The MQM-Pakistan has refused to attend the All Parties Conference called by the Pakistan People’s Party on March 4 regarding the extension of military courts.
The MQM has now become the second party after the PTI to refuse participating in the conference, which was called after the PPP had repeatedly expressed their desire for an APC to settle the matter of extending the courts.
The military courts had been established back in January 2015 after the attack the APS attack and had originally been formed for two years. However recently a committee of the leaders of major parliamentary parties had agreed on extending military courts. Although there had been disagreements between the parties, there had been a genral consensus that politics could not be played over the matter of terrorism. PTI leader Shah Mehmood Quraishi had earlier stated that the country was going through extraordinary circumstances and it was necessary to unite on this matter.
The PPP, however, had been vocal in their disagreement with the extension throughout the period in which the decision was being taken. The demand for an APC has been the line adopted by the PPP for some time. Earlier, the Supreme Court Bar Association had also rejected the extensions of the militaery courts, saying the best way to solve the problem was by strengthening crimminal courts rather than relying on military courts ill-equipped to dispense justice.
Finance Minster Ishaq Dar has refuted the assertions made by the PPP saying that no politics should be played on a matter so integral to national security. He further stated that a session of the National Assembly will be called on March 6 to address the issue.
The MQM chief Farooq Sattar had earlier expressed his party’s reservations regarding the extension of the milittary courts, citing the government’s inability to improve the existing courts. However their refusal to attend the PPP’s proposed APC on March 4 may indicate them falling into line owing to the recent wave of terror that has spread through the country.
