NA unanimously adopts 21st Amendment, Army Act Amendment
247 members voted in favor of the Bill while not a single member cast vote against it.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News)—The National Assembly on Tuesday unanimously approved the 21st Constitutional Amendment Bill and the Army Act Amendment in its session in Islamabad.
The Bill was tabled in the National Assembly on Monday by Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights Pervaiz Rashid.
247 members voted in favor of the Bill while not a single member rose against it. The bill hence, secured the unanimous vote of the two-thirds majority it required.
Lawmakers from religious parties including JUI (F) and Jamaat-e-Islami and PTI led by Imran Khan abstained from voting.
The Bill was passed with Amendments made by the Federal Minister Rana Tanveer.
The law is now expected to be passed by the upper house and signed into law by the president this week.
It will stay on the books for two years, allowing military courts to try anyone accused of terrorism offences.
The government last month decided to set up military courts to try terrorists after Taliban gunmen killed 136 children at an army-run school in north-western city of Peshawar.
The decision followed years of complaints by security agencies that the laws were not strong enough to prosecute hardened militants.
Most politicians in Pakistan agree that military courts must be used to curb Taliban attacks because civilian courts are too cowed and corrupt to jail militants.
But some have raised concerns about the dramatic expansion of military powers in the coup-prone country.
The courts will have a limited mandate, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said last week.
"Military courts will not be used against any politician, seminary, businessman, media person or common citizen," he said. "Nor is it a forum for dispensation of justice."
On Monday, the Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah released a video vowing more attacks on children. The government and the military say Pakistan s Taliban insurgency amounts to a war, so there is a precedent for the use of military courts.
"Spec courts not desire of the Army but need of extraordinary times," military spokesman Major General Asim Bajwa said in a message on social media website Twitter last week. "Will return to original system when normalcy returns."
Senator Afrasiab Khattak, a human rights activist, said he reluctantly supported the law.
"We have always stood for the independence of judiciary, but unfortunately they cannot deal with the hard-core terrorists," he said, citing attacks on judges and prosecutors.
The Senate also has approved the Amendments bills which later will be sent to the president for approval.
