ISLAMABAD: The Senate and National Assembly sessions will start at the Parliament House in Islamabad tomorrow (Monday) during which the two houses are to take up important national issues including constitutional amendment to establish military courts to eradicate terrorism from the country.
On 28th February, 2017 government and most of the parliamentary parties reached a Consensus on military courts for two years.
“All the parties agreed on the need of reviving of military courts amid rising terror incidents in the country. Instead of three as proposed by the government, the consensus has been reached to revive the courts for two years”. The amendment in the constitution will be tabled at the assembly session beginning tomorrow, Monday.
However the PPP boycotted the 28th February meeting and had called for a separate multi party conference on the matter on Saturday March 4, which also could not reach an agreement on the formation of military courts. The party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the party will decide its stance on the issue after consultation with its legal team.
Parliamentary observers say that though the government would try to persuade the PPP to support the amendment for the sake of consensus, yet if the PPP did not support, the ruling party has more than required strength to get through the National Assembly and with opposition parties backing, the upper House-Senate – would too clear the amendment. Even the die hard opponents of the PML-N government like PTI and Sheikh Rashid have supported the establishment of military courts.
The extension will be effective from January 7, 2017, and after two years, the cases will be transferred to anti-terrorism courts. INP