PHC sets aside 200 convictions by military courts.

Byline: Waseem Ahmad Shah

PESHAWAR -- A Peshawar High Court (PHC) bench on Tuesday set aside convictions of around 200 suspected militants by military courts and ordered the relevant authorities to set them free if not required in any other case.

Most of these convicts were either sentenced to death or different prison terms including life sentence.

The PHC division bench comprising Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar pronounced a short order after completion of arguments by all parties in the cases.

A detailed judgement will be released later.

The court had accepted around 200 petitions filed by the convicts or their close family members from time to time, challenging their respective convictions by military courts in cases of terrorism and seeking their release.

The bench, however, adjourned hearing of around 100 petitions wherein the Ministry of Defence has yet to produce the relevant record.

Issues short order for release of suspects

The court had already granted interim relief to the convicts and stayed their executions on different dates.

The cases continued to linger on for around 20 months during which the government had frequently been challenging different orders of the high court before the Supreme Court.

Recently, the government requeAsted the apex court to stay the PHC proceedings till the Supreme Court decision on appeals filed against the earlier judgments of the high court. However, the Supreme Court turned down the government request, allowing the PHC to continue with the hearing of the petitions.

A number of lawyers appeared for the petitioners, including Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, Arif Jan, Ali Gohar Durrani, Naqeebullah Takkar, Ziaur Rehman Tajik, Danyal Asad Chamkani, Barrister Amirullah Chamkani, Naveed Akhtar and Sajeed Afridi.

Additional Attorney General for Pakistan Qazi Babar Irshad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Advocate General Shumail Ahmad Butt represented the federal and provincial governments, respectively.

The counsel for the petitioners had already submitted written arguments in accordance with an earlier court order.

Earlier on Oct 18, 2018, the PHC accepted 75 other writ...

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