ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court’s constitutional bench on Friday granted conditional permission to military courts to pronounce their reserved verdicts of cases registered against 85 civilians who are allegedly in last year’s May 9 violence.
The constitutional bench, headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan, and comprising Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Musarrat Hilali, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan heard the petitions related to the trial of civilians in military courts.
The bench stated that the verdicts to be announced by the military courts would be subject to its final decision on the appeals against the Oct 2023 judgment.
Justice Aminuddin directed that the suspects, who can be given concessions in their sentences, should be released. He also said suspects, who cannot be released should be shifted to jail once the verdict is announced in their cases by military courts.
Last year, a five-member SC bench — comprising Justices Ijazul Ahsan, Munib Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Ayesha Malik — had unanimously ruled against the trial of civilians in the military courts, calling it a violation of the Constitutions.
However, on December 13, 2023, a different bench conditionally suspended its own Oct 23 verdict. Since then the intra court appeals are pending in the apex court.
