ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed appeals of three terror convicts affiliated with outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), challenging their sentences by a trial court.
Headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, a bench of the apex court, upheld jail terms of 14 years handed down to the three appellants.
He observed that the prosecution has succeeded in proving the convicts’ links to the banned outfit and recovery of explosives from their possession without any shred of doubt.
Justice Khosa held that the court overlooks technical flaws in cases involving militants. The appellants were arrested with 840 kilograms of explosive material, he added.
One of the three convicts died in prison, the court said.
A lawyer representing the convicts said one of them is underage and thus, he should be treated as per juvenile laws. Besides, gunpowder was seized from their possession, which is not explosive material, he added.
In his remarks, the judge, who was part of the bench that disqualified former premier Nawaz Sharif in a case popularly called Panamagate, said the first mistake is deemed the last around the world, but in Pakistan, the trend is that a mistake should be forgiven if it is the first.
“Let it go culture” is, in fact, the license to commit another mistake, he observed.
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