ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued stay on the execution of four men convicted by military courts for their involvement in different terrorist attacks in Pakistan.
A two-member bench headed by Justice Dost Muhammad heard appeals filed by four death row convicts.
Two men namely Ali Rehman and Taj Muhammad were convicted of facilitating the deadly attack on Army Public School (APC) in Peshawar on December 16, 2014 while Muhammad Zubair was involved in Nowshera bomb blast and Muhammad Ayaz was accused of opening fire on a security check post in Mohmand Agency.
During today’s proceeding, the defence lawayer argued that the concerned high court did not even looked into the record of appeals against the military tribunals’ decision.
The apex court observed that military courts should give a reason in their judgment.
Meanwhile, Justice Dost Muhammad issued notices to the attorney general of Pakistan as well as JAG branch to appear in court on February 16.
Earlier in December 2015, the authorities hanged four APS convicts at a high-security prison in the northwestern city of Kohat.
The attack on army-run school, which was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban, horrified the country and led the government to lift a 2008 moratorium on the death penalty. However, most of the nearly 300 people hanged since then have been convicted criminals, not militants.
The military courts were established as part of a crackdown on militancy following the massacre. Parliament had approved the use of the courts for the coming two years, and cases are referred to them by provincial governments. But some have called for the trials to be more transparent.
The International Commission of Jurists has condemned the military courts as “secret, opaque” and in violation of fair trial obligations. NNI
