SHC seeks defence ministry’s response over Safoora convicts’ pleas

Convicts have filed appeals against their death sentences awarded by the military court

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) while hearing the appeals filed by death row convicts of the Safoora Goth carnage on Friday, sought a reply from the defence ministry over the convicts' pleas. The court also advised the petitioners' counsel to present arguments to support why the pleas should be heard.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Mahmood A Khan and Justice KK Agha, heard the case in Karachi, where the convicts' appeals against military court's death sentences were presented.

The petitioner's counsel maintained that the prosecution had not furnished the requisite documents to the defence until now. On the other hand, the Assistant Attorney-General said that the documents were classified which is why they could only be shown to the court in an in-camera session. The defence counsel maintained that the prosecution had only presented documents of only one case.

The court, after hearing the arguments, sought a reply from the defence ministry on all the petitions, while advising the petitioner's counsel of the petitioner to present his arguments on September 17.

A military court had awarded death sentences to Saad Aziz, Tahir Minhas, Azhar Ishrat, Hafiz Nasir and Asadur Rehman after convicting them in the Safoora Goth terror case.

In the subsequent petitions filed in the high court, the defence maintained that the covicts' families had not been presented with the detailed evidence supporting the verdict. The families must be allowed to meet the convicts and the executions must be halted, the appeal maintained, requesting the court to allow time to file the appeals in light of the Supreme Court's orders. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2019.