Pakistan: PPP opposes calling in army under Article 245

The PPP has strongly opposed hand-over of Islamabad to the army. Senator Farhatullah Babar, in a statement, said that the decision is pregnant with serious consequences for the people and country, as it means not only failure of the civil administration but also total suspension of the jurisdiction of the high courts. “Worst still, in practical terms it also means setting up of military courts, which cannot be permitted,” the statement read. It said the PPP has always opposed invoking Article 245 for calling army in aid of civil power whether it was in Karachi or other parts of the country. He said the situation in Islamabad is not any worse that in any other part of the country to warrant inviting security establishment to fix it by vesting in them powers beyond judicial oversight, he said. “The government fails to recognise that if today it is Islamabad tomorrow Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Lahore, indeed the whole country, may have to be handed over to the army under Article 245 and practically dispense with the high courts. Bad as it already is the human rights situation in the country will get even worse as the doors of high courts are shut on the citizens,” Baber said. He said that the decision to hand over federal capital to the army will also send disturbing signals to the world about the prevailing security situation in the country. “The decision reflects the penchant of PML-N government to lean on the security establishment for everything be it meter reading or tracing of ghost schools or appointing monitors and is most unfortunate.” Babar said that it will further distort the already distorted civil-military equation.