ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) rejected the plea asking for the creation of a full court bench to hear petitions challenging the trials of civilians in military courts on Wednesday.
A six-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, and Justice Ayesha A. Malik announced the reserved verdict.
A day earlier, the six-judge panel had attempted to hear from the attorneys for the various petitioners on how to handle a new motion made by senior attorney Faisal Siddiqi asking for the creation of a full court with all the available justices to hear the case.
Almost all of the petitioners’ attorneys rejected the notion, although Advocate Khwaja Ahmad Hosain asked for more time to get new instructions from his client, former CJP Jawwad S. Khawaja.
However, one of the petitioners, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, characterized the full court motion as an effort to prevent the court from experiencing its “finest moment” in the nation’s judicial history, which was to be conducted at the hands of Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial.
He recommended that the apex court order the transfer of the accused individuals to judicial custody so that no physical harm is done to the detainees since the “state does not have enough material to have physical custody” of the accused.
