Death sentences : LHC admits petitions against three military court verdicts

An unrelated petition against another death sentence was rejected

RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench on Thursday admitted petitions filed by three persons against death sentences handed down by military courts.

Justice Abdul Sami Khan admitted the petitions filed by Javaid Iqbal Ghuari, Kalsoom Bibi, and Said Zaman after their lawyer Advocate Colonel (retired) Inam-ur-Rahim maintained before the court that due course of law was not followed when they were tried in military courts.

The office of the LHC registrar had raised an objection against the petitions, saying that writ petitions could not be filed in the high court against military court verdicts.  After hearing the arguments of Advocate Rahim, however, Justice Khan admitted the petitions and set January 25 for the next hearing.

According to available information, Javiad Iqbal Ghauri, a former employee of the Federal Ministry of Information, informed the court that his son Muhammad Ghauri was a student in Islamabad. He said his son went missing a few years ago and he had no clue of his whereabouts.

Ghauri said that in 2014, he was informed that his son was in the custody of intelligence agencies. He said that he was also informed that a military court had tried, convicted, and sentenced his son to death.

The petitioner said that a meeting was arranged with his son two years ago. He noted that his son had become disabled. He said that he had not seen his son for the last two years.

Separately, Justice Khan issued notices to the Adiala jail superintendent, asking for a response to the petition filed by Said Zaman.

Advocate Rahim, representing the petitioner, said he approached the jail superintendent to get legal documents signed by Zaman, but the official did not allow him to see his client. The lawyer said that the jail authorities told him that Zaman’s appeals against his death penalty had already been cancelled.

Kalsoom Bibi, a resident of Jacobabad, stated in her petition that her son Abdul Qayyum had been given the death penalty by a military court. She said that she had no access to her son and did not know why he had been given a death sentence.

Meanwhile, Justice Khan disposed off a petition filed by Musarat Bibi, a resident of Okara. The court asked her to file an appeal against the death penalty awarded to her son by a military court before the concerned authorities.

In her petition, Musarat Bibi had maintained that her son Aqson Mahboob went missing from Lahore on July 14, 2014. Later, she learnt that Raiwind police had killed her son in an encounter. However, she was against informed that her son was alive and was given death sentence on January 1, 2016.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd,  2016.