ISLAMABAD: A three-judge special bench of the apex court on February 15 will take up the constitutional petitions of two colonels of the Pakistan army against their convictions by the Field General Court Martial (FGCM), withholding their pension, and the confiscation of their properties.
The Supreme Court on January 18 had given two-week time to the federal government for submitting written arguments on the petition of two colonels - Col Inayatullah and Col Azad, who were arrested and charged for plotting to overthrow the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government of (late) Benazir Bhutto, in 1995.
The bench had directed the Additional Attorney General (AAG) Sajid Illyas Bhatti to share the arguments with the petitioners before the next date of the hearing.
Col Inayatullah and Col Azad were arrested along with Major General Zaheerul Islam Abbasi (retired), Brigadier Mustansir Billah, and about 38 other military officers on September 26, 1995, on charges of plotting to overthrow Benazir’s government and to storm a meeting of corps commanders at the general headquarters in Rawalpindi.
Benazir govt toppling conspiracy: SC gives govt time to submit arguments
The alleged plan also included assassination of prime minister Benazir and the then army chief General Abdul Waheed Kakar, senior cabinet ministers and military chiefs, besides, proclamation of a ‘Khilafat’ with Major General Abbasi as Amir. Qari Saifullah Akhtar, one of the conspirators and chief of his breakaway faction called Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami, later spilled the beans after he turned an “approver” in the case.
Col Inayatullah said that the FGCM had awarded him a four-year sentence, which he had completed in 1998. He said that the constitutional petition was filed in the Supreme Court in 2000, and since that time it is pending.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry on January 8, 2013 had dismissed review pleas of Major General (retired) Zaheerul Islam Abbasi, his wife Shahida Zaheer, Brigadier (retired) Mustansir Billah, and Colonel (retired) Inayatullah Khan against their convictions.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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