Islamabad: Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif Sunday said that “no new military courts” were being established to try those responsible for the attacks on military installations on May 9.
The defence minister was addressing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) rally taken out to express solidarity with the armed forces, in Sialkot.
“Courts are present and they have been working for the past 75 years continuously,” Asif said.
Explaining that the government was not “snatching anyone’s basic rights”, Asif said cases will be pursued against those whose “footage, faces and identity is present that while attacking military installations”.
It is important to note that top-level civil and military officials have already vowed to try those involved in the riots under the Pakistan Army Act.
On Saturday, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir said that the legal process of trial had commenced under Pakistan Army Act and Official Secret Act as per existing and established legal procedures derived from the Constitution.
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Asif said, “I strictly do not differentiate between the attack that happened at the Corps Commander house, Mianwali air base, the GHQ (Pakistan Army’s general headquarters), and the attack by India on this place (Sialkot memorial).”
It must be noted that Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Pakistani authorities to end their “arbitrary arrests of political opposition activists and peaceful protesters” and to display restraint and respect for human rights and the rule of law.
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“The Pakistani authorities should end their arbitrary arrests of political opposition activists and peaceful protesters,” she said.
Gossman, however, added anyone committing violence should be “appropriately charged” and their due process rights respected.
Violent protests swept across Pakistan after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested Imran Khan with the help of Rangers on May 9.
Many of Khan’s supporters hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails, and in a few cases, used assault rifles to attack police, and set fire to ambulances, police vehicles, and schools.
Police responded with tear gas, and rubber bullets, and charged protesters with batons.
In the ensuing days, police arrested hundreds of members of Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), on charges of criminal intimidation, rioting, and assault on government officials.
