POLITICAL parties are again thinking of doing away with military courts. They should follow the guidelines (never implemented) suggested in the Liaquat Hussain versus Federation of Pakistan case in 1999 when it disallowed the setting up of military courts.

Had the then and subsequent governments and the superior judiciary implemented these guidelines, the issue would not have arisen now.

The Supreme Court ruling laid down the following guidelines:

(i) Cases relating to terrorism be entrusted to special courts already established or which may be established under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

(ii) Only one case be assigned at a time to a special court and no other case be entrusted to it till judgment is announced in such case;

(iii) The concerned special court should proceed with the case entrusted to it on a day-to-day basis and pronounce judgment within a period of seven days;

(iv) Challan of a case should be submitted to a special court after full preparation and after ensuring that all witnesses will be produced as and when required by the special court;

(v) An appeal arising out of an order/judgment of the Special Court be decided by the appellate forum within a period of seven days from the filing of such appeal;

(vi) Any lapse on the part of the investigating and prosecuting agencies should entail immediate disciplinary action;

(vii) The chief justice of the high court concerned shall nominate one or more high court judges for monitoring and ensuring that the cases/appeals are disposed of in terms of these guidelines;

(viii) That the Chief Justice of Pakistan may nominate one or more judges of the Supreme Court to monitor the implementation of the above guidelines and to ensure that if any petition for leave/or appeal with the leave is filed in the Supreme Court, the same is disposed of without any delay;

(ix) That besides invoking aid of the armed forces in terms of sections 4 and 5 of the ATA, the armed forces assistance can be pressed into service by virtue of Article 245 of the Constitution at all stages including the security of the Presiding Officer, Advocates and witnesses appearing in the cases, minus the process of judicial adjudication as to the guilt and quantum of sentence, till the execution of the sentence.

Babar Ayaz
Karachi

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2019