SC to take up civilians’ military trial pleas on 8th

The three-judge Practice and Procedure Committee of the Supreme Court on Tuesday formed two larger benches – one to hear the appeals in the civilians being tried in military courts on July 8 and the other to take up the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) on the issue of tribunals on July 4.

A seven-judge bench, Justice Aminuddin Khan, will take up the intra-court appeals filed against the SC’s judgment in the case of civilians being court-martialled.

The other judges on the larger bench include Justices Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Shahid Waheed, Irfan Saadat Khan, and Shahid Bilal Hassan.

Justices Mandokhail and Shahid Bilal are the new judges on the bench.

It declared that the final decision of the trial of civilians in military courts would be subject to the final ruling.

Justice Hilali, who was a member of that bench, however, dissented from the majority view.

To take up the ECP’s plea in connection with the appointment of judges to election tribunals, a five-member larger bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, has been formed. The other judges on the bench include Justices Aminuddin Khan, Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Naeem Akhtar Afghan, and Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi.

On May 29, the Lahore High Court held that under Article 219(C) read with Article 222(B) of the Constitution, its chief justice had the pre-eminence in the appointment of the election tribunals under Section 140 of the Elections Act, 2017.

However, the ECP challenged the LHC decision, seeking the apex court’s ruling to determine whether the commission or the high court had the final say in the appointment of tribunals, which were meant to hear the challenges to the election results.

Last month, a two-member SC bench, while refusing to suspend the LHC’s order, referred the plea to about election tribunals to the three-judge panel for the formation of a larger bench.