Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Another list of 9 points in Pakistan

In Pakistan, a group of four political parties has come up with a competing list of 9 points they want to resolve in connection with the proposal to revive military courts. This article lays them out:
The nine points were announced to the media wherein it had been stated that 1) military courts be given two years extension, 2) terrorism should be defined and explained and debate be held in the parliament in this regard, 3) it should be clarified in the law that no political party and its worker will be victimized in the light of proposed amendments 4) public protest against price hike, governance, load shedding, law and order, unemployment and extra-democratic steps of the government and difference of opinion of political parties and protest against local administration will not be considered anti-state and terrorism acts, 5) all the stages from verdicts of the military courts to decision on the appeals should be completed in a fixed shortest possible period, 6) proposed amendments should not affect political workers' expression of views against the government and freedom of media, 7) accused should have right to engage lawyers of their choice, 8) all major incidents of terrorism, including Model Town tragedy, Sehwan Sharif, Quetta High Court incident, Gulshan Iqbal Park, Lahore, Jamia Naeemia, Alamdar Road, Quetta, Shikarpur incident in which people became victims be taken up first in the military courts as a test case, 9) for check and balance on the cases sent to the military courts, a parliamentary committee be set up in which all parliamentary parties be given representation.
There's more:
Replying to a question about inclusion of session judges and law of evidence, they said summary trial would not be possible in this manner, objective of establishing military courts was army summary trial of terrorism cases because it was not possible to convict the culprits under ordinary laws and for this, laws had been amended in many countries, including the USA.
Ouch

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