FOCUS-Pakistan top court strikes down army courts
04:26 a.m. Feb 17, 1999 Eastern

ISLAMABAD, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that special military courts, whose rulings have already resulted in the executions of two men, were unconstitutional, a court official said.

The government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif set up the courts in early December to try to speed up justice in the violent port city of Karachi, but opposition and human rights groups challenged their validity in the Supreme Court.

In its unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court told the government that the cases before the military courts should be transferred to already existing special courts dealing with terrorism, from which appeals go to higher civil courts.

Critics of the controversial courts had said the decisions were made too quickly and that they were not fair as any appeal went to another military court and not a civil court.

Human rights groups were also critical, especially after one military court sentenced a 13-year-old boy to die for murder. He was eventually acquitted on appeal in early January.

The court ruled that the special terrorism courts would have to hear the cases within seven days and that any appeals would also have to be completed in seven days.

The nine-judge bench said that while the military had no authority to operate courts, they should assist civil authorities in investigations and providing protection to key witnesses.

The military courts began hearing cases in December and two people were executed before the Supreme Court ruled in the middle of January that capital punishment could not be carried out while it heard the challenge to the legal validity of the courts.

Sharif wrote a letter to the Supreme Court last month saying a ``grave and real emergency'' had forced him to set up the military courts. ``At this critical juncture we are facing the renewed threat of terrorism and violence,'' Sharif said.

Sharif has often complained of slow trials by ordinary courts and an increasing tide of violence. In Karachi, more than 800 people were killed in political, sectarian and ethnic bloodletting in 1998.

The news hit the Karachi Stock Exchange, which was up by more than two percent in earlier trade, but after the decision was announced it slipped and was up by about 0.10 percent at about 916 points in mid-afternoon trade on Wednesday.

Stock analysts in Karachi said the court ruling may cause political confusion as the decision went against the government.

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