SC resumes hearing pleas against military trials of civilians
A six-member Supreme Court (SC) bench has resumed hearing a set of pleas challenging the military trials of civilians.
The bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and consisting Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Ayesha A. Malik, is hearing the case.
At yesterday’s hearing, CJP Bandial had observed that civilians should not be put through the rigours and harshness of military courts, since they enjoy certain constitutional protections, and besides, such trials were not according to the Constitution. The court had also turned down the government’s request for a full court.
“The military law is a tough law and meant to be different from the ordinary law that may be good for military personnel only,” the CJP had observed.
One of the concerns about such trials, the CJP observed, was that the verdicts of a military court were not open to the public, nor subject to judicial review.
The observation came when Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan cited a June 23 note by Justice Yahya Afridi, in which the judge had urged the CJP to consider reconstituting a full court consisting of all available judges to hear the matter.
In yesterday’s proceedings, the chief justice had turned down the government’s request to form a full court to hear the petitions, explaining the unavailability of judges. He had also expressed satisfaction over the treatment of suspects facing military trials.
Earlier this week, the federal government had argued that the trial of those accused of violence against the armed forces under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 was an apt and proportionate response under the constitutional framework and statutory regime.
##The pleas
The petitions were filed by former CJP Jawwad S. Khawaja, Aitzaz Ahsan, Karamat Ali, and PTI Chairman Imran Khan.
Khawaja, who filed the petition through his counsel Advocate Khawaja Ahmad, requested the top court to declare the trial of civilians by military courts unconstitutional.
The former CJP pleaded that Section 2(1)(d)(i) and (ii) of the Pakistan Army Act were inconsistent with the fundamental rights conferred by the Constitution and therefore void, and should be struck down.
As an interim measure, all proceedings against civilians based on the sections should be suspended or, in the alternative, any military court should be restrained from passing a final order in any case against civilians based on the sections, the petition stated.
Before this petition, five members of civil society from different cities, through their counsel Faisal Siddiqi, sought as illegal the trial of civilians in the military courts in connection with the violence in the country of May 9.
Likewise, Ahsan, who has also served as a former law minister and also spearheaded the 2007 lawyers’ movement, explained that the primary purpose of his petition was to ensure that none of the thousands of civilians who have admittedly been arrested for allegedly having partaken in the May 9 violence and being nominated for trial be tried by military courts.
The petitioner said he did not seek to scuttle the trial of any civilian before any lawfully established court of criminal jurisdiction.
In his petition, the PTI chairman sought a declaration against the arrests, investigation, and trial of civilians in peacetime under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) 1952 as well as the Official Secrets Act 1923.
More to follow