Justice Shahbir Akhtar of the Lahore High Court (LHC) in his short orders dismissed the petitions of four PAF men, Khalid Mehmood (chief technician), Nawazish Ali (carpool technician), Niaz Muhammad (junior technician) and Adnan Rashid (junior technician) convicted for capital punishment by a military court in the case of life attempt on President Musharraf.
They approached the LHC against their execution. The LHC observed that the petition is not maintainable under article 199(3) of the Constitution. Earlier, the LHC office had returned the petition after raising objection that final verdict by the appellate court had already been announced in the case, hence the petition could not be entertained by the august court.
The petitioners' counsel, Colonel Muhammad Akram (Retd) submitted the petition as objection case and the same was earlier placed before Justice Shahbir Akhtar, who after hearing the counsel, directed the office to fix the case before any bench for its disposal in accordance with the law. The petitioner's counsel requested the court to hear the petition, as objection had been removed but the court observed that it was duty of the office to fix the case before any bench for its disposal.
The office again fixed the case before Justice Shahbir Akhtar for its disposal in accordance with the law. The court after hearing the petitioners' counsel at length dismissed the petition in limine.
The petitioner's counsel contended before the court that confessional statements of the accused was taken after 131 days of the occurrence, hence the same could not be accepted in the eyes of law. He citing reference of a number of cases in support of his contentions submitted that the prosecution also failed to produce any legal or circumstantial evidence against the accused. He also contended before the court that the respondent military court also refused to provide them copies of the court proceedings.
The court asked the counsel as to why they remained silent on such action and had not challenged this action before the higher court.
The counsel contended that due to such circumstances they could not file review against the decision of the military court. He, therefore, prayed to the court to allow the petition and stayed the execution.
The court, after hearing the petitioner's counsel at length, dismissed the petitions in limine and observed that the detailed judgement would be announced later.
The incident took place near Rawalpindi in 2003, while decision of the case was announced on November 03, 2005. The court of appeal had announced its verdict on January 31, 2006 and convicted capital punishment to four of the petitioners and life imprisonment to Nasrullah (senior technician) and Karamdin (senior technician).