Wednesday, December 28, 2016

A rose by any other name

Daily Pakistan reports that the sun may not set after all on the country's use of military courts to try civilian defendants -- although the structural arrangements may change. The 21st Amendment expires on January 7, 2017, but the end-state may not look all that different:
A draft bill has been prepared by merging Protection of Pakistan Law and the Anti-Terrorism Act. Under the new bill military courts will permanently hear the cases of anti-terrorism, local media reported. 
Sources said that new law will be presented in the parliament after getting approval from the Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar. The new law would propose detainment* of accused persons for 90 days. 
It is important to mention here that around 300 cases were sent to the military courts out of which 120 are under trial.
Editorial pet peeve note (applicable to too many news articles in English): the word is "detention," not "detainment." This error has even made its way into The New York Times. Here endeth the rant. [Footnote added.]

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