Qureshi, Khattak tasked to consult opposition for extension in military courts

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has devised a strategy for talks with the opposition parties for an extension in the term of military courts, ARY News reported on Saturday.

The well informed sources said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Defense Minister Pervez Khattak have been authorized to hold talks with the political parties.

Both the ministers will engage the members of the opposition parties on the issue by next week to get their consent as it required a two-thirds majority in both parliament houses to get the bill passed.

The duo of the Qureshi and Khattak will apprise Prime Minister Imran Khan about the progress into the matter, sources said.

Expressing his views in ARY News’ program Power Play, the Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) last week, recounting the performance of military courts since their latest inception in 2015, had said that so far, 717 cases were referred to the military courts, out of which 646 cases had been decided.

“The military courts have awarded 345 convicts death sentences while 296 have been handed various sentences”, he said.

“The government has to decide whether it wants to extend the tenure of the military courts or not”, he said.

The military courts were created by a constitutional amendment after the deadliest terrorist attack in December 2014.

The attack on Army Public School in Peshawar, in which gunmen killed more than 150 people—mostly children.