While the National Security Committee (NSC) has supported the decision of a Special Corps Commanders Conference to prosecute under Army laws rioters who ransacked public and private properties after the arrest of PTI chief Imran Khan on May 9, there are growing calls for the government to utilize the criminal justice system to ensure transparency and due process.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) strongly opposed the decision to utilize the Pakistan Army Act against the rioters. “HRCP strongly opposes the use of the Pakistan Army Act 1952 and Official Secrets Act 1923 to try civilians,” it said. “While those responsible for arson and damaging public and private property during the recent protests should be held to account, they remain entitled to due process,” it added.
The rights watchdog maintained that civilians should never be tried using military laws, stressing: “All those civilians tried under these acts in the past should also have their cases transferred to civil courts.”
Similarly, Senator Raza Rabbani of the Pakistan Peoples Party—which is part of the ruling coalition that validated the use of military laws against the rioters—urged the government to “rethink” the policy, while emphasizing that no leniency should be shown toward anyone who had attacked, burnt and looted public and defense installations for a political agenda.
“A criminal justice system exists with special anti-terrorist laws and courts,” he wrote in a statement. “Being civilians, the planners, abettors and attackers should be tried under this system,” he added. Stressing that no civilian should be prosecuted under the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, he warned that the transparency of such trials would be called into question, which could generate sympathy for the accused. “Further, it is against the fundamental rights in the Constitution,” he added.
“Such trials of arson and burning under the Army Act, 1952, will be challenged before the superior courts and are likely to be found not in accordance to law,” he said, noting a one-time amendment had granted this—“not correct”—right in 2015 but that, too, had lapsed. “The government should rethink the question of trial of civilians under the Army Act, 1952, but not let up on awarding the strictest sentences under the criminal justice system,” he added.
Earlier this week, the ISPR issued a statement emphasizing that no leniency would be shown to the perpetrators of the May 9 riots, adding that a Special Corps Commanders’ Conference had decided to prosecute culprits in accordance with all relevant laws, including the Pakistan Army Act and the Official Secrets Act. The PTI has maintained that its workers were not involved in the violence and alleged that it was incited and perpetrated by “agencies men.”