At least 13 high profile terrorism cases have been transferred to military courts from anti-terrorism courts (ATC) in Sindh, including the Nishtar Park incident case of 2006.
Per details, seven cases from Karachi and six from Sukkur have been transferred to military courts, which included Sachal bomb blast, attacks on anti-polio teams, multiple murder cases and the Nishtar Park tragedy.
The transferred cases involved members of hardened militant organisations, including Pakistan Tekreek-e-Taliban (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). Moreover, the cases of other top militants like Ameen alias Muawiya, Mumtaz alias Firoun, and Ishaq Bobby (sentenced to death in the Amjad Sabri murder case) and three other cases, have also been transferred.
It is pertinent to mention here that 15 other terrorism cases would now be heard in military courts.
The anti-terrorism court (ATC) and the session court have obtained the list of the cases, while the advocate general had approached the court to obtain the case files and to take the suspects into custody.
According to data shared by the Ministry of Defence during question hour in the National Assembly, the military courts have handled a total of 486 cases since its inception in 2015. The military courts, which were set up through the passage of a constitutional amendment, have decided the fate of 333 cases so far. As a result, capital punishment was awarded to 186 persons.
The request to share details of cases pending in the military court was made to the defence ministry by member of National Assembly (MNA) Abdul Qahar Khan Wadan.
In reply, the ministry informed that 101 cases were pending in the military courts, while 52 cases had been binned. It also stated that 79 individuals were awarded life imprisonment by the military courts while awarding jail sentences to 47 convicts for 20 years.
In addition, the defence ministry data showed that military courts awarded jail sentence to one person for 18 years, another was jailed for 16 years, around 13 individuals were imprisoned for 14 years, three persons for 10 years, and two convicts for seven years.