Supreme Court urged to form larger bench for hearing appeals

Source: The Nation

ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court of Pakistan was Monday requested to form a larger bench for hearing of appeals against the SC judgment in trials of individu­als before the military courts.

A six-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan and comprising Justice Mu­hammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Syed Azhar Hasan Rizvi, Justice Shahid Waheed, Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Irfan Saadat Khan conducted hearing of in­tra-court appeals (ICAs) against the SC October 23 verdict. During the proceeding, Khawaja Hassan, appearing on behalf of former Chief Justice of Pa­kistan Jawad S Khawaja, said the families of 103 individuals, are in the custody of military, wanted to attend the proceedings. He requested the court to allow them to come to the court to witness the proceedings. Justice Amin said that there is an is­sue of space, as the lawyers representing them are already before the court. He added that if they al­low the detainees' families, then the court would be overcrowded. Salman Akram Raja, represent­ing some detainees, argued that attorney gener­al should file a certificate to engage the external counsels. He said that Justice Yahya Afridi, who was member of five-judge bench, which declared that civilians' trial by the military courts is unlaw­ful, in his note had written that the matter should be heard by 8-judge bench, as the decision in F.B. Ali case was of 7-member bench. Kh Hassan, sup­porting the arguments of Salman, requested the judges committee to constitute larger bench of more than eight judges of the apex court. He fur­ther said that not only Justice Yahya, but also Jus­tice Mansoor Ali Shah wrote in their orders that there should be a bench consisting of all the avail­able judges. Justice Amin told the AGP that on the next date they would take up the acquittal issue first and later on will hear the arguments on the legality of the petitions. During the hearing, Khy­ber Pakhtunkhwa's Advocate General Shah Fais­al Uthmankhel said that he wanted to withdraw his government's appeal in the trials by military courts case as the KP Cabinet had passed a reso­lution in this regard. He added, "We want to with­draw the intra-court appeals." At this the court noted that the ICAs could not be withdrawn based on a cabinet resolution and told the lawyer to file an official application for withdrawal.