ISLAMABAD, Aug 17: Brigadier (retd) Ali Khan, who has been convicted by the Field General Court Martial (FGCM) and sentenced to five-year rigorous imprisonment for having links with a banned outfit, submitted an application to the army chief on Friday seeking record of the trial proceedings to prepare an appeal against his sentence.

Advocate Inam-ul-Rahiem, who had represented Brig Ali in the FGCM, told Dawn that his client intended to challenge his conviction in the Army Court of Appeal. Brig Ali’s application has been submitted to the army chief through the JAG Branch.

The application said that during the trial no secret document had ever been produced and, therefore, the record of the proceedings being a public document should be provided to the accused as a right under Rule 130 of the Pakistan Army Act, 1952. It said Ali Khan had been tried as a serving Brigadier in total disregard of the fact that he was a retired officer and, therefore, not subject to the army act.

The application contended that the court (FGCM) had been constituted in violation of the prescribed procedure because two of its members were immediate subordinate to the presiding officer of the court and they all belonged to one formation (8 Division) whereas the third member belonged to the unit of the accused which also was not permissible under the army act.

Similarly, the charge-sheet was required to be signed by the commanding officer of the accused and counter-signed by the convening authority, but it was signed by a Major and counter-signed by a stranger.

If the accused was a serving officer of the army, the application asked, why he had been arrested without a charge-sheet, blindfolded and kept in a cell in an indignified manner. His summary of evidence was recorded in Murree, trial commenced in Sialkot and terminated in Rawalpindi only to deprive him of free access to his counsel which he could get later only on the orders of the Rawalpindi bench of Lahore High Court.

The alleged victimisation of the retired Brigadier did not end even after the completion of the trial, the application said, adding that Brig Ali had been lodged in a civil prison (Adiyala jail) to languish in class ‘C’ despite the fact that he was a heart patient. As per the custom of the service and under the Army Regulations Volume-II (Instructions) 283 and 284 a (1) he was entitled to class ‘A’, but it had been denied to him, it said.

The matter that weather a retirement order once issued and after attaining finality could be suspended or cancelled was still pending adjudication before the LHC’s Rawalpindi bench in which the defence ministry could not submit its reply till date, the application said.

Ironically, it said, the retired officer had been awarded the sentence of dismissal from service which he had already completed on July 9, 2011, and he was honourably retired by the government.

More appalling was the fact that Brig Ali had been sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment for having links with a proscribed organisation according to an ISPR release of Aug 3, 2012, when the sentence for such an offence, even if proven, was maximum six months.