Anti Terrorism Court of Pakistan

The Anti Terrorism Court of Pakistan (عدالت انسداد دہشتگردی, ATC) was established in Pakistan in 1997, under Nawaz Sharif's government, to deal with terrorism cases.

1997 creation and subsequent amendments
The court had been created by the 1997 Anti-Terrorist Act, amended on 24 October 1998 by the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance following the Supreme Court judgment (Merham Ali versus Federation of Pakistan, 1998) declaring most of its provisions unconstitutional. A short time before being ousted from power by Pervez Musharraf's coup, Sharif enacted the 25 August 1999 Pakistan Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Ordinance which generalized the ATC system to all 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.

In 2000, Kamran Atif, an alleged member of Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Alami, attempted to assassinate Musharraf; the ATC sentenced him to death in 2006. Following Musharraf's resignation in 2008, Pakistan places a moratorium on capital punishment, which lasted until 2012.