The Pakistan military’s public communications arm, the Interservices Public Relations (ISPR), has a new role: tweeting the death penalty verdicts of the country’s military courts, which began trying terrorism cases on January 21.
The Pakistani public learned last week of these courts’ first convictions via the Twitter account of the ISPR spokesman, Asim Bajwa:“#Mil Courts:Army Chief confirms death sentence of 6 hard core terrorists tried by the recently established mil courts… Were involved in heinous act of terror,men slaughter,suicide bombing,loss f life&property [sic].” Bajwa added that that the convicted “Have Right to appeal 2 court of appeal2 [sic].” And that’s all that Bajwa – and the Pakistani military – have had to say about the matter. Expect many more such tweets – the government wants the military courts to try as many as 3,400 terrorism suspects.
The Pakistani daily Dawn asked the urgent questions raised by Bajwa’s tweets: “Are judges no longer allowed to speak via their judgements in even the most solemn of cases? Who are these men? What crimes have they been accused of and now convicted for? What evidence was presented? What kind of legal representation was available to the accused? And what is the appeals process that is available to the convicted men?”
Answers to those questions have not been forthcoming, confirming fears about the damage to legal due process and defendants’ rights from the government’s January 7 approval of a constitutional amendment permitting the military to prosecute terrorism suspects. The amendment is part of the official response to the December 16 attack by the Pakistani Taliban splinter group Tehreek-e-Taliban on a school in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan that left at least 148 dead – almost all of them children.
Although using the military courts to try terrorism suspects has a 2-year time limit under the constitutional amendment, they’re already violating some of the country’s international human rights obligations. As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Pakistan is obligated to uphold and take measures to ensure basic fair trial rights. Governments may not use military courts to try civilians when the regular courts are functioning.
If Pakistan’s military courts are going to operate in secret and prohibit any meaningful public scrutiny and verification of their observance of fair trial rights, no tweets can cover up the fact that the government’s pursuit of high-speed “justice” for alleged terrorists is coming at an unacceptable price.
