PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday postponed announcing its decision in over 220 appeals against military court convicts.
A two-member bench headed by PHC Chief Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth and comprising Justice Ijaz Anwar was scheduled to announce the verdict on Tuesday, however Additional Attorney General Qazi Babar Irshad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Advocate General Shumail Ahmed Butt submitted raised objections on the high court’s jurisdiction to hear appeals against military court decisions.
Citing Article 199 (5) of the Constitution, they said the high court would be violating the constitution if it announced the verdict.
The government’s counsel also argued that a Defence Ministry plea against a similar PHC verdict was being heard by the Supreme Court (SC) and sought an adjournment until the top court decides on the matter. But Justice Seth noted that the appeals in PHC and the apex court were separate matters.
Meanwhile, a representative of the Defence Ministry lamented over absence of convicts’ counsels in the hearings. He submitted records pertaining to the cases in review appeals.
The bench admitted the written arguments by the law officials and records by the Defence Ministry and adjourned the hearing till Wednesday.
Additional Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti on Monday had requested the SC bench hearing the Defence Ministry’s plea against the October 2018 decision acquitting 73 military court convicts, to restrain the high court from delivering its verdict.
But the three-judge bench led by Justice Mushir Alam and comprising Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan had dismissed the request, asserting that the apex court could not stop the high court from announcing its verdict.
The PHC verdict authored by Justice Seth was also submitted by the Government of Pakistan as evidence that military court verdicts can be reviewed before an International Court of Justice bench – which led to Pakistan’s victory in the Kulbhushan Jhadav case.
