No bill on military courts without political consensus, says Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday said that the government could not introduce a bill in the parliament for extension of the term of military courts without political consensus, ARY News reported.

Talking to media ahead of a seminar on Pakistan-India relations here, the foreign minister said that without agreement with the opposition introducing the legislation bill will be meaningless.

“The unanimity of opinion can be achieved when we will sit together,” Qureshi further said.

He said the opposition parties were also invited for a meeting over the National Action Plan (NAP).

The military courts were set up under the National Action Plan (NAP) in 2015, finally ceased to function on March 31 this year, as their constitutionally extended two-year term expired.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi urged the need for national consensus on issue of security and said it was under this spirit that he wrote letters to parliamentary leaders of different political parties and personally contacted the leaders of Pakistan Peoples’ Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz.

He said though the response of the opposition parties on these issues was not negative but they hesitated to act promptly on such issues of national importance.

The military courts were set up under a constitutional approval by the parliament, after a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014, which claimed the lives of 144 people, most of the victims were children.

It is to mention here that to further extend the term of the military courts the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) requires two-third majority in the parliament for a constitutional amendment but it does not have the required numbers and needed support from the opposition.