LAHORE: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday emphasised the need for reaching a consensus over the proposal to bring a constitutional amendment to extend the regime of military courts in the country.
“Military courts were established as per the Nation Action Plan (NAP) to control terrorists. A constitutional amendment is necessary to extend the tenure of military courts,” he said while speaking to the media here.
He said the three largest political parties needed to reach an agreement on the amendment.
Taking a dig at detractors, the minister said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) were urging the people to save them. The government’s fight with the opposition parties was over the demand of an NRO-style deal for two key political leaders, he said.
Fawad said a sum of Rs30 billion would have to be collected within a year for construction of reservoirs in the country. More than Rs9 billion had been donated into the dams’ fund within a span of five months, he added.
It is pertinent to mention here that spokesperson of Pakistan Armed Forces Major General Asif Ghafoor in an interview said that the military courts were not established on Army’s wish; instead they were the need of the nation at that time.
The Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) said that at the time they were established, the country was in the grip of terrorism and the courts were created to eliminate that menace.
“Military courts were established through a consensus after the attack on Army Public School in Peshawar; later, the parliament granted an extension in their term”, he said.
