PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday stayed the execution of a convicted militant and suspended the sentence of death awarded to him by a military court lately after conviction on multiple charges of terrorism.

While issuing the stay order, a bench consisting of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Ikramullah Khan issued notice to the defence ministry to seek the record of the case of convict Mutabar Khan, whose wife Rokeda had challenged his conviction.

After preliminary hearing, the bench decided to hear the writ petition along with other identical petitions on Oct 20.

The petitioner claims her husband was innocent and had remained missing for many years. She claims that on Sept 22, her family came to know from electronic media that her husband had been convicted by a military court and sentenced to death.

Seeks case record including that of death sentence given by military court

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of Pakistan Army, had on Sept 22, 2016, announced that Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif had confirmed death sentence to seven militants convicted by the military court.

It however didn’t point out when and where these trials were conducted.

About Mutabar Khan and another convicted militant, Rehmanuddin, the ISPR had stated that they were active members of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, a banned militant outfit.

“They were involved in attacking armed forces of Pakistan, law-enforcement agencies and killing a member of peace committee. They were also in possession of firearms and explosives,” the ISPR had stated.

It added that the two convicts had admitted their offences before the magistrate and the trial court.

In the petitioner filed through lawyer Sahibzada Asadullah, the woman said her husband was required to the army authorities in Swat in 2009 following which he was handed over to the security forces by a local Jirga.

She added that the army personnel included officers of 29 Punjab Brigade.

The petitioner alleged that her husband remained missing for many years and finally they came to know that he was first held at an internment center at Malakand and then at another centre (Pak-Austrian Institute for Tourism and Hotel Management) Swat, where she met him. She claimed after few meetings, she was not allowed to see husband and finally she learned about his conviction for militancy.

The petitioner contended that her husband was not provided opportunity of fair trial which was mandatory under the Constitution and that she was not even provided the record of the trial conducted by the military court.

On Thursday, the ISPR announced that the COAS had confirmed death sentences to 10 more militants. The military courts have so far convicted around 105 people for militancy.

Of them, 101 were awarded death sentences, whereas rest were given life imprisonment.

On Aug 29, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals of 16 convicts of military courts.

The review petitions against those verdicts are currently pending with the apex court.

Most of those appeals had originated from the judgments of Peshawar High Court, which had so far dismissed several petitions filed against convictions by the military courts.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2016