ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The heads of parliamentary parties deliberated over the national action plan for over five hours on Friday and reached an agreement on an amendment in the army act for establishment of special courts for trial of terrorists.
An all parties conference was held at the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad on Friday with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the chair to view the progress so far made in implementation of the 20-point national action plan on counter terrorism.
Later talking to media, the Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed said that a constitutional amendment would be made to give cover to the amendment in the army act.
The information minister said that the amendments are expected to be tabled in the session of the National Assembly on Saturday morning and voting would take place on Monday.
The minister said that these would be tabled in the Senate on Tuesday and hopefully adopted with consensus.
Rasheed further said that decisions at the meeting were taken with consensus. He said that reservations of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman were removed and he led prayers for success of the decisions taken.
The federal minister said that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari played positive role during deliberations of the meeting today. He contributed a lot in evolving a consensus on the issues involved, Rasheed said.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said while talking to media after the meeting that despite ‘non-serious’ attitude of the government towards the national action plan, the PTI leadership showed big heartedness for greater national interest and played its role to evolve national consensus in this regard.
Earlier during the all parties conference, the prime minister said that the special courts will be set-up for trying terrorists under a constitutional amendment for a specific period of two years.
The prime minister expressed hope that the special courts would yield results within this period.
Speaking at the conference, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif has said that special courts were not desired by the Pakistan army but they were needed due to extraordinary times.
“We will return to original system when normalcy returns,” the army chief said.
