Death sentence of former navy man by general court martial stayed

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday restrained the naval authorities from acting on the general court martial’s (GCM) death sentence against a former navy official in the PNS Zulfiqar attack case.

The direction came on a petition of former Pakistan Navy lieutenant Hassham Naseer against his conviction by the GCM and the rejection of his appeal by the navy’s court of appeals.

The petitioner, who joined the navy in 2008 and was posted at PNS Haider, was convicted along with other navy officers by the GCM in October 2015 for his alleged involvement in facilitating al Qaeda inspired attackers who wanted to hijack PNS Zulfiqar on September 6, 2014.

The navy, however, thwarted the attack and killed four of the attackers who were serving and former officials of the navy. The petitioner’s counsel told the court that his client was unlawfully detained for 11 months prior to his indictment by the GCM.

He said the petitioner was not provided with a counsel of his own choice and the trial court had convicted him over the testimonies of the co-accused who were also convicted in the court martial’s proceedings.

The counsel said that classified documents of the court martial’s proceedings revealed that the petitioner was charged under 11 offences of the Pakistan Navy Ordinance and was found innocent in two of the charges, while the trial court did not assign any reasons with regard to its findings.

He said the trial court examined 14 witnesses, of whom 10 did not utter any single word against the petitioner, while the remaining witnesses were co-accused who were convicted in the case and so their testimonies could not be relied upon in the eyes of the law.

The counsel said the Supreme Court held that any order passed or sentenced awarded by the court martial or any other forum of the armed forces is subject to judicial review on the grounds of coram non judice (not before a judge), of suffering from mala fides, including malice in the law.

He said that Article 10-A of the Constitution ensures a fair trial to every citizen, and the arbitrary decision of the court martial convicting the petitioner and upholding the same by the court of appeals without assigning any reason violates Article 10-A. He added that the outcome of any subsequent trial in such circumstances is nothing but flagrant violation of principles of natural justice and cannot be sustained.

The SHC’s division bench headed by Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh observed that the points raised in the petition required consideration, and issued notices to the attorney general, the judge advocate general, navy authorities and others, calling for their comments to be submitted on August 30. The court ordered that until the next date of hearing, the respondents are restrained from acting on the decision of the GCM that was upheld by the navy’s court of appeals.