The Supreme Court has conditionally suspended its earlier verdict that declared the trial of civilians in military courts null and void.
The court announced its decision with a 5-1 majority. Justice Musarrat Hilali opposed the majority decision. The SC ruled that the military courts will not pronounce final decisions on the trials underway.
It allowed the military courts to proceed with the trials, but said their final decisions would be conditional to the Supreme Court verdict.
A six-member larger bench, headed by Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, heard the appeals. The bench also included Justice Aminuddin, Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Irfan Saadat.
The larger bench also issued notices to the parties in the intra-court appeals and adjourned the proceedings till the third week of January.
As the court resumed hearing the intra-court appeals on its verdict against the trial of civilians in military courts, head of the bench, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, refused to step down from the bench over objections by one of the applicants.
The intra-court appeals have been filed by the federal and provincial governments, as well as the Defence Ministry. The federal government has also sought a stay on the court verdict as well as appealed for declaring the decision null and void.
Former chief justice of Pakistan Jawad S Khawaja is also among the applicants and had objected to the inclusion of Justice Masood in the bench hearing the case. He filed a petition before the court, challenging Justice Masood’s participation.
Khawaja expressed reservations over Justice Masood’s prior opinion on the applications related to military courts. He proposed the formation of a fresh bench by the judges’ committee.
The petition outlined that both Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Masood had recused themselves from a nine-member bench hearing these cases. Justice Masood’s previous opinion, signed on June 26, deemed the petitions against military courts inadmissible.
