ISLAMABAD, The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its ruling on a set of appeals instituted by two army officers convicted by the Field General Court Marshal (FGCM) of plotting to overthrow the Benazir Bhutto government in 1995.

A three-judge SC bench consisting of Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Sayyed Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi closed the proceedings after hearing Additional Attorney General (AAG) Sajid Ilyas Bhatti as well as Col Mohammad Azad Minhas and Col Inayat Ullah Khan.

Both the officers were arrested along with retired Maj Gen Zaheerul Islam Abbasi, now deceased, and Brig Mustansir Billah on Sept 26, 1995 on charges of plotting to storm a meeting of corps commanders scheduled to be held on Sept 30 that year at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.

Colonels Minhas and Inayat were convicted of plotting to overthrow Benazir government in 1995

The alleged plan included assassination of then prime minister Benazir Bhutto and army chief Gen Abdul Waheed Kakar, senior cabinet ministers and military chiefs, besides proclamation of the Islamic system of Khilafat with Maj Gen Abbasi as emir.

According to media reports, the details of the conspiracy were revealed after Qari Saifullah Akhtar, one of the conspirators and chief of his breakaway faction Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami, turned an ‘approver’ and spilled the beans.

On his evidence, the FGCM had awarded a seven-year imprisonment to retired Maj Gen Abbasi and a 14-year jail term to Brig Mustansir Billah when a large cache of arms and military uniforms were confiscated.

On Tuesday, AAG Bhatti argued before the SC bench that the court of appeal had in November 1997 confirmed the sentence of two-year rigorous imprisonment awarded by the FGCM to Col Minhas and four-year rigorous imprisonment to Col Inayat, in addition to dismissal from service.

The AAG said the FGCM usually comprised three senior army officials, but five officers had conducted the trial as was done in the General Court Martial (GCM) and, while taking a lenient view, awarded lesser punishment to the two officers on Sept 3, 1997.

Col Inayat had challenged the military court’s sentence in the Supreme Court in 2000, while Col Minhas had instituted an appeal before the Lahore High Court which was dismissed in May 2015. He later filed an appeal in the apex court.

Both the officers had before the Supreme Court assailed the sentence on the grounds that the conviction by the military court was done with mala fide intent as a consequence of which they were removed from the service of the armed forces and their properties and other privileges were also confiscated.

The apex court reserved the judgement with an observation that it would consider whether under the law all these stages should be conducted separately or not.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2022