‘Men court-martialled for assassination bid’: SC disposes of illegal detention case
By Nasir Iqbal
ISLAMABAD, Dec 6: The Supreme Court was told on Wednesday that a civilian arrested nearly three years ago for his involvement in the first organised attempt on the life of President General Pervez Musharraf in December 2003 has been tried and sentenced to death at a court martial.
A representative of the armed forces, while making the disclosure before a Supreme Court bench, did not give details about when and where Sarwar Bhatti was tried and on what specific charges.
Earlier, a number of low-ranking air force and army personnel and a few civilians were tried by different courts martial on charges related to the same assassination bid on December 14, 2003 over Chanda Chichi Bridge in Rawalpindi, and sentenced to various terms, ranging from death to imprisonment.
However, the military representative told the court that an army officer, Major Adil Quddus, whose release was also demanded through an identical petition, was tried by a court martial under the Army Act and sentenced to 10-year imprisonment. Although nothing was said about the nature of charges against him, it appeared from the testimony that Sarwar Bhatti and the army officer were tried separately in unrelated cases.A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Sayed Saeed Ashhad was hearing the requests of wives and other relatives of six army officers and a civilian for intervention in what they called gross violations of law and the Constitution by the military authorities.
The petitions were filed by Ms Yasmin Khalid, wife of Col Khalid Mahmood Abbasi; Ms Abida Parveen, wife of Lt-Col Abdul Ghaffar Khan; Ms Mumtaz Attaullah, wife of Maj Attaullah Khan Mehmood; Ms Farina Ruhail Faraz, wife of Maj Ruhail Faraz; Ms Khadija Adil, wife of Maj Adil Quddus Khan; Ms Farzana Tasneem, mother of Capt Dr Usman Zafar; and Sadia Sarwar Bhatti, wife of Sarwar Bhatti.
The armed forces representative, who gave the statement before the Supreme Court bench, also disclosed that two other colonels, two majors and a captain detained from different places in connection with various investigations had since been released. He did not specify the allegations against them, but the lawyer for the petitioners said those released from detention had also been dismissed from service.
The Supreme Court bench, after hearing the testimony of the armed forces representatives, disposed of the matter with an observation that no action was called for. However, the apex court allowed the released officers to approach an appropriate forum to challenge their illegal detentions.
Advocate Mohammed Ikram Chaudhry had moved the appeals on behalf of the relatives of the army officers and the civilian with a request for immediate production of these officers before the apex court.
In their applications, they alleged that the detained officers were being kept in solitary confinement without any charge, and the food items sent by the family members were always returned by the authorities.
The family members were also in great mental and physical agony as early release of detained personnel was not in sight, they contended.
They had alleged that respondents were not even prepared to take the court into confidence and had refused to provide any information about the accused except that they were being held with the Army authorities.
At the last hearing, the state had requested the Supreme Court to dismiss their appeals as no violation of any fundamental right had taken place since they were taken into custody for involvement in offences under the Pakistan Army Act 1952 and that the accused were aware of their offence.
Earlier, the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court had dismissed their petitions on the grounds that Section 2-d of the Army Act 1952 had taken away the jurisdiction of the court to proceed with their petitions.
