Military courts: meeting remains inconclusive despite top army men briefing

Despite a detailed briefing by top military officers, the parliamentary panel headed by Speaker National Assembly- tasked to resolve the issue of military courts ended inconclusively. The sources privy to the development toldBusiness Recorder that the meeting ended without taking any decision due to absence of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Mehmood Khan Achakzai of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), the two staunch opponents of military courts.
The representatives of all other political parties including Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Awami Muslim League participated in the meeting and expressed satisfaction over the briefing given by the military officials.
A member of the committee wishing not to be named said that the meeting ended without reaching any decision as there was no representation from JUI-F and PkMAP, adding, "Any decision without taking them on board would be wrong as we all want consensus on the issue."
The speaker National Assembly said that next meeting will take place on February 16. He expressed hope that the issue will be amicably resolved with consensus of all the political parties. "Two major generals of the Military Intelligence gave a detailed briefing to the committee in which parliamentary leaders of all political parties participated. And I'm sure most of the things will be cleared by the next meeting," he added.
PTI Parliamentary Leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the officials of the ISI and MI gave detailed briefing to the panel, adding Rehman and Acahkzai did not come to the meeting, adding, "When inquired (about them), we could not get any satisfactory answer from the government."
"There was no official from the Ministry of Interior and we also got no satisfactory answer about the absence of the ministry officials from this important meeting," he added.
He said that the government should have known that the military courts are going to be expired and appropriate steps must have been taken to renew them on time. Both Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Law Minister Zahid Hamid accepted their failure in timely renewal of the military courts, he added.
"National Action Plan (NAP) and military courts can't be separated from each other...we've told the government to give a clear roadmap in the next meeting and hopefully they will come well prepared next time," he said. Ejaz Jhakrani of PPPP said that Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has, once again, skipped the meeting, which reflects how serious the government is about resolving the issue, adding the opposition is fully co-operating with the government but it is the state which has no plan to deal with complicated issues.
The representatives of all political parties said that they would share the details with the senior leadership of their respective political parties, adding the opposition had raised numerous questions in last three sitting, and most of their questions were answered during Tuesday meeting.
"We, the opposition will decide after listening to the government's side. We are fully co-operating with the government, but it is their allied political parties (JUI-F and PkMAP) which were missing in today's meeting, and it is the failure of the government and it must accept it," he added.