ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has transferred all the 68 cases related to the armed forces from its Rawalpindi registry to the principal seat in Lahore.

According to a list issued by the LHC, 44 of the cases related to the Pakistan Army Act, 21 to Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Act and three to the Navy Act.

LHC spokesman M. B. Shahid told Dawn that during the hearing of a petition the LHC bench decided to take up the cases by a larger bench in Lahore.

It may be noted that during the hearing of an application filed by the PAF legal branch relating to the premature retirement of Squadron Leader Akhtar Abbas, the LHC bench took the decision after the PAF counsel contended that because of the constitutional bar of Article 199 (3) the court cannot entertain the petition.

Full bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah will hear the cases

Article 199 (3) says: “An order shall not be made… on application made by or in relation to a person who is a member of Armed Forces of Pakistan or who is for the time being subject to any law relating to any of those forces.”

The lawyers concerned have been informed about the transfer of the cases through short message service (SMS). The message says: “One or more cases of your have been fixed in full bench headed by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah.”

The message stunned the lawyers and some of them asked the LHC bar association to take up the matter at an ‘appropriate level’.

Following were the prominent cases which have been transferred to the principal seat of the LHC.

GHQ attack case

Appeals of two convicts – soldier Imran Siddiq and civilian Tahir Shafiq – against the decision of a military court. The military court in Rawalpindi in December 2012 sentenced to death former soldiers Aqeel alias Dr Usman and Imran Siddiq over the GHQ attack in 2009 and awarded prison terms to seven others.

Three civilians — Khaliqur Rehman, Mohammad Usman and Wajid Mehmood — were handed down life terms while two others, Mohammad Adnan and Tahir Shafiq, got eight and seven years jail sentences, respectively.

The LHC division bench in August last year dismissed the appeals of Aqeel, Khaliqur Rehman, Usman, Mehmood and Adnan.

Siddiq and Shafiq recently filed the petition with the LHC, which was admitted for regular hearing. The court has also issued notices to the military authorities.

Both of them have been accused of disclosing different locations of the GHQ to the militants.

They were caught after a raid on the GHQ by militants. Eleven soldiers lost their lives in the attack when 10 heavily-armed militants, wearing suicide vests, stormed the GHQ.

Pre-mature retirement case

The PAF cases transferred to principal seat included petitions of the squadron leaders seeking premature retirement. According to the identical petitions, the PAF officers alleged that a number of well-connected officers were given premature retirement. The authorities rejected their applications for early retirement.

Court martial

As per the petition of Naib Subedar Ilyas, he was facing court martial proceedings for allegedly embezzling Rs45 million.

His petition claimed that Ilyas had been retired by the department and could not be tried under the Pakistan Army Act. The military authorities were of the view that since the matter pertained to the army, it would be inappropriate to attempt to save a wrongdoer from being punished, particularly when the trial had been concluded and only judgment was to be delivered. The LHC in December last year restrained the military court from announcing an order in the matter.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2014