UN Rapporteur Asma Jahangir has said that the amendments made under the Army Act violated human rights and the Constitution. She said granting military courts the authority to try offences from murder to libel reflected the government's lack of confidence in its selected Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) judges.
She said that in order to settle scores with lawyers, human rights activists and defiant journalists, the law was given effect from January 2003. "This also allows the government to legitimise its illegal acts of disappearances carried out by the intelligence agencies with impunity,"
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