Capital cases to be heard by expanded bench in Pakistan

A five-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan will hear challenges to several military court capital cases on March 7, according to this report. Excerpt:

The appellants alleged that the convicts were not present during the trial conducted by military courts. 

No chance was given to cross-examine witnesses nor the witnesses were produced before the trial court, while the Peshawar High Court had ignored these facts. 

They claimed that the army personnel produced the convicts hand cuffed and eyes blinded with a cloth covering their face in the military courts therefore the convicts did not see the court with their own eyes. 

The convicts were asked to put thumb impression on papers, while the convicts did not know what sort of papers were forwarded to them, they further alleged.

The previous stays of execution have been extended. The 21st Amendment, under which civilians are subject to military trial, sunsets in less than a year.