KARACHI: Pakistan government is striving to take opposition parties on board in a bid to secure new lease for the military courts, whose current two-year term is set to end in March. Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has strongly opposed the notion of an extension while the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) cautiously braces itself for the move. 

Earlier this month, the law ministry told a National Assembly standing committee that a proposal for a second extension in military courts had been forwarded to the federal cabinet. 

After the PPP leaders Yousuf Raza Gilani and Farhatullah Babar divulged to media on Friday that the party would not support the proposed extension, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari took to Twitter and said, “No compromise on 18th amendment and no to extension in military courts.”

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s spokesperson Afzal Nadeem Chan told Arab News that a meeting was called in after PPP’s refusal to endorse the extension. 

“The government is in contact with opposition parties to pass the constitutional amendment for extending military courts,” Azhar Leghari, Public Relations head for Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) told Arab News. “All we can say is that efforts are underway to persuade opposition parties to support the passage of this important constitutional amendment.” 

At this time, of the two major opposition parties in Pakistan’s parliament, the PPP and the PML-N, the latter remains undecided. Senator Mushahidullah Khan, PMLN’s parliamentary leader, said his party will make its decision depending on the content of the draft bill. 

“The opposition will take a joint decision,” he told Arab News, adding, “This is an important issue and we want the system to run.”

PPP leader Farhatullah Babar told Arab News that military courts should be disbanded for four distinct reasons.

“Military courts were introduced as an extraordinary measure in the face of extraordinary circumstances,” he said, referring to an attack by the Pakistani Taliban on Peshawar’s Army Public School in December 2014 which led to the death of 144 people, most of them school children.

“If they failed to achieve what they were intended to achieve in four years’ time when they had full backing of all institutions and militancy was at its peak, they are unlikely to achieve those objectives in the next 40 years,” he said.

He further added that when extraordinary laws are extended time and again, they create a body of vested interests which seeks to make them a permanent feature of the law, like certain ordinances issued during the tenure of General Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s military dictator who declared martial law in 1977 and took the mantle of the President. 

“From the proceedings before the Peshawar High Court in cases tried by the military courts, it transpired that in many cases they wrongly awarded death sentences with scant regard for due process,” the PPP leader argued.

Military courts were established in January 2015 as a short-term measure by introducing the 21st amendment to the constitution of Pakistan. Their term was subsequently extended and received presidential assent in March 2017, which gives them legal cover until March 31, 2019.

“During this period, the criminal justice system had to be reformed and anti-terror institutions strengthened. The criminal justice system will never be reformed if the military courts are given extension after extension,” he said.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) shares these concerns. In a statement released last week, the human rights body said it remains troubled by the secrecy surrounding military court proceedings and their high conviction rates. 

“These are against the norms of justice,” the statement reads.

Babar also claimed that military courts were used as a cover to justify enforced disappearances, which is an allegation the military denies.

Speaking to a private Pakistani news channel, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Maj. Gen Asif Ghafoor said military courts were established and their term extended in 2017 by Parliament through a “national political consensus.”

“It is wrong to say that military courts are desired by the army or a single institution,” he said.

According to senior political analyst Mazhar Abbas, “The PTI is faced with a difficult situation, especially after PPP’s announcement. But there are chances that PPP might change its stance if some changes to the proposed constitutional amendment are approved,” he said. 

These changes might be a shortening of the extension period from two years to one year and giving accused persons the right to appeal in high courts.

“It’s highly likely that the joint opposition will take a position to support the extension and the PPP will go with it after clearly stating its position,” he explained. 

According to an ISPR statement, the military courts have heard 717 cases of accused terrorists since 2015 with 310 terrorists sentenced to death and 56 executed after the exhaustion of legal processes.