ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Tuesday passed the 28th Constitutional Amendment Bill with a required two-third majority. Th
e government-ally Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party opposed it and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) distanced itself from the entire session. Though PPP and other party senators expressed reservations, but they supported the bill. They said th
e government did nothing in the l
ast two years to improve the existing judicial system, saying that there would be no need to extend mi
litary courts if the National Action Plan (NAP) was properly implemented.
The senators said that there was no option but to support the bill as the country was confronting several challenges. Critics of the mi
litary courts argued that th
e government needed to reform the entire judicial system and implement the National Action plan in letter and spirit.
Opposition Leader in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan claimed that someone else made the decision and pressed th
e government to get it passed from parliament.
The House gave legal cover to the mi
litary courts by passing the 28th Constitutional Amendment Bill with the two-third majority. The bill’s passage by the Senate was necessary for mi
litary courts to be accorded constitutional cover.
Last week voting on the bill had been put off for six days after th
e government failed to get the support of a sufficient number of senators.
The bill will be now f
orwarded to the Presidency for approval. Once the President approves the amendment, the bill will become an Act, making two-year extension of army courts official. The extension would be recorded from January 7. Th
e government and mi
litary leadership agreed on mi
litary courts after a deadly terror attack on a Peshawar school in December 2014.
However, the tenure expired in late 2016 after which th
e government moved the bill to extend the tenure.
Th
e government held multiple sessions with political parties to build consensus on revival of the trial courts.
The Senate has already passed amendments in Army Act, 1952, to make provision in the mi
litary law for trial of hardcore terrorists.
Meanwhile, the House also adopted a resolution to form
a parliamentary committee on national security.
The panel, which will be announced by the National Assembly speaker in consultation with the Senate chairman, will monitor the progress on NAP, performance of mi
litary courts and the process of transition from mi
litary courts to civilian courts following the former’s expiry after two years.
The parliamentary affairs minister introduced the Illegal Dispossession (Amendment) Bill, 2017. The House referred the bill to the relevant committee for further deliberation. The House witnessed presentation of five reports of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control and one report of the Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat.
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