PESHAWAR, Feb 1: Condemning the inclusion of army officers in anti-terrorism courts, the Peshawar High Court Bar Association here on Friday declared the amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Act “illegal” and “unconstitutional”.

Through a unanimously-adopted resolution, a meeting of the association termed the act of the federal government a direct hit on the independence of judiciary and in conflict with various judgments of the Supreme Court.

The meeting, presided over by president of the association Safeerullah Khan, was convened after a requisition was given by the members of the bar. Initially, the meeting was convened over the issue of keeping Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners in inhumane conditions in Cuba.

The participants adopted a resolution through which the US government was asked to treat all the Al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and consider all of them as prisoners of war. The meeting hailed the government decision of setting graduation as the minimum qualification for the would-be parliamentarians.

The meeting was addressed by Arbab Usman, Ali Jamil Qazi, Muzzamil Khan Khattak, Muazzam Butt, Wali Khan Afridi, and others. The speakers said the amendments to the ATC showed that the government lacked confidence in the judiciary for which reason army officers would be included in the special courts trying cases of terrorism.

The speakers referred to the judgment delivered by the Supreme Court in Sheikh Liaqat Ali case and said that the apex court had ruled that there was no room for military courts in the constitution. They said military government should not touch the constitution as only an elected parliament was empowered to introduce any amendment to it.