ISLAMABAD: The Rawalpindi registry of the Lahore High Court (LHC) stayed on Monday the execution of five death row convicts involved in killing seven army personnel in an attack on a military camp near Gujrat along the River Chenab.

The attack on the camp took place when a search party was looking for the body of an army pilot whose helicopter had crashed in May 2012. The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility for the attack.

The five convicts are: Ihsan Azeem, Asif Idrees, Amir Yousaf, Kamran Aslam and Umar Nadeem. Last year, a military court convicted them under the Pakistan Army Act, 1952. They are currently incarcerated at Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore.

On Monday, Laeeq Khan Swati, the counsel for the condemned men, argued that the military authorities had not provided his clients with documents relating to the proceedings of the trial.

This prompted Justice Arshad Mehmood Tabassum to direct the military authorities to provide them with copies of the military court’s proceedings and its judgment by the next hearing, which would be fixed by the registrar’s office.

Advocate Swati told Dawn that he had no written notification about the army chief having signed the men’s death warrants and had come to know through the media that they were set to be hanged. He argued that the right to a fair trial was guaranteed under Article 10-A of the Constitution.

He alleged that the trial of his clients had been conducted by Field General Court Martial and later their appeals were dismissed by the military court of appeals without providing them a copy of the proceedings and the judgment. Their appeals were dismissed by the military court of appeals without them having been given a chance to defend themselves, he said.

Advocate Swati said the five men were civilians and had no connection whatsoever with any banned militant outfit, but their pleas for mercy had been turned down by the president.

GOVT CHALLENGE: Chaudhry Masroof, the counsel for the federal government, has filed an application for a revision of the stay order before the same court.

In the application, the government maintains that the counsel for the condemned men made a false statement before the court and concealed facts.

According to the application, to be heard on Tuesday, the men were given documents related to the trial during the court martial process. After their conviction, they were also given copies of the proceedings, following which they filed appeals in a military appellate court.

In Karachi, the execution of two militants belonging to the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi fixed for Tuesday was delayed after the Sindh High Court found a lacuna in the issuance of black warrants and the date fixed by the trial court for their execution.

Attaullah alias Qasim and Mohammad Azam alias Sharif were found guilty of killing a doctor, Ali Raza Peerani, on sectarian grounds in the city’s Soldier Bazaar area in June 2001.

The SHC ruling said that trial courts should fix a date of hanging not less than seven days from the date of issuance of black warrants as per the recently amended Sindh Prisons Rules.

Through the amendment, a SHC full court had reduced the minimum period between the issuance of death warrant and hanging from two weeks to one week.

The court also asked the counsel for the condemned prisoners to approach the Supreme Court for the fate of a second review petition recently filed there.

Meanwhile, arrangements are being made to shift the condemned prisoners from Sukkur jail to the central prison in Karachi.

Sources told Dawn that the jail authorities and security administration had been asked to make necessary arrangements for the purpose.

The government had shifted the LJ men to Sukkur jail on security grounds after their conviction.

A petition against the shifting was filed in the SHC by the mother of one of the convicts, Attaullah. The court rejected the application but ordered that the condemned prisoner be shifted back to Karachi a week before his execution.

Published in Dawn December 23th , 2014