PHC temporarily halts militant’s execution

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court issued a temporary injunction against the execution of a militant who was sentenced to death by a military court. It also issued a notice calling for a full record of the case and directed the authorities concerned to attach other similar cases with the case file.

The restraining order was issued by a division bench, headed by Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, at the hearing of a writ petition filed by the wife of the convicted militant, Mutabar Khan, through his counsel Sahibzada Asadullah.  During the hearing, Asadullah argued that tribal elders had handed over Khan to the security forces in 2009 in the Kabal area of Swat district.

According to him, the petitioner’s husband was accused of carrying out an attack on the security forces. He said that Khan was initially kept at an internment centre in the Dargai area of Malakand where his relatives were allowed to meet him. Asadullah argued that the last time his relatives had met him at Paitham internment centre and since then they were unaware of his whereabouts.

It also cited Article 10 A of the Constitution according to which he was entitled to a fair trial, which was denied to him. Contending that the sentence was illegal, the legal counsel requested the court to set it aside.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2016.