<\/p>\n
The upper house of Parliament saw much commotion in its session on Friday after senators protested the passage of a resolution urging the Supreme Court to \u201creconsider\u201d its verdict on the military trials of civilians.<\/p>\n
The resolution was passed<\/a> on Monday in the presence of less than a dozen senators. It had urged the top court to \u201creconsider\u201d its verdict<\/a> of declaring \u201cunconstitutional\u201d the military trial of civilians for their alleged role in attacks on army installations on May 9.<\/p>\n The resolution was not part of the agenda issued before Monday\u2019s session and was tabled when a majority of members were absent. It was read out by independent Senator Dilawar Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and supported only by the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) senators.<\/p>\n Only two senators \u2014 Raza Rabbani of the PPP and Mushtaq Ahmed of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) \u2014 had protested against the hasty passage of the resolution, but Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani had ignored their protests.<\/p>\n The two-page resolution had termed the SC verdict \u201can attempt to rewrite the law\u201d and an encroachment of the parliament\u2019s legislative authority.<\/p>\n The day after the passage of the resolution, mem\u00adbers belonging to the country\u2019s mainstream political parties had lodged a strong protest in the Senate<\/a> against its hasty passage and called for its immediate withdrawal.<\/p>\n Due to the strong protest by the senators and lack of quorum, Deputy Chairman Mirza Muhammad Afridi had adjourned the proceedings till Friday within minutes and without taking up any agenda item.<\/p>\n Similar scenes were witnessed when today\u2019s session began. After the recitation of the Holy Quran and as the Senate chairman tried to begin the the question hour session, senators refused to sit on their seats and chanted slogans against the resolution.<\/p>\n \u201cNo military courts, no military courts,\u201d they chanted.<\/p>\n JI\u2019s Senator Ahmed equated the resolution to a \u201cdrone attack\u201d and an \u201cattack on democracy\u201d. He further said that the passage of the resolution had tainted the Senate.<\/p>\n Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Senator Kamran Murtaza termed said that senators had done something \u201cvery bad\u201d by passing the resolution. Senator Saadia Abbasi said: \u201cWe will not allow the House to proceed until we talk about the resolution passed by the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n PTI Senator Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur urged the Senate chairman to let parliamentarians discuss the resolution. However, he did not let anyone speak and tried to move the session along.<\/p>\n \u201cRespect the House and sit down [\u2026] The entire House cannot talk at the same time. This is not the way,\u201d Sanjrani said as senators continued to protest.<\/p>\n The commotion caused by the senators forced Sanjrani to adjourn the session till 3pm on November 20 (Monday).<\/p>\n The resolution passed by the Senate on Monday said that \u201cprima facie an attempt has been made to rewrite the law by impinging upon the legislative authority of Parliament\u201d.<\/p>\n It reiterated that the trial of those accused of violence against the armed forces under the Army Act was an \u201cappropriate and proportional response in line with Pakistan\u2019s existing constitutional framework and statutory regime\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin the country\u2019s constitutional framework, the trial of individuals accused of anti-state vandalism and violence under the Army Act serves as a deterrent against such acts,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The resolution also expressed solidarity with the families of martyrs, which it said had \u201cexpressed feelings of insecurity and treachery\u201d due to the court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir concern that absence of military court trial is likely to encourage or embolden those responsible for acts of terrorism due to [a] lack of stringent justice in regular courts is fully endorsed,\u201d the resolution said.<\/p>\n It noted that the SC verdict \u201cannuls the sacrifices made by martyrs\u201d in combatting terrorism.<\/p>\n \u201cMilitary courts have played a significant role in addressing terrorism by ensuring that those responsible for terrorist acts are brought to justice. However, this judgment, while abandoning the spirit of martyrdom, grants lenient option to terrorists, anti-state actors, foreign agents, and spies to be tried in normal courts,\u201d the resolution said.<\/p>\n The resolution said the SC had not taken into consideration \u201cexisting procedures which make it abundantly clear that the sentences given by military courts are not arbitrary and are conducted following due process and formalities\u201d.<\/p>\n It added that the existence of an appeal process against the verdicts issued by military courts was also overlooked. \u201cThe provisions of the Army Act and underlying procedures ensure that the right to a fair trial under Article 10-A of the Constitution is not violated,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The resolution reaffirmed that May 9 \u2014 when violence broke out across the country following the arrest of PTI Chairman Imran Khan \u2014 would be remembered as a \u201cdark day in the history of the country\u201d. It also condemned the \u201canti-state acts\u201d committed against the armed forces, \u201cwhich the enemies of Pakistan cannot even dare to think of committing\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe culprits of May 9, who blatantly attacked defence installations and disgracefully dismantled memorials of martyrs deserve no empathy or leniency, rather they should be tried in military courts and stringent punishments [should] be given to make them an example for internal and external enemies [of] Pakistan by creating deterrence and upholding the supremacy of state,\u201d the resolution said.<\/p>\n It said that Section 2(1)(d) was added to the Army Act in 1967, and civilians had been tried in military courts in the past under the provision while sentences were also carried out.<\/p>\n It added that a previous SC verdict had upheld trials under the Army Act by a majority. On the other hand, the bench which announced the recent verdict was \u201cnot in unanimity as opposed to previous benches which upheld trials of civilians under the Army Act, hence the decision is legally flawed and should not be implemented unless it is considered by a larger bench\u201d, the resolution said.<\/p>\n It said that the \u201cinvalidation of the jurisdiction of army courts is likely to facilitate vandals and abettors of terrorism and anti-state activities.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Senate of Pakistan calls upon the apex court to reconsider its decision, urging alignment with the national security paradigm and [the] sacrifices of the martyrs in order to address the concerns raised regarding the ramifications of the judgement on the security and stability of the nation,\u201d the resolution said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The upper house of Parliament saw much commotion in its session on Friday after senators protested the passage of a resolution urging the Supreme Court to \u201creconsider\u201d its verdict on the military trials of civilians. The resolution was passed on Monday in the presence of less than a dozen senators. It had urged the top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/1717421983f256e.png?r=181322","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The resolution<\/h2>\n