The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court has rejected the request to transfer the people detained in military courts to ordinary jails.
In the Supreme Court on Tuesday, during the hearing of the appeals against the annulment of the trial of the civilians in the military courts, the plea of the eminent lawyer Latif Khosa was rejected by the court saying that ‘the Attorney General has given assurance regarding the meeting.’
A seven-member constitution bench headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan is hearing these applications on a daily basis.
In Tuesday’s hearing, Defense Ministry’s lawyer Khawaja Haris could not appear to give arguments due to illness, on which the court has adjourned the hearing till Thursday on the request of the Additional Attorney General.
Yesterday, the Constitution Bench had rejected the government’s plea to allow military courts to pronounce verdicts in the cases.
During the hearing, Additional Attorney General Javed Iqbal Vance told the court that ‘the trials in the military courts have been completed, the military courts should be allowed to pronounce the verdicts of the trial.’
Justice Musrat Hilali replied that ‘can’t do that. If this is done, then the civilian trial authority of the military courts will be resolved.
Apart from this, the constitution bench also rejected the request to postpone the hearing of the case related to the trial of civilians in the military courts until the decision of the 26th constitutional amendment and former Chief Justice Jawad S. Khawaja was fined 20 thousand rupees on the request. .
Justice Jamal Mandukhel told Justice Jawad S. Khawaja’s lawyer Khawaja Ahmad Hasan on delaying the case that ‘you don’t have a loved one in custody, so you want delay, if you don’t accept the jurisdiction of the court, then leave here.’
The petitioner’s lawyer replied that ‘if the 26th constitutional amendment is annulled, the decisions made under it will also be nullified.’
Supreme Court’s order to stay the sentence
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The Supreme Court has restrained the military court from passing judgment pending the final decision of the appeals.
Currently, 83 civilians are in military custody. The Attorney General has told the court on the last hearing that out of 103 accused, 20 accused have been released before Eid and have gone to their homes. While the details of those released through a miscellaneous application have been submitted.
At that time, Aitzaz Ahsan, the lawyer of the accused, raised this point in the court, ‘These accused have been convicted and sent home, a child was convicted without a trial, he is now hiding, whatever happened. There is a big ‘heap hazard’.
In the last hearing, the Supreme Court had asked the Attorney General for the details of the accused who were sentenced to three years by the military courts.
The court had ordered the release of 20 accused who had been sentenced to one year before Eid-ul-Fitr.
The Attorney General had submitted the details of the accused who were released on Eid-ul-Fitr in the Supreme Court.
On May 9, 2023, these suspects were detained on the charge of attacking military installations across the country.
