UN report slams ‘opaque’ Pak military courts; Let civil courts try Jadhav-like cases, says panel

NEW DELHI: Even as India has gone to the International Court of Justice ( ICJ), terming the sentencing of Kulbhushan Jadhav by a Pakistani military court as "premeditated murder", the United Nations has come down heavily on the military courts system in Pakistan, lack of independence of military court judges who are within military hierarchy and the practice of holding "closed trials".

The UN Committee Against Torture, in its findings published last week, has expressed concerns over Pakistan government "authorising military courts to try civilians for terrorism related offences". "The committee is also concerned by the very broad powers given to the army to detain people suspected of involvement in terrorist activities without charge of judicial supervision in internment centres", the UN panel said in its report.

Incidentally, Pakistan has accused Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav of spying without providing consular access to India and without any evidence. There are reports that Jadhav was picked up by Pakistani agencies from Iran.

The UN panel has asked Islamabad to "end the resort to military courts for terrorism-related prosecutions and transfer criminal cases against civilians from military courts to civilian courts and provide the opportunity for appeal in civilian courts of cases involving civilians already adjudicated under military jurisdiction".

It says that Pakistan's counter terror legislation, particularly the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, "eliminates" legal safeguards against torture that are otherwise provided to people deprived of their liberty, like prompt presentation before a magistrate and the possibility of a habeas petition, and to ensure that "confessions obtained outside the presence of a magistrate are inadmissible as evidence".

Pakistan claimed that Jadhav has confessed to his crimes.