Military courts a need for country: DG ISPR

F.P. Report

RAWALPINDI: Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Asif Ghafoor has said that military courts are not the wish of the army but a need of the country.

DG ISPR said this during an interview with a private news channel on Friday night, he said that there was a wave of terrorism in the country and after 2008, military operations against it gained momentum, with many terrorists arrested.

Regarding the military courts, he said that Pakistan’s criminal justice system is not quite effective in dealing with such cases and military courts were established after the Parliament unanimously approved them.

The extension in the courts was of two years and they will continue if the Parliament backs the extension, the DG ISPR said, adding that the courts created fear among the terrorists.

Spokesperson of military wing said 646 of the 717 cases in the military courts in a four-year period were logically concluded. Some 345 terrorists were given death sentences, he added.

Whenever the Army chief confirms a death sentence, the convict appeals to the president and, if he is not pardoned, then these cases go to civil courts at times, the DG ISPR said.