Islamabad: The Supreme Court larger bench on Thursday resumed the hearing on intra-court appeals against annulling trials of civilians in the military courts.
A seven member bench headed by constitutional bench Chief Justice Amin Uddin along with Justice Jamal Mandokhail, Justice Musarat Hilali, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi,Justice Afghan,Shahid Bilal Hassan.
Counsel of defence ministry Khawaja Harris completed his arguments in the case while he argued that in the constitution the courts were mentioned in article 175.
He went on to say military courts were not mentioned under this article in the judicial system.
Continuing his arguments, he said that the military courts were established on the recognized separate law .
Justice Rizvi observed that the 21st Constitutional Amendment also mentioned the Mehran and Kamra base attacks.
He questioned where the trials of those who attacked the General Headquarters (GHQ) and the Kamra airbase were conducted.
“Two Orion aircraft worth billions of rupees were destroyed — was the 9 May offence more serious than these terrorist incidents?” he asked.
On Justice Hassan’s questions, the defence ministry’s lawyer said that all the terrorists of the Mehran base attack were killed.
“Was there no investigation after they were killed? Who were they? Where did they come from and how did they come?” Did the file of the Mehran base attack was closed after the terrorists were killed? questioned Justice Rizvi.
The GHQ attack case was tried in military courts and the trial took place before the 21st Constitutional Amendment, said the counsel.
At this, Justice Rizvi said that the constitutional amendment was made on the basis of all the attacks so that there would be no difficulties in the trial.
Justice Musarrat Hilali said that the Constitution is the supreme law and questioned the distinction between civilian and armed forces’ accused individuals.
Justice Jamal Mandokhail remarked that the courts constituted under the ariticle 175 has an extensive powers.
On the other hand, the court established on the special laws has limited jurisdiction having limited powers.
The adjourned the hearing till Friday.
