PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Monday stayed execution of another alleged terrorist who had been awarded death sentence by a military court in the killing of Major Abid Majeed and other terrorism cases.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Mohammad Ishtiaq Ibrahim suspended the death sentence. It issued a notice to the federal government to submit record of the case before Sept 8.

The court suspended the death sentence after Fazal Ghafoor, father of the convict, Fazale Rabbi, hailing from Matta tehsil of Swat, filed a review petition in the high court.

During hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer submitted that the security forces took custody of the convict in May 2014. The relatives, he said came to know through media reports on Aug 17 that he had been awarded death sentence by a military court and the army chief had confirmed the sentence.

The counsel stated that in its detailed judgment, the Supreme Court, which had upheld the creation of military courts, had ruled that the judgments of the military courts were subject to judicial review on two grounds i.e. jurisdictional error and mala-fide of the law.

It was stated in the petition that sentence to the petitioner’s son was handed down on mala-fide intentions as he had gone missing in 2014 and was not involved in any terrorist activities.

Earlier, the PHC had also suspended death sentences of three terrorists, and their appeals are still pending in the high court.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2016