Military courts admission to failure of existing system: minister

SIALKOT: Minister for Defence, Water and Power Khawaja Asif Saturday said the establishment of military courts is admission of failure of the existing system. He said those wielding guns today got them from the state decades ago. He said Pakistan always wanted to establish durable peace and friendly ties with its neighbours, including Afghanistan and India.

"No one should consider desire for peace as our weakness. The defence of the country is in strong hands and we have capability to give a strong response to enemies," he said while addressing a meeting of lawyers held at the District Bar Association (DBA) office here.

MLA Azad Jammu and Kashmir Ch Ishaq, Mayor of Sialkot Municipal Corporation Chaudhry Tauheed Akhtar, Deputy Commissioner Dr Asif Tufail, President Sialkot DBA Shaukat Ali Chaudhry and General Secretary Zahid Saleem Bajwa were also present.

Khawaja Asif said Pakistan was closely monitoring the border tension along its eastern and western borders, adding that the nation stood united to defend every inch of the motherland. He said establishment of military courts in the country had become demand of the day and vital to cope with terrorism. He said the country was passing through extraordinary circumstances and was in dire need of making extraordinary measures to tackle internal and external challenges.

The minister said the government was committed to weed out terrorism from the country, adding that the Pakistani forces’ ongoing operation against terrorism had broken the nexus of terrorism. He saluted the armed forces and other law enforcing agencies and the masses for battling terrorism, and said the nation stands united against terrorism and was ready to sacrifice their lives while battling terrorism shoulder-to-shoulder with the armed forces.

Earlier, the minister announced Rs10 million special grant for Sialkot District Bar Association. He urged the lawyers to utilise their energies for dispensing justice to the needy, oppressed and poor people in society. He assured that all problems being faced by the lawyers’ community would be resolved amicably. He said the government firmly believes in supremacy and rule of law in the country. He said the government was also making sincere efforts for ensuring an early transition of powers to the local bodies in the country, adding that the local bodies played pivotal role in strengthening democracy and democratic norms. He pledged to get the District Courts Sialkot exempted from loadshedding during the working timings.

On the occasion, Asif announced the establishment of Sialkot campuses of Agriculture University Faisalabad and Bahria University at Sialkot. He said the process of establishing Sialkot campuses of National University of Science and Technology (Nust) and Textile University was under progress. He said the government had already allocated a special tranche of Rs180 million for the Nust campus at Sialkot. 

The minister said the construction work of mega project of Sialkot-Lahore Motorway had been started at various places near Daska, Sambrial and Sialkot. He added that the project would be completed within a stipulated period of the next one-and-half years. He said the project of Sialkot-Lahore Motorway had been expended to Kharian-Gujrat, Dina-Jhelum, Mirpur, Muzaffarabad-AJK. Asif announced to connect the Sialkot-Lahore Motorway with China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects as well.

Asif said the Punjab government had also allocated special development funds of millions of rupees for the early dualisation of main Sialkot-Eimanabad Road from Pull Aik Sialkot city to Dharam Kot-Daska for providing better means of communication to people.