LAHORE: The government of Punjab has selected 55 terrorism cases for trial by military courts set up under the 21st Amendment.

Sources said on Wednesday that the cases were under trial in 14 anti-terrorism courts in the province, mostly in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Gujranwala. These included the March 3, 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, killing of 10 under-training Khyber Pakhtunkhwa wardens in an attack on their hostel in Samanabad’s Shama Road in Lahore on July 12, 2012, and a sectarian clash in Rawalpindi’s Raja Bazaar on Jan 15, 2013.

Also read: KP govt refers 423 cases for trial by military courts

The sources said a list of the cases selected by the counter-terrorism department had been sent to the home department. They said the exercise had been undertaken despite the fact that the provincial government was still waiting for a formal notification of the establishment of military courts either by the federal interior ministry or the army.

One view is that the existing military courts have been given the jurisdiction to hear such cases under recent amendments to the constitution and the army act.

The sources said that as per the channel for selecting and sending terrorism cases to the military courts proposed by the federal government, they would be selected by the counter-terrorism department. It will forward the list to the IG who will then request the home department to seek the chief minister’s approval. The home department will then send the list to the interior ministry. A committee of the ministry will scrutinise the cases and a final approval will be given by the interior minister.

According to the sources, other provinces have no counter-terrorism departments and the question remains unanswered as to which institution will initiate cases for trial by military courts in their absence. There is no procedure at the moment on how to send fresh terrorism-related cases to military courts. There is also no answer to the question as to who will register and investigate fresh terrorism cases or scrutinise final challans.

It is also not clear under which laws the fresh cases will be sent to the military courts and the provincial government’s prosecutors will defend them there. Under the existing laws, terrorism cases are to be tried by anti-terrorism courts and prosecutors will appear before them on behalf of the provincial government.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play