PHC stops execution of another terror suspect

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday stopped till next order the execution of another terror suspect who had been convicted by a military court.

The PHC has suspended about 91 death sentences awarded by military court.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth suspended the death sentence of a terror convict Gul Zamin, a resident of Kabal tehsil in Swat district and stopped his execution till the decision of the court in the case. The bench directed the federal government through the Ministry of Defence to submit the record of the case on the next hearing. Bakht Zamin, brother of the convict, had filed the review petition against the decision of the military court. During the hearing, Malik Muhammad Ajmal Khan, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that the petitioner came to know about the death sentence by a military court to his brother during his meeting with him on April 5 at internment centre at Paithom in Swat. He said that the military court had awarded death sentence Gul Zamin on December 21, 2018. The lawyer submitted that the security forces had also picked up another brother of the petitioner Taza Khan and he was released after eight months after declaring him innocent.

However, he said that the military court awarded death sentence to Gul Zamin without giving him the right of defence, which, he said, was illegal.