Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Reaction in Pakistan; questions for the future

This article from The Nation gives a sense of the (mostly downbeat) range of reactions to the Supreme Court of Pakistan's decision in the 18th and 21st Amendment cases. Other articles have tried to put a more positive face on things.

We'll report on the court's reasoning in due course, but in terms of where the country goes from here:

1. What steps will the legislature take to get on top of the delays and dysfunction in the criminal investigative and adjudicatory processes before the military court legislation expires in less than 18 months?

2. How will the Supreme Court go about exercising its claimed right to judicial review of the 21st Amendment military courts, including the handful that have led to death sentences? What will be the scope of that review? Just bad faith and ultra vires?

3. Will the Army cooperate with that judicial review or will it stonewall?

4. Will the prospect of judicial review lead the Army to conduct the 21st Amendment military courts with greater (that is, any) transparency?

5. At what point will demands to repeal the sunset clause of the 21st Amendment start to be heard, and what will be the response?

6. Will the kinds of offenses triable by the 21st Amendment military courts be expanded?

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