Monday, January 9, 2017

Sunset, sunrise (with apologies to "Fiddler on the Roof")

Now that Pakistan's military courts legislation has expired, will those courts be revived? Consider this report from The Express Tribune. Excerpt:
The federal government has summoned the parliamentary leaders of National Assembly parties to discuss the future of military courts, whose mandated term lapsed on Saturday.

The government is also considering convening an all parties conference (APC) over the matter, a government source said. 
On Sunday, the NA secretariat sent a message to parliamentary leaders in the lower house to attend a special meeting on Wednesday. A source said the NA speaker will discuss the future of military courts with parliamentary parties’ representatives in this meeting. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s parliamentary leader in NA Shah Mahmood Qureshi confirmed the invitation for the meeting on January 11.
Note this transparent effort to pass the buck:
Both, political parties and legal experts have been criticising the government for not commissioning the required legal reforms in the judicial system to address the reasons that led to the establishment of military courts.

Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Law Barrister Zafarullah has responded to the criticism, saying that bringing those reforms was the job of the provinces. “We will present our performance during this duration in upcoming meetings to the parties,” he concluded.

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