The Supreme Court on Thursday conditionally allowed military courts to issue reserved verdicts in cases involving civilians detained for their alleged involvement in the May 9 riots.
He ordered that sentences be announced in cases where the named suspects could be released before Eid.
The court issued the directives as it heard a number of intra-judicial appeals (ICA) against its unanimous October 23 ruling quashing the military trials of civilians involved in the May 9 riots.
The trial was presided over by a six-member bench – headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan and comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Syed Azhar Hasan Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Irfan Saadat Khan.
The case involves the trial of more than 100 civilians for their alleged role in attacks on army installations during the unrest that followed the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan on May 9 last year.
In a widely praised judgment last year, a five-judge SC bench – comprising Justices Ijazul Ahsan, Munib Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Ayesha Malik – unanimously declared that trying accused civilians in military courts was ultra vires the Constitution.
The Supreme Court declared that the accused would not be tried by military courts but by criminal courts of competent jurisdiction established under the general or special law of the land.
On December 13, in a 5-1 majority verdict, the SC conditionally stayed its October 23 decision pending its final judgment as it heard the ICA line.
Appeals against the verdict were filed by the then caretaker federal government as well as the provincial governments of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. Sindh denied filing a putative plea in the same matter and it was not included in the petitions that were initiated earlier. The Ministry of Defense also moved the ICA and asked the apex court to stay the verdict during the pendency of the appeal.
In January, Faisal Siddiqui filed on behalf of some of those challenging the lawsuits to prevent the federal and provincial governments from hiring private counsel to defend the case.
On January 29, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, who has since retired, referred the ICA back to a three-member commission to constitute a larger bench.
Earlier this month, former CJP Jawwad S. Khawaja, who is one of the petitioners challenging the military trials, asked the apex court for an early hearing of the appeal, arguing that the continued presence of civilians in military custody was “beyond compensation”. “.
In the last hearing, the SC sought information from the federal government on how many civilians allegedly involved in the May 9 violence were either given short jail terms by military courts or were awaiting release under Section 382-B of the Act. CrPC, or outright acquitted.
During the same hearing, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Additional Advocate General Syed Kauser Ali Shah presented a letter written to him by KP Advocate General Shah Faisal Utmainkhel expressing the provincial government’s intention to withdraw its appeal against the October 23 decision.
