ISLAMABAD: Seemingly panicked in the face of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) upcoming long march on Independence Day, the PML-N government on Friday announced it was summoning the army to aid civilian law-enforcement agencies in securing the capital over the next three months.

Talking to reporters, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that a notification to requisition the services of the armed forces under Article 245 of the Constitution had been issued on Thursday.

Article 245 (1) reads: “The armed forces shall, under the directions of the federal government, defend Pakistan against external aggression or threat of war, and subject to law, act in aid of civil power when called upon to do so.”

The validity of such an order cannot be challenged in court.

Under Article 245 (3), “A high court ceases to exercise jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution in relation to any area in which the armed forces are for the time being acting in aid of civil power.”

Information minister claims move has nothing to do with PTI march

Chaudhry Nisar said a final decision on whether or not to allow the PTI to hold its long march on August 14 will be taken after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returns to Pakistan. However, he said that no requests for permission for the long march had been received by the Islamabad deputy commissioner.

Following the minister’s press conference, an interior ministry spokesperson said the capital was not being “handed over” to the army. “In fact the army is being called out for a limited time to assist the police and civil administration to obviate the possible threat of a terrorist attack and (improve) the security situation,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The statement said the legal, constitutional and administrative aspects of the move had been ironed out over the past few weeks. He said a contingent from the Pakistan Army would assist the police and civil administration at sensitive installations such as the Benazir Bhutto International Airport and serve as a rapid response force.

The same model and procedure would be adopted in case the army is called to protect any of the provincial capitals.

This announcement, coming less than two weeks before the PTI’s march on Islamabad, surprised many political observers who are still reeling from the government’s over-reaction to Pakistan Awami Tehrik chief Dr Tahirul Qadri’s arrival in the capital last month.

Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed told Dawn that the army would come out in aid of civil agencies from August 1 for a total of three months. When asked why a 90-day timeframe was envisioned, he said that by this time, the government believed, terrorists might be able to mount revenge attacks in various parts of the country, including Islamabad. The timeframe could be extended if necessary, he said.

The information minister also denied an impression that this decision had anything to do with the PTI long march.

A senior military official told Dawn that the military had not yet received a requisition asking for the army to be deployed in the federal capital, but said that army units would not be available if the deployment was “politically motivated”.

Opposition criticism: The main opposition PPP has been highly critical of the move. Senator Farhatullah Babar, spokesperson for former president and the party’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, told Dawn that the decision would have serious consequences for the people and the country.

“This means not only a failure of the civil administration, but also the total suspension of the jurisdiction of the high courts. Worse still, in practical terms, it also means the setting up of military courts, which cannot be permitted,” he said

The PPP has always opposed the invocation of Article 245, whether it be in Karachi or any other part of the country. The situation in Islamabad is not any worse than that in any other part of the country, nor does it warrant inviting the security establishment to fix it by vesting them with powers beyond judicial oversight, Mr Babar maintained.

What the government fails to realise, he said, is that if today it is Islamabad, tomorrow it may be Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Lahore, or indeed, the whole country, which has to be handed over to the army. “Bad as it already is, the human rights situation in the country will get even worse as the doors of high courts are shut on the citizens,” he remarked.

He said the decision would also send disturbing signals to the world about the prevailing security situation in the country.

Mr Babar said that this would only further distort the civil-military equation. He reminded the PML-N of the Charter of Democracy, saying that four articles of the charter (32 to 36) call for concerted action to address distortions in civil-military relations.

A PTI leader told Dawn that the party’s core committee was due to meet in Islamabad on Saturday to discuss the matter and would issue a statement after a response was formulated.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2014