ISLAMABAD, June 17: Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) President Makhdoom Javed Hashmi has filed an application with the Supreme Court seeking fixation of June 27 for hearing of his appeal against his conviction in a mutiny case.

A court source told Dawn that the appeal, pending for the last three months, was likely to be taken up by an SC bench on the requested date.

Javed Hashmi was sentenced to 23 years jail on April 12, 2004 for inciting mutiny, defaming army and army officers, forgery and abetment.

He was arrested on October 29, 2003, nine days after he distributed an anonymous letter, allegedly inciting the public against the army in a press conference at the parliament cafeteria.

On March 14 last, Mr Hashmi had challenged the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench’s rejection of his bail application by pleading before the apex court to release him on bail after suspending 23 years sentence awarded by a trial court.

In his appeal, he contended that the trial against him was conducted in-camera in a secluded room of Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, during which the prosecution failed to bring concrete evidence against him.

Findings of the trial court was also based on surmises and conjectures instead of any sound legal ground or evidence, he alleged.

Mr Hashmi pleaded that he was falsely and maliciously implicated in a mutiny case, concocted by the government intelligence agencies besides his conviction was also not supported by any evidence.

Many sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), under which he was booked, were non-cognizable and therefore could not be registered by the police unless the complainant was the federal government, he said.

In this case, a retired major Khurshid Ahmed was the complainant who could not have lodged the case against a member of the parliament, he stated.