ISLAMABAD, March 22, (Reuter): Pakistani President \Mohammad ZiaulHaq today revoked flogging sentences ordered by military courts before he ended martial law 15 months ago.
A government statement said the remission, granted to mark National Day tomorrow, would apply to “all military court cases of convicts undergoing imprisonment”.
General Zia also ordered one month’s remission in prison sentences passed by military court except those for “subversion, anti-State activities and espionage”, it said.
No official estimate was immediately available of the number of prisoners that would benefit from the remission, the first given by Zia since he ended eight and a half years of martial law in December, 1985.
Buta spokesman for the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said earlier that 200 political prisoners sentenced during the martial law regime were still in jail.
The London based human rights organization Amnesty International sais last month Pakistani jails still held 100 political prisoners convicted by special military courts, many serving sentences of 25 years.
Opposition party activists have planned a rally for tomorrow in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, to press for the release of political prisoners.
Military courts were abolished with the end of martial law but sentences passed by them were not subject of appeal before civil courts.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 27, 1987
