Military courts' convictions: Justice Yahya refuses to hear appeals of 196 suspects

ISLAMABAD: Justice Yahya Afridi refused to hear appeals of 196 persons convicted by the military courts on terrorism charges.

A three-member judge bench, headed by Justice Mushir Alam, and comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, on Monday heard the Federation's appeal against the Peshawar High Court (PHC) order.

After the recusal of Justice Afridi from the bench, Justice Mushir Alam referred the matter to Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed for constituting another bench for hearing of the appeals against the PHC order.

The top court on July 21 had suspended the PHC order to release 196 persons, convicted by the military courts on terrorism charges.

The apex court had directed the federal government to furnish complete details of the persons released by the PHC, when the additional attorney-general told that 196 individuals were still in jail.

The PHC, earlier this month, overturned the convictions of 196 individuals who had been sentenced by the military courts, and ordered their release.

The court, in its verdict, mentioned that those people were accused on the basis of a confessional statement as they were not provided fair trial.

In March, in another case, the apex court sought from the Ministry of Defence, the complete record on the allegations against the persons convicted by the military courts and the details of the evidence supporting the convictions.

The PHC had earlier also upheld several cases of military convictions in 2018, where the SC had to intervene as well.

On November 2, 2018, the apex court had restrained the jail authorities to release 70 terror suspects, convicted by the military courts, involved in various terrorist activities in the country.

A two-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed had heard appeals of the Defence Ministry against the verdict of the PHC, acquitting all the 68 terror suspects released by the military courts due to lack of evidence.

The PHC had overturned the death sentence of around 70 people convicted by the military courts on terrorism charges, and declared that all those were cases of no evidence and based on the malice of facts and law.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020