was against terrorism and backed the anti-terrorism drive of the international community. But the special courts in Sindh instead of the Punjab were a clear manifestation of the government’s intention to trample the rights of the province. It demanded immediate repeal of the amended ordinance.
