PHC suspends death sentence by military court

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday stayed the execution of another convict by suspending the death sentence awarded by a military court for his involvement in terrorist activities.

A division bench comprising Justice Qalandar Ali Khan and Justice Muhammad Ayub stayed the execution of the convict Shakirullah, a resident of Lower Dir, presently living in Peshawar. The appeal was filed through Sadaqat Begum, wife of the convict.

In the short order, the bench stated that the petitioner wife claimed that her husband Shakirullah, had been sentenced to death by a military court and the communication was conveyed to her on June 11, last month.

“The lawyer for the petitioner Akhunzada Asad Iqbal contended that the conviction had been awarded without [following the] due process of law and without providing ample opportunity of defence to the petitioner’s husband. Therefore, the petition is admitted for [a] regular hearing and notice issued to the respondent for submission record of the case,” the order stated.

As an interim relief, the bench suspended the death sentence till the next order of the court.

In the petition, it was claimed that Syed Ali Shah, the brother of the convict, on April 29, 2010 filed a complaint of his brother’s missing at the Paharipura Police Station in Peshawar. It said that in 2012 the police registered a proper case.

The petitioner claimed that she then filed cases for safe recovery of her husband in the Peshawar High Court and Supreme Court, but to no avail.

The woman claimed in the cases that her husband Shakirullah had left his house along with his friend Samiullah for a medical checkup of the latter’s wife. She said that Samiullah’s wife then told her that both had been picked up by the security forces on the Dilazak Road.

However, it was submitted in the petition that now the petitioner had received information from the Internment Centre at Kohat that a military court had awarded Shakirullah the death sentence, which she challenged in the high court.