Khudayar Mohla
ISLAMABAD, (TLTP): The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Peshawar High Court acquittal of 68 terrorists who were awarded sentence by military courts.
While granting stay order in the matter, a two-member bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh also issued directives to jail superintendent to halt the release of the accused person till final decision of the court.
Most of the accused persons were awarded capital punishment; however, Peshawar High Court had acquitted them on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
Appearing on behalf the defence ministry, deputy attorney general Sajid Ilyas Bhatti urged the bench to turn down the PHC verdict saying accused persons were involved in terrorist activity and nothing was wrong in the evidence against them.
Earlier, during the first week of this month, the Supreme Court has also accepted appeals of defence ministry challenging the PHC decision to set aside punishments awarded to as many as 74 convicts by military courts in various cases of terrorism.
Aggrieved families of the 74 accused persons invoked the PHC jurisdiction. On October 18, the high court suspended military court death penalty, observing that the entire judicial confessional statements were recorded in Urdu in the same handwriting and in the same style. The PHC also observed that not a single accused person deviated differently while responding to all the three Field General Martial courts of Khyber Pakhunkhwa.
Later, after issuing notices to the parties of the case, the apex court adjourned the hearing of the matte for an indefinite period.
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