NA body defers to propose amends in Army Act

ISLAMABAD - National Assembly Standing Committee on Defence has deferred the draft bill seeking amendments in Army Act 1952 until receipt of recommendations from Ministry of Law and Justice as well as Ministry of Human Rights.
The Committee met here on Wednesday in the chair of Dr Azra Afzal. The proposed bill that sought trial of terrorists involved in attacks on defence installations and security forces in military courts was put off following serious concerns raised jointly by the members of the committee belonging to PML-N and PML-Q.
Dr Azra in view of the objections decided to seek recommendations on the subject matter from the Ministries to do away with the concerns raised. The PML-N and PML-Q members were of the view that the move to amend the Army Act for this particular objective would help create a parallel judicial system and would further create legal complications. They suggested if govt wanted to take legal action against these terrorists, it should seek guidance from the judiciary.
Earlier, Ministry of Defence while defending the draft bill told the committee about the hitches which help exonerate the terrorist involved in attacking security forces and important defence installations for lack of proper mechanism.
and actionable evidence with the Interior Ministry to indict such terrorists. Therefore, it was imperative in the given situation that Army Act should be amended in order to run proceedings against these terrorists in military courts instead of civil courts or anti-terrorism courts.
The Standing Committee also gave its nod to the bill seeking to establish Institute of Space Technology.