Military trial sentences qua civilians in Pakistan

It has been reported by a Pakistani website that military courts in Pakistan have handed over 284 death sentences to ‘militants’ out of which 56 persons have already been executed.

This was informed to the National Assembly by the Defence Minister of Pakistan.

Trial of civilians by military courts has always been a sore point in many jurisdictions, and more so in Pakistan where there has been complete secrecy surrounding these trials.

In cases brought before Constitutional Courts in Pakistan, it has been revealed that almost the same pattern of paperwork has been followed in most trials proving the same to be a sham under law.

Such military courts have come under sharp criticism for being held in secret locations, without a proper appellate process to civil courts, without the sharing of documents of trial and without the assistance of lawyers.

Though the civil society has raised the issue time and again, not much seems to have come out of it.