PHC suspends CTD’s recommendation

Transfer of cases to military court

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday suspended the recommendation of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) for the transfer of the cases of two Afghan nationals to a military court.

A two-member bench comprising of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Irshad Qaiser suspended the recommendation for transferring the cases of the two brothers to the military court.

The court also issued notice to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, directing it to submit its reply and explain why the cases were recommended to the military court as the two were charged with the extortion.

The court asked the government to explain before the court that whether the officials of the CTD were authorised to recommend the cases to the military court. The court also asked Additional Advocate General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Umar Farooq Adam to submit a reply about the government’s procedure as to who was authorised to transfer cases to the military courts.

During the course of hearing, the lawyer for the petitioners, Jamil Warsak, submitted before the court that the two Afghan nationals Hizbullah and Mohibullah were arrested on July 7, 2015 by the CTD on the complaint of a citizen from Faqirabad locality for demanding Rs1 million extortion from him.

He said the CTD police arrested the accused after tracing the telephone data record and charged them under Section 7(H) of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) Section 506 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The lawyer said that both the anti-terrorism court and PHC had dismissed bail petition of the arrested Afghan nationals in extortion case.  Jamil Warsak said the high court had also directed the anti-terrorism court to conclude the trial within three months.

However, the lawyer said that the CTD officials on August 28, 2015 had wrote a letter to the high ups in the provincial government recommending that the trial of the Afghan nationals be conducted in the military court.

Jamil Warsak lawyer submitted that the CTD had no power to recommend cases to the military courts as the authority rested with the provincial government to do so. The lawyer argued that the cases of those accused were transferred to the military courts, who were charged under the Action (in Aid of Civil Power) Regulations 2011, Pakistan Protection Act and Pakistan Army Act. He said that extortion cases were heard by the special ant-terrorism courts.