Pakistan - Military trials

The National Action Plan (NAP) to counter terrorism seems to have finally begun. The first 12 cases to be turned over to the military courts will be heard in the coming week. This is the first step in the actual implementation of NAP and will be a test case in how effective the government and military’s resolve is in tackling what has become Pakistan’s most serious issue. According to reports, these cases are mainly concerned with the Peshawar massacre in December and suicide bombing in Wagah in November 2014. Military courts have been established after much controversy but, for the next two years at least, it seems they will be the only recourse for justice in terror-related cases.

The overall response of the country immediately after the Army Public School (APS) Peshawar massacre was swift and determined. We saw the moratorium on the death penalty lifted and several hangings take place, mostly of those individuals accused of the assassination attempts on former General Pervez Musharraf’s life. Now the next phase of this plan seems to be the referral of terror cases to the military courts. Given the heated debate that surrounded the establishment of these courts, the overarching necessity for them given our inadequate justice system and the flaws in the process of such military tribunals, we will just have to see how they pan out. However, no one can argue with the fact that the yawning gaps in our legal system have made it necessary for us to give way to the military dispensation of justice. However, now it also seems that one of our responses to the terror situation is to take a long hard swipe at the Afghan refugees, people we have been sheltering and taking in for many decades. Many of them have become naturalised citizens by now and, for the most part, have nothing to do with the terrorists. Yes, there are some Afghans in our midst who are part of the Taliban but to turn on the refugees after so many years is akin to France ousting its Muslim population because a couple of terrorists attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Afghanistan has lamented that too many Afghans are suddenly being kicked out of Pakistan.

In its lacklustre approach on NAP, the government has been trudging from one meeting to the next, stumbling and confused about what concrete course of action it ought to take next. Peshawar was supposed to be our turning point but its momentum has faded. We cannot allow that to happen.