KARACHI: Military authorities have started the process of producing suspects, to be tried by military courts, before judicial magistrates for confessional statements and other legal formalities, it emerged on Wednesday.

The provincial authorities recently approached the district and sessions judges and asked them to appoint two judicial magistrates for each judicial district to record confessional statements of suspects, hold identification parades and other legal formalities in the cases to be tried by the military courts.

Also read: Military courts start proceedings in 12 cases

While there are six administrative districts in Karachi, the city is divided into five judicial districts: west, central, south, east and Malir.

The four district judges appointed two judicial officers each under the Pakistan Army Act, 1952 a few days ago to entertain applications regarding identification parades, confessions and other formalities. The district judge (central) is also likely to appoint two magistrates in the coming days

Judges Sohail Ahmed Mashori and Sadruddin Bohyo were appointed from Karachi west district, Judges Hatim Aziz Solangi and Noor Mohammad Kalmati from Karachi south district, Judges Hassan Ali Kalwar and Mohammad Ali Memon from Malir district and Judges Abdul Razzaq and Irfan Ali from Karachi east district.

Military personnel along with their legal team on Wednesday produced a suspect before Judicial Magistrate (west) Sadruddin Bohyo to record a confessional statement amid tight security arrangements.

The court sources said that after completing legal formalities, the magistrate recorded the suspect’s confessional statement. However, they disclosed neither the name of the suspect, nor any detail of the case, saying that they were not authorised to tell anything since the case belonged to military courts.

Provincial authorities recently selected 64 cases and sent them to the federal government for final approval for trial in military courts.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2015

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