Sindh and Peshawar High Courts receive challenges to military court capital cases

The News International reports that the Sindh High Court has directed the authorities to file copies of the proceedings in five capital cases in which civilians were tried in military courts. "The petitioners Saad Aziz, Tahir Hussain Minhas, Mohammad Azhar Ishrat, Hafiz Nasir Ahmed and Asadur Rehman were sentenced to death by a military court for killing 45 members of the Ismaili community and injuring several others on May 13, 2015." In other words, the cases did not arise from an attack on government personnel or facilities.

In a hearing on Friday, the counsel for the petitioners, Hashmat Habib, submitted to the SHC provisions of the law as well as judgments of the superior courts with regard to military courts judgment and maintainability of the petitions. The court directed the counsel to provide copies of the same to the federal and provincial law officers and adjourned the hearing till March 2 for further arguments.

In earlier hearings, Habib had argued that the judgment passed by the military court was not maintainable in the eyes of law because the petitioners should not have been in the custody of the military authorities and tried under the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act (Act No II of 2015) or the Protection of Pakistan Act 2014, which has now expired, as the petitioners did not belong to any terrorist organisation or group using the name of religion or sect and did not raise arms or wage a war against Pakistan as was decided by the joint investigation team.

Habib contended that the petitioners were illegally tried and that too in the absence of a counsel in violation of Article 10-A of the Constitution as they were also kept incommunicado during their trial and investigation. Thus their conviction is liable to be set aside, he added.

Dawn reports that the Peshawar High Court has stayed a death sentence adjudged by a military court. The accused there was convicted of attacking police and security personnel in Swat.

Human rights jurisprudence strongly disfavors the trial of civilians by military tribunals.