Military Court Verdict: LHC seeks reply from Interior Ministry

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday sought a reply from the Interior Ministry over a petition filed against the verdict of a military court. A division bench of LHC heard the petition filed by Laila Bibi, mother of the convict Sabir Shah, sentenced to death by the military court for killing a lawyer, Arshad Shah, in 2013 in Lahore. The petitioner challenged the decision stating that her son was juvenile and had been denied the right to a fair trial. Advocate Zia Ali Bajwa, the petitioner’s counsel, said that Laila had learned about her son’s conviction on September 2 through a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations. “The verdict was announced in the absence of co-accused Abdur Rauf. Only my son was convicted and awarded death sentence. This is unlawful. He was not allowed to meet his family. Nor was he given a chance to hire a counsel to plead his case in the court,” the petitioner said. She also requested the court to summon the trial record. After hearing the arguments, the court issued a notice to the Interior Ministry and sought a reply by September 10.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2015.