The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has moved the Supreme Court (SC) against the operations of military courts established in the country following the massacre at Army Public School (APS), Peshawar.
In this regard, the association filed a petition on Wednesday through its secretary, Chaudhry Muhammad Maqsood Ahmed, against the federation of Pakistan.
The petition comes nearly two weeks after the newly-established courts sentenced six alleged Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants to death under the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act, 2015.
Challenging the fairness of trial, the petition alleges that the rights of the accused were not protected in the process. The petitioner was unable to find provisions on whether articles 12, 13 and 14 of the Constitution were applied during the trial in military courts to safeguard prisoners’ fundamental rights.
It also states that established principles guaranteed under Article 10-A of the Constitution were not being observed in military courts.
The petitioner has questioned if the accused were informed of the grounds of their arrest and if they were granted right to consult and be defended by a legal practitioner of their choice. SCBA has also questioned if the accused were produced before a magistrate within a period of 24 hours.
The petition also raises brows over the possibility of torture on the accused for extracting evidence and confessions.
“The recent trials of the military courts are neither public nor transparent. The courts do not ordinarily observe principles of due process, thus the apprehensions of the petitioner are genuine and have merit,” the petition concludes.
