Date:12/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/12/stories/2007111259781400.htm

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“Amendment to Army Act only to fight terrorism”

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said on Sunday that an ordinance empowering military courts to try civilians was meant to strengthen the government’s hands in the fight against terrorism and not aimed at silencing critics.

The ordinance, promulgated late on Saturday, amended the 1952 Army Act enabling the military to try civilians on charges of terrorism, anti-national activities, sedition, attacks on Army personnel and assault on the President with the intent of disrupting the exercise of his powers.

Military courts can also try civilians accused of waging war against the state, abetment to any of these offences, rioting while armed with deadly weapons, and making statements conducive to public mischief.

Prior to the amendment, civilians could be court-martialled only if one of the accused in a particular case belonged to the military.

Asked if the amended Army Act was going to be used against critics, Gen. Musharraf said, “It is not such a draconian situation.”

“Catching ordinary people and having them tried by the military should not happen. It should never happen.”

His explanation was that the amendment had been introduced to give the government more leg room in the detention of terror suspects.

“When we catch terrorists and have to deal with them, the government needs legal authority to hold them. Or else, as in the missing persons case [which was before the Supreme Court prior to the promulgation of the Emergency], it is a problem. On the one side, there is the legal side, and on the other side, these are terrorists. You want to move against them. There is a requirement of secrecy because very often, you want to take others into custody.”

This was not possible under the existing legal provisions, he said.

“That’s why we amended the Act so that our actions against terrorism can be achieved in a better legal way. Don’t think that ordinary people are going to be held under this. How can that be? That can never be,” he said.

But, in an e-mailed statement from Lahore, where she is under house arrest, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan chairperson Asma Jehangir slammed the amendment as “blatantly violating all norms of human rights and the Constitution of Pakistan.”

Ms. Jehangir alleged that the amendment had been given retrospective effect to settle scores with lawyers, human rights activists and journalists.