Military trial of civilians: Civil society urges reconstitution of bench hearing case

ISLAMABAD: Members of the civil societies on Thursday requested for re-constituting the bench hearing the intra-court appeals against the judgment declaring the trials of 103 civilians in military courts as unconstitutional.

Representatives of civil societies who include the petitioners including Karamat Ali, Zaman Khan Vardag and others who had challenged the trials of civilians in military courts wrote a letter requesting placing it before the three-member Committee with the request that the six-member bench which will hear the intra-court appeals in the third week of January should be reconstituted by the Committee by Section 2 of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023.

Filed through their counsel Faisal Siddiqui, they submitted that by the principles of transparency, openness and the fundamental right to information, this letter will also be released to the media.

This act by our clients is in line with the practice of Committee as well as uploading of the Note by Justice Ijazul Ahsan, for the benefit of the public and media.

On December 13 a six-member larger bench of the apex court headed by Justice Sardar Tariq Masood had conditionally suspended judgment delivered on October 23 declaring the trials of 103 civilians in military courts as unconstitutional.