After an all-parties conference convened by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) failed to reach a consensus on military courts, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardarisaid the party will decide its stance on the issue after consultation with its legal team. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM) did not attend the conference, while the ruling PML-N was not invited.Talking to reporters, Bilawal said military courts, integration of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the implementation of National Action Plan (NAP) were discussed. However, Bilawal said no consensus was reached on the would-be extension to military courts.He did not specify a timeframe in which the parties may come to a joint conclusion. PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari said the purpose of calling the conference was to develop a consensus on the matter. He said that he wanted a collective decision from the parties in attendance when the issue was brought to the floor in parliament.Fazl insisted that a clear definition of the word ‘terrorism’ should be given before a decision can be made on the courts. Addressing the conference, he emphasised that instead of targeting one religion or sect, every armed group should be dealt with accordingly and that anyone who picks up arms against the state should be termed a terrorist.Talking about the integration of FATA into KP, he said that it was necessary to ask the people of Fata about their wishes and asked the government to not impose any decision on them.About the FATA reforms, Zardari said that the PPP has spearheaded reforms in tribal areas, opened the door for reforms in FCR that was closed for a century and allowed political parties to operate freely in the tribal areas by extending the Political Parties Order 2002 to FATA.Senator Farhatullah Babar said that for ensuring a fair trial as contained in the Article 10A of the constitution it was necessary to allow the accused to engage a defence lawyer of his choice, the right of appeal and the presence of observers in a military court.The PPP announced that in case of inevitability of the military courts, the party will present amendments in the constitutional draft proposal and in draft of the Army Act of the government to ensure minimum standards of human rights and fair trial of the accused on the one hand and to prevent their misuse for political victimisation. However, the parties, except JUI-F, agreed on merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on immediate basis.I was unwise to call multiparty conference when a parliamentary committee was extensively deliberating the issue of military courts and except PPP almost all parties had agreed on further extension of military courts for two years. It seems that PPP has tried to get political benefits on the issue, it failed to get any support fromparticipants and finally theshow ended without any concrete result. PPP needs to present its reservation on proper forum and government should seriously consider the reservations of all stakeholders including PPP and develop full consensus. All political parties should always prefer national interest instead of their vested political designsand should not provide any room for fatal motives of terrorists.
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