Death penalty by military court upheld

LAHORE
A Lahore High Court division bench Thursday upheld death sentence handed down by a military court to Sabir Shah after dismissing his appeal against conviction.A military court had convicted Sabir Shah for killing a lawyer Arshad Shah in the Misri Shah area of Lahore.
The Chief of Army Staff confirmed his death sentence last week. Ms Laila Bibi, mother of the convict, filed the appeal against the conviction of her son. Petitioner counsel said that Sabir was juvenile (below age of 18 years) and even was not given the right to fair trial as he was not informed about trial by a military court. He said that her son was also neither allowed to meet his family members nor given a chance to hire a counsel to plead his case. He stated that there were two accused in the case but only her son was convicted and awarded death sentence, which was unlawful.
Counsel said that a habeas corpus petition challenging detention of Sabir was moved and it was still pending before the LHC. He said Sabir’s family came to know about the military court decision through a press release issued by ISPR. He submitted that the military court while awarding sentence to Sabir did not meet requisites of justice.
He said the trial of Sabir was pending since 2011 and military courts were constituted in 2014 and it was against the basic principle of justice to refer his trial to military court. He requested to set aside the military court’s sentence decision being an unjust and unfair decision. An additional advocate general said that the issue against conviction by military court could be raised in case of that trial was conducted without authority or based on mala fide. He said Sabir never approached any court against his trial by the military court or that he was juvenile. He said that even the Supreme Court of Pakistan did not impose any restriction on a trial by the military court. Bench after hearing the counsels dismissed the petition.
execution stayed: A division bench of the Lahore High Court Thursday stayed execution of two death row prisoners and sought reply from prisons department. The bench also summoned record of trial court that awarded death sentence to Akhlaq and Shaukat for killing two brothers in 2001 owing to old enmity in Faisalabad. Advocate Aftab Ahmad Bajwa appeared on behalf of the prisoners and told the bench that a compromise between the parties – accused and complainant — was underway. He said the trial court was informed about the compromise; however, it issued death warrants of the convicts. The counsel prayed to the bench to suspend the death warrants until fate of the compromise in progress between the parties. The bench headed by Justice Abdul Sami Khan suspended the warrants and stayed the execution till next hearing on September 16. The prisoners were set to be hanged on September 11 (today). Civil Lines Police of Faisalabad had registered the case against the convicts on charges of killing Tariq and Zafar.
hanged: A murderer was hanged to death in the Kot Lakhpat jail on Thursday. The convict Tanveer had killed a person over a minor issue in 2005. The appeal of the convict for clemency was rejected by the President of Pakistan. He was allowed to meet his family last time before execution. Police have handed over the body to the deceased’s family.