Military court trials: 7-member SC bench adjourns hearing

The Supreme Court (SC) adjourned on Thursday a brief hearing of a set of petitions challenging the trial of civilians in military courts.

Earlier, a nine-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, and comprising Justice Qazi Faez Isa, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, and Justice Ayesha A Malik heard the petitions today.

However, once the hearing commenced, Justice Isa said that he was surprised to see his name on the cause list for this hearing at 8pm on Wednesday.

He said he does not accept today’s court, adding that he did not object to the hearing but could not sit on the bench.

Justice Isa stated that he did not consider “this [nine-member] bench a bench’’.

Justice Tariq Masood also expressed his agreement with Justice Isa and said the petitions against the review bill must be heard first.

The Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023 is aimed at curtailing CJP’s powers and it was passed by a joint parliament session last month. The SC challenged it, urging it to be declared unconstitutional and of no legal effect.

The hearing was then adjourned after all the judges left the courtroom.

However, the chief justice formed a fresh seven-member bench, excluding Justices Isa and Masood.

On May 9, after the arrest of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan from the premises of Islamabad High Court (IHC), PTI supporters thronged the streets in protest.

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.

The army’s top leadership and the federal government reacted strongly to the attacks on army installations and called for the severest punishment under the law for those allegedly involved.

Former chief justice of Pakistan Jawwad S Khawaja, senior lawyer Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Imran, and the members of civil society have already filed the petitions under Article 184 (3) of the constitution before the apex court, asking it to declare that the trials of the civilians arrested in light of May 9 and 10 violent protests under the Army Act and Official Secrets Act are violative of Article 25 of the constitution, until and unless legal and reasonable guidelines are framed to structure the discretion not to arbitrarily try civilians under the Army Act.

Imran will face military courts

On May 30, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah while appearing on Dawn News show Live with Adil Shahzeb, claimed that Imran personally planned the attacks on military installations before he was arrested, and there was evidence to support this claim.

Asked if Imran would be tried in a military court, Sanaullah replied: “Absolutely, why not?”.

“My understanding is that the plan he developed to target military installations and then executed is a military case.”

However, the PTI chief refutes the government’s allegations and claims that the attacks on military installations were pre-planned to justify the crackdown on his party.