PESHAWAR: Parents of the martyred students of Army Public School (APS), Peshawar, have hailed the Supreme Court verdict of dismissing constitutional petitions against setting up of the military courts, saying that the historic decision is the outcome of the sacrifices rendered by their innocent children who were killed by terrorists in a cowardly attack.

However, the parents added in the same breath that their children would not have been killed if the government had taken timely action against terrorists. They demanded of the government and Pakistan Army to share with parents and people of the country the details of crimes committed by those being tried in the military courts and the nature of punishment awarded to them.

“Such military courts should have been established 10 years ago for awarding an exemplary punishment to terrorists,” said Ajoon Khan, who is the general secretary of Ghazi Shuhada Forum, an association of the parents of victim students of APS.

He said that the military courts would conduct speedy trial of the militants. He said that unfortunately in Pakistan vital decisions were often taken after occurrence of huge losses. He said that the trial of terrorists in military courts should not be kept secret rather every details should be shared with masses, particularly with the parents, for maintaining transparency.

“Nobody could bring back our innocent children, but at least it would give us a little relief if these courts punish the terrorists involved in the barbaric incident of Dec 16, 2014,” said Mohammad Tufail Khattak, father of one of the victim students Sher Shah Khan, hailing from Dag Ismailkhel area of Nowshera.

He said that it was because of the sacrifices of their children that the nation got united and the parliament unanimously passed the Constitution (21st Amendment) Act paving the way for setting up of the military courts. He added that for the last many months the aggrieved parents of the victim students had been asking who would be providing them justice and who would punish the killers of their children.

Mr Khattak said that they were grateful to the Supreme Court judges who felt their pain and validated the constitutional amendment. He said that the only thing they wanted was the introduction of a system for speedy punishment to the killers. He said that prior to the APS incident around 50,000 innocent people were killed during last around a decade because of militancy.

Aftab Ahmed, whose only son Huzaifa Aftab was also killed in the APS attack, hailed the Supreme Court decision allowing the military courts to function.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2015

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