Convict's death sentence by military court suspended by PHC

Lawyer argues that the convict was in custody when the attack took place

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday suspended the execution of a death row inmate, sentenced by a military court, after his family challenged his conviction as being ‘unfair’.

Jannat Karim, a resident of the Doaba area in Hangu Karim, was sentenced to death by a military court for his involvement in a 2017 attack on an Imambargah in Parachinar. Karim’s sentence was also confirmed by the army chief earlier this month.



PHC’s two-judge bench, comprising Justice Qalandar Ali Khan and Justice Arshad Ali Khan, after hearing the arguments of Karim’s attorney, Shabir Hussain Gigyani, directed the respondent to submit a complete record of the case.

The family, in the petition, argued that the convict was in custody of the security forces when the Imambargah attack took place and therefore he could not be involved.

“His confinement was even admitted by them in their reply to the high court in 2011 in the missing person’s writ petition,” the lawyer stated.

The attorney questioned how the military court justified conducting Karim’s trial when the military courts were themselves established in 2015 yet the convict had been in custody since 2011.



The PHC bench on Thursday issued notices to the army chief, the Ministry of Defence and the interior ministry to provide a complete record of the case at the next hearing.

The decision comes a day after PHC suspended Rawaz Khan’s death sentence over charges of involvement in terrorist acts. A week earlier the same court had suspended the sentence handed out to Shakir Ullah, a resident of Dir, over terrorism charges.