ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army announced on Friday the establishment of the first group of nine military courts for trying civilian terror suspects.

“The process of establishing military courts has been initiated. Initially, nine military courts are being established across the country,” a military spokesman said.

Of the nine military courts, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and Punjab would have three each, while Sindh and Balochistan would have two and one, respectively.

“The ball has set rolling,” Director General ISPR Maj Gen Asim Bajwa said.

“These courts will start functioning soon,” the spokesman further said without elaborating the time-frame.

According to a military source, the courts could start functioning in 7-10 days. The time is required for logistics, mobilisation and referral of cases by the federal government.

The provinces have started scrutinising terror cases, which would later be vetted by the Ministry of Interior before referring them to the Ministry of Defence for trial by military courts.

The military courts are being set up under 21st Amendment in the Constitution and through an amendment in the Army Act.

President Mamnoon Hussain on Wednesday accorded his assent to the legislation that allowed the setting up of military courts for a period of two years.

Both houses of the parliament had unanimously passed the legislation.

The courts are part of the National Action Plan adopted by the political leadership after the Dec 16 Peshawar school attack.

Religious and sectarian terrorist outfits would apparently be the focus of the new courts.

Two petitions challenging the legislation on military courts have been filed with the Supreme Court.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, during his visit to Bahrain, said that military courts should have been there long ago.

The military statement suggested that more such courts would be set up subsequently.

However, the army was tight-lipped on the composition of the panel of judges and the cities where these courts would be set up.

During the martial law in the late 70s and early 80s, there used to be two kinds of military courts — summary military courts with single-judge benches, with an officer of the rank of major as the judge, and special military courts with two- to three-member benches, mostly headed by a colonel.

The system of General Field Court is different.

However, it’s still not clear what system the army is planning to introduce. It’s also unclear if the people convicted by these military courts will have the right to appeal outside the military justice system.

Published in Dawn January 10th , 2014

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