ISLAMABAD: On Monday August 29 Supreme Court rejected the appeals of 17 military court convicts against death sentences.
A five-member bench presided by the Chief Justice, Anwar Zaheer Jamali, had heard the case and completed the proceedings of the case on 20th June and reserved the decision.
The 32 death row convicts were involved in the Bannu Jail Break, the Army Public School Attack, kidnapping for ransom, attacks on security personnel and other terrorist activities.
One of the petitioners was allegedly taken into custody by Military Intelligence from Kurri Road in 2014. His family was later informed through an unknown telephone call that he had been awarded death sentence at the Adyala Jail, the appeal stated.
The convicts and their relatives had pleaded to the court that they had been denied right to fair trial.
Asma Jehangir, Abdul Latif Afridi, Khalid Anwar Afridi, Naseemullah Khan, Ahmed Nawaz Chaudhry and other advocates had represented the petitioners.
The 182-page verdict by the SC said that military courts were established through the Army Act. It said that the accused were given the right to defend themselves, and the verdict by the military court did not find any irregularities. “This is not a case of insufficient evidence,” it read.
Additional Advocate General Attique Shah representing the federation had argued that there was no violation of law and rules. He said that the federal government had referred the cases to the military courts after the 21st Amendment and promulgation of Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act 2015.