ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday conditionally suspended its verdict dated October 23, in which it had nullified the trial of civilian accused in the army courts.
The Supreme Court allowed the trial of civilians to continue in military courts, but the final decision regarding the trial would be subject to the judgment of the apex court.
The court said that the trial of 103 civilians accused of May 9 riots would continue in army courts but the final judgments wouldn’t be issued till the decision of the top court.
A six-member larger bench of the top court, headed by Justice Sardar Tariq Masood and comprising Justice Amin ud Din Khan, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Sadaat Irfan Khan heard the intra-court appeals against the verdict in army courts case.
The decision was suspended by a majority of 5-1, as Justice Musarrat Hilali dissented from it.
During the course of proceedings, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood remarked that those who martyred the military men would not be tried now because the law has been repealed. He questioned that under which law the trial of these civilians who killed 23 soldiers yesterday, be done now.
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He further said that after the repeal of Section 2 (1) D, where would the trial of terrorists be held.
Salman Akram Raja Advocate said that he would give arguments if he was allowed.
Defence Ministry’s lawyer Khawaja Haris argued that the judgment dated 23th October didn’t mention that under which Articles of the Constitutions, the provisions of Army Act were declared unconstitutional.
He said that in the case of Brig (reted) F.B Ali, the Army Act’s sections were upheld. A 17-member full court bench had also declared the judgments as correct during hearing a case pertaining to the 21st Amendment. The lawyer said that the top court had previously ruled that the trial of civilian accused could be held in an army court if the crime pertained to the military.
He requested the bench to allow to resume the military trials of those currently in custody of the military.
The AGP argued that not every civilian was being tried in a military court, adding that only those would be tried there who were a threat to national security.
Justice Masood said just wait for detailed verdict, about the Oct 23 order, which would be issued accordingly. To this, Haris said that then the court order (of Oct 23) should be suspended.
Sardar Latif Khosa objected to a stay order on the court’s Oct 23 order and said that the judges who took that decision were also from the Supreme Court.
Earlier, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood refused to recuse himself from the bench on the objection of former chief justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, who was also a petitioner in army court case.
Attorney General of Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan said that when there was no notice, how could the objection be heard. Those who objected were not even present, he said, adding it was better for the bench to start hearing the appeals first.
He prayed the court to conditionally allow the military trials of civilian suspects to be resumed.
The court earlier reserved its decision and later suspended the verdict dated October 23 while announcing the short order.
The court also served notices to respondents and adjourned the hearing till the third week of January.
It may be mentioned that federal government, defence ministry, interior ministry, Governments of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have filed intra-court appeals against the judgment of five-member bench, which had previously annulled the trial of civilian accused in army courts. APP
