ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah has reiterated the demand for convening a joint session of parliament to discuss the revival of military courts and overall security situation in the country in the wake of recent terror attacks.

Talking to a group of reporters at his Parliament House chamber here on Tuesday, Mr Shah said after discussing the current situation, the parliament’s forum should be used for devising the future course of action against terrorism.

After attending a meeting of the parliamentary leaders last month, the opposition parties had called for convening a joint session of parliament for a comprehensive briefing on the progress of the Zarb-i-Azb military operation and the National Action Plan (NAP) before moving forward on the issue of revival of the controversial military courts.

Later, the opposition parties did not press for its demand of the joint session and called for convening a multi-party conference on the issue by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Asks parliament to discuss security situation as well

Mr Shah said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the past had supported the setting up of the military courts under duress. He expressed his serious concerns over the recent spate of terrorists attack in the country, saying all the political parties needed to sit together to make a consensus decision on the issue of the revival of military courts.

Mr Shah said PPP’s parliamentary leader Syed Naveed Qamar would represent the party in the meeting on Thursday (tomorrow) on the military courts issue and would present the party’s viewpoint after consulting the top leadership.

The opposition leader said that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had also approached him two days back on the issue of military courts.

Mr Shah said former army chief retired Gen Raheel Sharif had also complained about non-implementation of NAP. He claimed that before his retirement the former army chief had been concerned whether his policies and steps against terrorism would continue or not.

The government has stepped up its hectic lobbying for the revival of military courts following the deaths of over 100 people in six terrorist attacks across the country last week.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq separately contacted parliamentary leaders from opposition parties and informed them about the government’s intention to prepone their next meeting on the issue of the military courts from Feb 27 to Feb 23.

The military courts were established and granted permission to try civilians charged with terrorism in January 2015, in the aftermath of the gruesome terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.

The courts were given constitutional cover for two years after parliament passed the 21st constitution amendment despite fears among lawmakers that the establishment of the military tribunals might undermine democracy in the country.

The courts have been non-functional since Jan 7 after the expiry of two-year constitutional cover.

During a meeting of the parliamentary leaders last week, the government circulated a draft of a proposed amendment bill seeking a three-year extension for military courts.

However, the government members failed to break the deadlock over the issue as opposition parties refused to support the proposal without certain guarantees and before intra-party discussions.

The opposition parties did, however, agree on the formation of a five-member committee, headed by Law Minister Zahid Hamid, to review the draft. The new subcommittee is scheduled to meet today (Wednesday).

Initially, apart from the PPP and the PTI, two government allies — JUI-F and the PkMAP — had also refused the proposal to extend the term of military courts. However, recently the JUI-F reportedly stated that the party was ready to support the revival of the military courts, if it was in the national interest.

The main opposition PPP, however, still has reservations over the revival of the military courts and its parliamentary leader Naveed Qamar had already rejected the government-prepared draft of the constitution amendment bill.

Sources in the PPP said the party feared that the new law could be used for political victimisation as the government had removed the words “religion” from the operative part of the amendment calling for action against the militant organisations.

The sources said that before making any decision, the PPP would seek guarantees from the government that the law would not be misused.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2017