Military trials of civilians: SC rejects plea for full court bench

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a plea seeking the formation of a full court bench to hear a set of pleas challenging the trials of civilians in military courts, ARY News reported.

A six-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Ayesha A. Malik announced the reserved verdict.

During the hearing today, CJP Bandial said the bench had discussed the plea and the formation of a full court was not available until September due to summer vacations.

Earlier, the apex court had rejected the federal government’s plea to constitute a full court.

A day earlier, CJP Bandial discussed the petition with other petitioners and then reserved the verdict on senior counsel Faisal Siddiqi’s plea.

In a previous hearing, Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan presented a list comprising the names of 102 suspects in the military’s custody before the court.

According to the list, seven people were under custody for breaking General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, four suspects attacked the army institute, 28 suspects attacked the Lahore corps commander’s residence, 15 people were involved in attacks on army garrisons in Multan and Gujranwala, eight suspects attacked an ISI office in Faisalabad while five were involved in the attack on the PAF Air Base in Mianwali.

To this, the CJP said that there should be an independent body to review if the arrests were made on the basis of solid evidence or not.

He then directed the AGP to seek directives from the government before presenting arguments on his appeals.

Military trials

In the month of May, the government decided to try the suspects accused of attacking military installations on May 9 under army laws.

Violent clashes broke out across Pakistan after the former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was arrested from the premises of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on May 9.

Army installations, Corps Commander’s house in Lahore and General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi came under attack during a protest by PTI workers.

Pleas

Following the arrests made in connection with the violent riots that erupted across the country on May 9, the government announced its decision to hold military court trials of those found guilty of damaging and attacking military instalments — a move both the government and the army considered a low blow.

In light of this decision, PTI Chairman Imran Khan, former chief justice Jawwad S Khawaja, legal expert Aitzaz Ahsan, and five civil society members, including Piler Executive Director Karamat Ali, requested the apex court to declare the military trials “unconstitutional”.