GHQ attack: LHC dismisses petitions of five convicts

Constitution allows the army to withhold trial documents if it wants, says judge.

RAWALPINDI:

Petitions of five convicts in an attack on the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the army, looking to obtain their trial documents, were dismissed by the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday.

Justice Rauf Ahmed Sheikh of LHC Rawalpindi Bench set aside the petitions filed by Aqeel Ahmed, Tahir Shafique, Khalilur Rehman, Wajid Mehmood and Muhammad Usman, who had asked the court to direct armed authorities to provide them the trial documents, so that they may file appeals against their conviction.

GHQ Judge Advocate General argued that the Chief of Army Staff had denied the provision of trial documents to the convicted men under the army rules, as provisioned by the article 199-3 of the constitution. The article says the military authorities are not bound to provide all documents to the accused or the convicts.

Advocate Inamur Raheem, representing one of the petitioners, said they would file an intra-court appeal against the order.

The verdict will allow the army to constitute an appellant court to hear the appeals of the seven men convicted in August 2011. The LHC had stopped the military authorities from forming the court in October 2011.

The seven men were convicted by a Field General Court Marshal in 17 charges ranging from murder, terrorism, taking hostages, to deserting the army and launching an attack on armed forces on October 10, 2009.

Aqeel was sentenced to death, while Imran, Khaliq, Usman and Wajid were sentenced to life imprisonments. The remaining two were given 10-year jail terms.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2012.