The Supreme Court’s (SC) constitutional bench conditionally allowed on Friday military courts to announce reserved verdicts of 85 civilians who were still in custody for their alleged involvement in the May 9 riots.
A seven-judge constitutional bench of the SC, headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan, and comprising Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, Justice Mussarat Hilali, and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan heard the intra-court appeals (ICAs) against the SC’s judgment on military courts.
During the hearing today, the bench said that suspects who can be accorded concessions in their sentences should be given so and released.
“Suspects who cannot be released should be moved to jails once their sentence has been pronounced,” Justice Aminuddin said.
On Thursday, Justice Mandokhail questioned how a civilian, not in the armed forces, can be tried by military courts and raised concerns over the legitimacy of trying civilians under the Army Act.
During the proceeding, Justice Mandokhail observed that the entire case related to military courts revolves around Article 8.
“How a person not in the armed forces can be tried under Army Act?” he questioned.
The case is related to the military trials of the civilians accused in May 9 riots after the arrest of former prime minister Imran khan in which the protesters damaged several military and state installations, including the Corps Commander’s residence (Jinnah House) in Lahore and the gates of the military’s General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi.
Last year, the SC declared the military trials of the civilians who were arrested null and void.
However, on December 13 last year, the SC conditionally suspended its own ruling.
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