Following global practice — including that of the U.S. military justice system — the Pakistan Army Act builds on maintaining good order and discipline among service members, as no military can effectively function without strict discipline. The court-martial, that is, trial by military officers of breaches of service-connected discipline, including crimes, sits at the heart [...]
In March, the Pakistan Parliament passed a bill to regulate the exclusive discretion of the Chief Justice (CJ) of the Supreme Court in initiating cases under suo motu jurisdiction and in making the Benches of Judges that hear cases. The bill also provides an intra-Court appellate review by a larger Bench. Before the bill could [...]
Since gaining power in August 2021, the Afghan Taliban, following a unique normative mixture of Pashtun culture and Islamic law, have closed universities, colleges, and secondary and primary schools to deny education to women and girls. In banning women from higher education, the Taliban education minister argued that female college students do not adhere to [...]
Hamline University in Minnesota has fired adjunct art professor Erika Lopez Prater for showing 14th-century paintings of the Prophet Muhammad in class. The University asserts that the professor’s act is Islamophobic and that bringing the artwork to the classroom with Muslim students breached the limits of academic freedom. The facts do not suggest that Professor [...]
Imagine a system under which the U.S. Supreme Court hears cases as panels consisting of three to five Justices rather than as a full court of nine. Suppose that the Chief Justice makes a five-Justice panel consisting of himself, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Justice Elena Kagan to hear abortion [...]
On March 8, the opposition parties moved a resolution for a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan (PM) under Article 95(1) of the Constitution. The PM ceases to hold office if “a majority of the total membership of the National Assembly” passes a no-confidence resolution. The opposition needs 172 votes, which it does not [...]
Even though the US State Department is issuing positive statements about the Taliban, it is hard for the US to recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan’s lawful government. The reasons are evident and understandable. First, the Taliban have defeated the US military in a protracted war stretching over twenty years (2001-2021). The hurt in the Pentagon, [...]
French Muslims are in the process of reconciling with the Fifth Republic of France, established with the 1958 Constitution, which declares France to be a secular state. In the past thirty years, secular issues have fractured social order as Muslim women, born and raised in France, wish to wear the hijab (headscarf) in schools and [...]
In October 2001, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan to avenge the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and remove the Taliban government that had harbored the attacks’ mastermind, Osama bin Laden. Since then, the Taliban have been fighting the U.S. to free their homeland from occupation. For nearly 20 years, the U.S. narrative of “national [...]
The world has seen shocking videos of U.S, police officers, and private citizens perpetrating crimes against African Americans. Relentlessly, the socio-legal system brings about the death, imprisonment, torture, and degradation of African American men, women, boys, girls, households, and communities. The four-hundred years of atrocities comprised of slavery, separation of families, non-citizenship, segregation, and lynching [...]
