Punishing Terrorists: Military Courts and Public Opinion in Pakistan

Abstract

Terrorism is one of the menaces that inflicted huge human losses to the state and society of Pakistan. On December 16, 2014, the brazen attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar killed 141, including 132 children and nine members of the school staff. In reaction, on January 7, 2015, the government adopted the 21st amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, which entailed the establishment of military courts to punish the terrorists and their facilitators. This study gauges the opinion of young students towards this new counter-terrorism policy. The results suggest two outcomes: firstly, the public admits that terrorism is one of their main problems and secondly, there is an ethnically diverse view on the military-led public policy to curb terrorism.