Thursday, December 29, 2016

Dawn reports on sunset; fuzzy math

Dawn has this report on Pakistan's military courts. All of the 275 cases that have been referred to the courts created for a 2-year period by the 21st Amendment have been completed, 161 of them resulting in death sentences. (The government numbers reported in Dawn's article add up to 277, not 275.) There seem to have been no acquittals.

Yet other numbers appears in this Geo News report on opposition to the government's proposal to maintain military courts with jurisdiction over civilians:
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) chief Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman spoke against a draft law which if passed will make military courts permanent. 
Addressing a press conference on Thursday he said that it was being implied that judges from civil courts are “cowards”. “Forming military courts is an insult to civil judges,” he said. 
“Instead of forming military courts, we should address the issues that judges in civil courts face. Why can’t we give security to civil judges?” he said. 
“What is the point of such courts where accused are produced in a state of fear? This is against basic justice,” he said. 
*   *   *
The draft covers the issue of military courts. Military courts are to expire on January 7 and all under-trial cases will be transferred to the anti-terrorism courts. At present, 120 cases are being heard in military courts, which had received 300 cases overall. 
Under the new law, military courts will become permanent and terrorism cases will be sent to them.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are subject to moderation and must be submitted under your real name. Anonymous comments will not be posted (even though the form seems to permit them).