LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek Chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri has said the government has kept the control of military courts in its hands by retaining the right to refer cases to courts.

“To give relief to the terrorists the government has kept the remote control of the military courts in its own hands as it has retained the power to send cases to the military courts,” he told a meeting of the Central Working Committee of the party here on Tuesday.

He said 50 days had passed since the Peshawar incident and the military courts had not yet started functioning. By doing so the government gave time to the terrorists to continue bomb blasts and spill the blood of innocent people of the country, he blasted.

“The government is employing delaying tactics and is not in favour of the National Action Plan and military courts as it has not yet sent any case to any military court,” he alleged.

Dr Qadri asked the prime minister to explain why he (Nawaz) did not bother to visit the Shikarpur victims despite being in Karachi, a 15-minute flight from the blast site. He lamented that the madressahs of Minhajul Quran, which have all along voiced concern at terrorism and extremism all over the world, were now being threatened with cancellation of registration, while PAT and Minhaj workers were being arrested and kept in “illegal” confinement across Punjab.

He alleged that through it the government was trying to fail the NAP and sabotage the efforts for national consensus against terrorism. He appealed to the army chief to take immediate notice of this act of the government.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2015

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