GHQ attack case: Access to trial documents: LHC rejects plea

Petitioners’ counsel given access.

RAWALPINDI:

A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday dismissed the appeals of four men convicted in the 2009 GHQ attack case. They  had requested provision of documents from their military trial’s proceedings.

Earlier on February 16, the high court had rejected their appeals. Aqeel Ahmed alias Dr Usman, Muhammad Usman alias Ishfaq, Wajid Mehmood and Muhammad Khaleequr Rehman had challenged the verdict and urged the court to direct the military authorities to try them.

The two member bench, comprising of Justice Khawaja Imtiaz Ahmed and Justice Chadhry Muhammad Younis, of the high court did not hear the appeals against an earlier order of the LHC after an officer of the Judge Advocate General (JAG) branch of GHQ maintained that under Pakistan Army Act, the accused could not be granted trial proceedings after their applications had been turned down by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS).

Making the defence secretary and Judge Advocate General (JAG) as respondents, the petitioners had urged the two-member bench to set aside the earlier order and not allow military authorities from constituting an army court of appeal, to hear the pleas of the convicted men, before they (petitioners) were given access to the trial documents.

The LHC’s earlier ruling was based on the response from the JAG, who said the COAS had denied the provision of trial documents to the convicted men under army rules.

The petitioners stated before the court that on March 1, JAG wrote a letter asking them to appear before an Army Court of Appeal on March 10 for the final hearing of their appeals against the August 11 Field General Court Marshal (FGCM) decision.

In its response, JAG maintained that the COAS had denied the provision of trial documents to the convicted men under army rules but the counsel for the convicted men would be allowed to see and study the documents to prepare for appeals.

The military authorities had charged Ahmed, Rehman, Usman, Mehmood, and Imran Siddiqi, Muhammad Adnan and Muhammad Tahir Shafique with 17 different charges ranging from murder, terrorism and taking hostages, to deserting the army and launching an attack on the armed forces on October 10, 2009.

In August 2011, the court sentenced Ahmed to death, Siddiqi, Rehman, Usman and Mehmood to life, and the other two to 10-year jail terms.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 9^th, 2012.