Anti Terrorism Court of Pakistan

Anti Terrorism Court (, ATC) was established in Pakistan, under Nawaz Sharif's government, to deal with terrorism cases.

1997 creation and subsequent amendments

It has been created by the 1997 Anti-Terrorist Act, amended on 24 October 1998 by the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance following the Supreme Court judgement (Merham Ali versus Federation of Pakistan, 1998) declaring most of its provisions unconstitutional Charles H. Kennedy, in (Satu P. Limaye, Robert G. Wirsing, Mohan Malik, eds.), p.387-413 (a publication of the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu, Hawaï, Spring 2004).. A short time before being ousted out of power by Pervez Musharraf's coup, Sharif enacted the 25 August 1999 Pakistan Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance which generalized the ATC system to all of the country .

Anti-terrorism courts under General Pervez Musharraf

Following Pervez Musharraf's 1999 coup, Nawaz Sharif was judged and given a life sentence in 2000 by the ATC, which was commuted into exile.

ATC sentenced to death, in 2006, Kamran Atif, an alleged member of Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Alami who had attempted to assassinate Musharraf in 2002, and had been arrested two years later. Following Musharraf's resignation in 2008, a moratory on capital punishment has been enacted, although it is not completely respected.

See also

• Anti-terrorism legislation#Pakistan
• Human rights in Pakistan

References...
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