Supreme Court rejects appeals of military court convicts

A five-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali completed the the proceedings of the case on June 20 and had reserved the verdict.

The convicts awarded death sentences for their involvement in the Army Public School massacre, the Bannu jail attack and Parade Lane attack were also among the appellants.

The petitioners included the convicts and their relatives had pleaded to the court that they had been denied right to fair trial.

Asma Jehangir, Abdul Latif Afridi, Khalid Anwar Afridi, Naseemullah Khan, Ahmed Nawaz Chaudhry and other adovcates had represented the petitioners.

The counsels of the petitioners during the case proceedings had argued that fair trial was not accorded as the military courts do not have pre-trial record of the cases and that the convicts were not given opportunity to engage legal counsels of their choice under section 23 of the Pakistan Army Act 1952.

They argued that according to the record the authorities arrested the convicted persons prior to the establishment of the military courts.

They were taken into custody under Action in Aid of Civil Power Regulations and when the military courts were set up after the 21st Constitutional Amendment and Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act 2015 then the federal government referred their cases to the military courts.

Additional Advocate General Attique Shah representing the federation had argued that there was no violation of law and rules. He said that the federal government had referred the cases to the military courts after the 21st Amendment and promulgation of Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act 2015.