ISLAMABAD: The Senate adopted on Tuesday two bills, including one based on the presidential ordinance giving legal cover to arrests made by the army or law-enforcement agencies before setting up of military courts and providing for in-camera trial of the accused in terrorism cases.

The PPP’s Farhatullah Babar opposed the bill and called for circulating its draft for an opinion of the public, the legal community and other stakeholders in light of the recent Supreme Court judgment validating the 21st Constitution Amendment Bill.

His request was, however, rejected by the house through a voice vote after Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the bill had been introduced in parliament by the government in line with decisions of the All-Party Conference held soon after the terrorists’ attack on Army Public School, Peshawar, in December last year.

The opposition is in a majority in the Senate, but at the time of the presentation of the bill, treasury members had outnumbered them.

The bill, which is already in the field in the form of an ordinance promulgated by President Mamnoon Hussain in February, seeks amendments to Section 2 of the Army Act, 1952, allowing the military courts to hold in-camera trials and hiding the names of court officials “for the protection of witnesses, president, members, prosecutors, defending officers and other persons concerned in court proceedings”.

It says: “….any person arrested, detained or held in custody by the armed forces, civil armed forces or law-enforcement agencies and kept under arrest, custody or detention before the coming into force of the Pakistan Army Amendment Act, 2015, shall be deemed to have been arrested or detained pursuant to the provision of this act.”

Mr Babar was of the opinion that the bill was “inconsistent” with the recent judgment of the Supreme Court on the 21st Amendment.

Opposing the defence minister’s motion to get the bill passed, the PPP legislator said the Supreme Court, in a majority verdict of 13 to four, had held that parliament could make constitutional amendments, but such amendments were subject to judicial review.

Of the 13 judges, he said, eight held that military courts did not militate against salient features of the Constitution in respect of independence of judiciary.

These eight judges, he said, had also opined that trial by military courts was subject to certain safeguards.

Mr Babar said the existing practice of military courts pronouncing death penalty against unnamed accused by unnamed judges sitting at an undisclosed location and without any mention of charges, the case of the prosecution, the defence plea and disallowing independent observers violated the requirement of adequate procedural safeguards.

He said the nation had come to know about convictions by military courts through a tweet by the ISPR.

The bill also provides indemnity to military court officials against any other court of law.

The presidential ordinance, issued in late February, was a follow-up to amendments made by parliament in the Constitution and the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, to provide for military court trial of civilian terrorism suspects for a period of two years, as decided by an all-party conference convened by the prime minister in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Peshawar school.

In June, the National Assembly’s budget session was interrupted by the government to get a resolution passed to extend life of the ordinance for another 120 days through a resolution. It was after a furore and a walkout by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement that the government had managed to get the resolution passed. Later, the ordinance was laid before the house in the form of a bill in May.

The Senate also unanimously passed the Cantonments (Amendment) Bill, 2015, allowing holding of the local bodies’ elections in the country’s cantonments.

Chairman Raza Rabbani referred the National University of Medical Sciences Bill to the relevant committee on the request of Mr Babar.

In another development, the chairman informed the house that he had written a letter to the National Assembly speaker telling him that the Public Accounts Committee, which is a standing committee of the lower house, could not impinge upon the financial autonomy of the Senate. He suggested that a joint parliamentary committee could be set up to audit the Senate budget.

Earlier in the morning, the Senate transformed itself into a committee of the whole house and discussed steps to be taken to make the judicial system effective, cheap and speedy.

The committee, under the chairmanship of Mr Rabbani, after considering the proposals, finalised a list of experts who will formulate its recommendations on the matter.

The meeting decided that due to the nature of the matter, recommendations should be prepared within 45 days and a special committee formed to monitor the implementation of the recommendations.

The senate also passed a resolution expressing solidarity with religious minorities and vowed to protect their rights.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2015

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