PAKISTAN: LAWMAKERS APPROVE MILITARY TRIBUNALS

Pakistan’s Parliament passed a constitutional amendment that allows a parallel system of military courts to try Islamist militants, significantly enlarging the army’s power during a period of political unrest in the civilian government.
The new law, which was passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament, is the central plank of the government response to the attack on a Peshawar school last month in which the Pakistani Taliban killed at least 149 people, most of them children.
The military has pushed for the new courts, arguing that a weak civilian judicial system has failed to bring Taliban and other Islamist militants to justice.
The law that authorizes the courts is to remain in effect for two years.
The establishment of military courts was supported by most of the country’s political parties, although some politicians said they had voted in support of the measure with great reluctance, given the country’s history of military coups.
The military courts will be empowered to try militants from any group that “raises arms or wages war against Pakistan, or attacks the armed forces of Pakistan and law enforcement agencies,” according to the text of the new law.
The civilian courts have dealt with renewed activity from lawyers for death row convicts, who have thrown themselves into the appeal process to stave off executions for their clients.