CJP hints at taking up pleas on polls, military court trials

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa may soon take up important cases pending before the Supreme Court (SC) on the holding of general election as well as pleas challenging the trial of May 9 suspects in military courts.

These remarks were made by Justice Isa while he was heading a three-member SC bench hearing the case of Pak-Arab Refinery employees.

During the hearing, when the counsel for the Pak-Arab Refinery employees sought an adjournment for two weeks, the CJP observed that some important petitions would be taken up for hearing soon. Therefore, it would be difficult to hear other cases during that period.

The chief justice told the counsel cases related to the general election as well as pleas challenging the trial of civilians in military courts would be taken up soon, hence his case would be fixed after two months. In August this year, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf requested the Supreme Court to direct the president of Pakistan to announce the date for elections within 90 days of the dissolution of the National Assembly.

Similarly, Supreme Court Bar Association President Abid S Zubairi had also filed the same petition in the apex court. Likewise, Jamaat-e-Islami, through its Naib Ameer Liaquat Baloch, had also filed a petition in the apex court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, seeking direction to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold the general election within 90 days from the date of dissolution of National and provincial assemblies as provided in Article 224(2) of the Constitution.

The petitions were filed during Chief Justice Umer Ata Bandial’s tenure but were not fixed for hearing.

Also, pleas of former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan, former chief justice Jawad S Khwaja and Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan as well as civil society members, challenging the trial of May 9 suspects in military courts were also pending before the apex court. Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan had challenged in the Supreme Court the decision of Pakistan Army taken in a corps commanders meeting on May 15 to try civilians involved in May 9 incidents in military courts, established under the Pakistan Army Act 1952. Filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, Aitzaz had prayed the apex court to declare that sections 2(1)(d)(ii) and 59(4) of the Army Act, 1952, are ultra vires the Constitution and void, or in the alternative cannot be invoked for the offences allegedly committed during the May 9 incidents and covered under the various FIRs.

A six-member SC bench had heard the petitions but did not issue a verdict. In the last hearing, the case was adjourned for date-in-office indefinitely after Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan assured the CJP that the military trials would not proceed without informing the apex court.