A three-member bench of the apex court led by the Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk had granted 10 days to the federation to submit a response in the matter on February 12. A three-member bench led by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Mushir Alam will resume the hearing of case on Tuesday (today).
Filing on Monday a concise statement on behalf of the Federation one day before hearing, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Salman Aslam Butt submitted that the Parliament has passed the Amendment in the greater national interest to try a certain class of suspects/terrorists cases by the court martial, constituted under the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, the Air Force Act and the Pakistan Navy Act.
"Our existing civilian law enforcement structures are inadequate and cannot effectively prosecute, convict and sentence these terrorists. There are a variety of reasons for this. Prosecutors and witnesses feel threatened and they feel that they do not have adequate or sufficient protection. There are actual instances where judges, prosecutors and witnesses have been threatened or attacked and killed," stated the concise statement.
The AGP categorically submitted that petitioners in the matter failed to appreciate the fact that only a particular class of suspects who are hard core terrorists will be the subject to court martial under the new regime.
"This class of persons constituting individuals accused of being members of terrorist groups, whose trial in the normal courts would expose a large number of people, prosecutors, counsel and judges to terrorist attacks are to be tried by court martial," the concise statement added.
The AGP further submitted that to end the menace of terrorism we are left with no choice but to deal with the perpetrators with an iron hand as the terrorists want to enforce their ideology at gunpoint. "Either we accept this and let them Talibanise our society or rise to the occasion and make Pakistan a democratic state based on the Islamic principles of social justice as envisioned by the founder of Pakistan," the federation's response concluded.