SC dismisses appeals of 3 death convicts

ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday dismissed appeals of three convicts awarded death sentences by the military courts.

A three-member bench headed by Justice Manzoor Malik heard the petitions by Nadeem Abbas, Jehangir Haider and Zeeshan. They were handed over death sentence by a military court in Quetta in August 2016, and were locked up in Mach prison.

Last week, a three-judge bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa and comprising Justice Dost Muhammad and Justice Qazi Faez Isa had refused to hear the appeals against the military courts. The Supreme Court on August 5, 2015 had rejected all applications challenging the 18th and 21st constitutional amendments, ruling in favour of the establishment of military courts in Pakistan.

The judges stated that they had written dissenting notes in the military courts’ verdict, which had termed the establishment of these courts in conflict of the constitution.

This is why none of us would want to hear the case, they had stated. The bench had therefore referred the matter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar, to fix the case before some other bench.

Source: The Nation