Family of another Safoora attack convict challenges military court’s verdict

The Sindh High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the federal law officer and others as the family of one more person convicted by a military court in the Safoora bus attack case challenged the verdict. 

Petitioner Kaniz Firdous Rehman submitted that her son, Ali Rehman, a mechatronics engineer, was picked up by law enforcers on February 20 last year from the Gulzar-e-Hijri area. She said her son was falsely implicated in the Safoora case and the murder of Sabeen Mahmud.

Rehman was later tried along with others and convicted by the military court, she added. The petitioner’s counsel argued that the judgment passed by the military court was not maintainable in the eyes of law because the accused should not have been in the custody of the military authorities and tried under the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Act (Act No II of 2015) or the Protection of Pakistan Act 2014, which now stood expired, as the petitioners did not belong to any terrorist organisation or group using the name of religion or sect, raise arms or wage a war against Pakistan, as decided by the joint investigation team.

He said Rehman was illegally tried and that too in the absence of a counsel, which was a violation of the constitution's Article 10-A. He said Rehman was not allowed to meet family or his lawyer and was not given record of proceedings of the military court to challenge the conviction.

The counsel requested the court to get the record of proceedings and suspend the sentence till the petition was decided. He also sought directions to jail authorities to let family members meet Rehman.

Headed by Justice Syed Mohammad Farooq Shah, the bench issued notices to the federal law officer and others to file comments within two weeks. On July 25, petitioner Arjumand Rani had moved the SHC with a plea that her son, Hafiz Omer, was falsely implicated in the Safoora attack case and later convicted by the military court.