Srinagar, June 14: Jammu and Kashmir government Monday rebuffed the statement of Army’s Northern Command Chief Lt General BS Jaswal about Armed Forces Special Powers Act and said the legislation was not a pious document.
“Laws keep on changing, amendments are being made in them and it happens in every country. There is nothing pious about the AFPSA,” Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs and senior NC leader, Ali Muhammad Sagar said.
The Minister said the decision about the revocation of AFSPA was to be taken by the political executive. “One shouldn’t make it a point of prestige,” he said.
 PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said India was a democratic country and such decision was to be taken by the politicians and not by the Army. “The Generals, Colonels, Corps Commanders have to follow the decisions of the political executive,” she said.
 Mehbooba said already the Prime Minister’s working group has recommended revocation of AFSPA and the government of India has the responsibility to implement the recommendations of the group.
 She however said the present ruling political set up has given different signals about the Act which has created a sort of confusion and encouraged others to give statements on the crucial issue.
 “At times they say amendments would be made in the Act and at times chief minister says the Act will stay up to 2014. Such wavering political stances of the State government were responsible for the mess around the issue,” she said.
 The jurists and human rights activists termed Gen Jaswal’s statement as “defending the indefensible.”
 The State Human Rights Commission has already asked the Government to explore the possibilities of reviewing the continuance or limiting jurisdiction of the AFPSA.
 “In the garb of AFSPA, instances of killing civilians in fake encounters and dubbing them as militants have come to fore in the state. This is a dangerous pattern which can have serious consequences besides intensifying alienation among the common people against the political dispensation,” said Justice Bashir-u-Din, chairman SHRC.
 “AFSPA is not a pious piece of legislation. The purpose behind its enactment is to suppress people. The man-made act enacted to suppress people can’t be described as something holy,” said the High Court Bar Association president Mian Abdul Qayoom. He said the Act provides the Army shelter and under it the Army personnel responsible for human rights violation go unpunished.
 “There is no accountability for the army as it claims impunity under the Act. The human rights groups have time and again pointed out the violations committed by armed forces and none to our knowledge has been punished so far,” Qayoom said.  He said when cases are put up before civil courts, the army pleads the right to trial in the Court Martial. “What then happens in the court martial nobody knows about it,” he added. In many cases tribunals found Army guilty but the recommendations were hoodwinked and matters were dragging in Court. “Jaleel Andrabi’s case and Pathribal should be eye-opener for the army. The statement made by Gen Jaswal is unrealistic and it deserved to be rejected,” said Qayoom.
 Senior counsel and former president High Court Bar Association ZA Shah said, “The comparison is incomparable.” He said recent human rights violation were not isolated acts. He said AFSPA was being abused and there was no accountability of the violators. Besides, he said the armed forces are to aide civil administration when called upon to do so.
 ”Instead experiences show that decision to kill is taken at lowest level in the forces and then protection is sought under the AFSPA. This is patently illegal and can’t be justified under any circumstances,” he added.
 Noted human rights activist Parvez Imroz said Army seems to afraid of accountability and that is the major reason it is weaving theories to justify AFSPA which guarantees impunity to it. “Under section 7 of AFSPA even sanction has to be sought from the Central Government for prosecution and it has not been given in any case. Under the Act the Army has complete legal impunity and there is no accountability. And once there is accountability, they can’t operate,” Imroz said.
 Interestingly the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination brought up the issue of AFSPA while discussing India in 1996. The concluding observations contained in the UN document CERD/C/304/Add.13 of 17 September 1996 reads: “The committee is seriously concerned that the Kashmiris, as well as other groups are frequently treated, on account of their ethnic or national origin, in ways contrary to the basic provisions of the conventions. Clause 19 of the Protection of Human Rights Act prevents the National Commission on Human Rights from directly investigating allegations of abuse involving the armed forces. This is a too broad restriction on its powers and contributes to a climate of impunity for members of the armed forces.”
 Justice Bashir said many such cases have come to the notice of SHRC and NHRC in which junior officers have been reported to have resorted to arbitrary arrests, inhuman treatment, custodial tortures, rape, violence and fake encounters.

Lastupdate on : Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST