After the moratorium on the death penalty was lifted in the aftermath of the Peshawar school attack, the chief of army staff immediately signed the death warrant of six men who had been awarded the death penalty by the military courts.

Though the identities of all of them were not made public when the news first came, by Friday evening two of them were hanged – one of them was involved in the attack on the army headquarters and the other in an attack on retired general Pervez Musharraf. Others will be hanged in the coming days if reports are to be believed. Some of them are civilians who were convicted of being involved in terrorist attacks. Dawn spoke to retired colonel Mohammad Akram, a former Judge Advocate General and ex-director regulations of the army, to find out under what circumstances civilians are court-martialled under the Pakistan Army Act (PPA) 1952.

Q: Who can be tried under the PAA?

A. Under Section 2 of the PAA, the Act is applicable on ‘officers, junior commissioned officers and warrant officers of Pakistan Army and persons enrolled under the Army Act 1911…and serving with Pakistan Army or enrolled under this Act’. The personnel of Pakistan Air Force and Navy can be tried by their respective courts. The civilians in active service in (army) camps … or employed by, or in the service of or followers of, or accompanying any portion of the Army are subject to the PAA. They can be court martialled for the offences as mentioned in the Army Act.

Q. Can a civilian who does not fall into categories be court martialled?

A. The civilians or persons otherwise not subject to the PAA may face court martial for ‘seducing or attempting to seduce’ any army person or persons subject to PAA. Section 131 of the Pakistan Panel Code (PPC) empowers the military authorities to arrest the civilian ‘who abets the committing of mutiny by an officer, soldier, sailor or airman, in the Army, Navy or Air Force of Pakistan’. For this offence, the military court can punish them with imprisonment for life or 10 years rigorous imprisonment and shall also be liable to fine.

Q. Can a civilian be tried for any other offence? And how he is court martialled?

A. If anyone has committed any offence against the defence, arsenal, naval, military or air force establishment or has committed an offence under the Official Secret Act 1932 can be tried by the military court. After the arrest of an accused (whether civilian or uniformed), the military authorities record a ‘summary of evidence’ and then frame charges against the accused persons. In the next step, the charges are forwarded to the Judge Advocate General.

Published in Dawn December 20th , 2014