KARACHI: The Sindh High Court put the attorney general of Pakistan on notice on the appeals of five condemned prisoners who have challenged their death sentences handed down in the Safoora Goth bus carnage and murder of a social activist, Sabeen Mahmud.
A division bench headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M Shiekh issued notices to the attorney general to file his response to the appeals by Jan 62.
The five suspects, including Saad Aziz alias Tin Tin, Tahir Hussain Minhas alias Sain, Asadur Rehman alias Malik and Mohammad Azhar Ishrat alias Majid, have been condemned to death by the military court.
They had shot dead around 45 members of the Ismaili community in May 2015.
In the identical appeals, they submitted that they were tried by the military court, set-up at the Malir cantonment and handed down death sentence. Subsequently, they were shifted to the Karachi central prison, where they were given the appeal format to file the same before the registrar, court of appeals of Judge Advocate-General of the General Headquarters of Army.
Their counsel said that later in August they were informed that their appeals had been turned down on July 25, 2016, and capital punishment has been upheld. They challenged the decision before the Lahore High Court, but their appeals were rejected for not being maintainable with regard to jurisdiction since the offence was committed and trial was conducted within the jurisdictions of SHC.
He said that the military court’s decision condemning appellants to death was not maintainable in the eyes of the law since they were tried under the Protection of Pakistan Act, 2014, which has expired now. Moreover, the counsel said that the petitioners were not associated with any terrorist organisation, nor were they a terrorist group using the name of religion or any sect or were waging war against Pakistan as held by the joint investigation team.
“The appellants were illegally tried in the absence of counsel in violation of Article 10 of the Constitution, as they were also kept in communicado during their trial and investigation.” “The appellants’ right to fair trial under Article 10-A has also been violated.”
The counsel argued that the apex court had also held in a case that an accused cannot be denied meeting with family under Note-7 appended to Section 73 of the Pakistan Army Act.
The appellants pleaded to the court to summon the record and proceedings of the military court trial for its perusal and set aside the conviction.
The military court had exonerated three others – former Fishermen Cooperative Society vice-chairman Sultan Qamar Siddiqui, his brother Hussain Qamar Siddiqui and Sajid Naeem from the charges of allegedly facilitating the main accused.
Sabeen Mahmud, prominent social activist was gunned down in April 2015 in Defence Housing Authority when returning home with her mother. She had also founded the social forum T2F.