The military courts in Pakistan have ceased to function on expiry of mandated period.
According to a statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), “Military Courts were established through constitutional amendment in the environment of heightened terrorism. Routine judicial system was under stress wherein judicial set ups / judges were also subjected to act of terrorism. Therefore special constitutional arrangements were made to effectively check the terrorists /terrorism. During the period of its validity, 274 cases were referred to Military Courts. Of these 161 were awarded death penalty (12 executed) and 113 were awarded imprisonment of varying duration. The cases were dealt through due process of law in Military Courts. The disposal through military courts has yielded positive effects towards reduction in terrorist’s activities. The military courts have ceased to function on expiry of mandated period.”
Pakistan had legalised military court trials of terror suspects for a period of two years in January 2015, soon after terrorists killed 144 people, mostly children, at an Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar.
