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Pakistan court suspends death penalty awarded by military court

Peshawar - 21-year-old Haider Ali was found to be involved in terrorism.

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The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday suspended the execution of a death-row prisoner, who was sentenced to death by a military court after he was found to be involved in terrorism.
Haider Ali, now 21-year-old, was arrested by security forces in 2009, when he was 14-year-old and a 10th grade student at the Malakand Public High School, Swat.
Lawmakers voted in January to set up military courts to hear terrorism cases, prompting criticism from lawyers and rights activists concerned about the hearings, which are held in secret.

Military courts The military courts were established as part of a crackdown on militancy following the massacre at the Peshawar school on December 16 last year. Parliament has approved the use of the courts for the coming two years, and cases are referred to them by provincial governments. But some have called for the trials to be more transparent. Majority of Pakistanis welcomed the establishment military courts as only way to curb the ongoing terrorism and violence in the country which has left more than 60,000 people dead and caused billions of dollars economic losses.

Announcing the court's ruling on the petition, a two-judge bench of the PHC comprising Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Younis Theem ordered to halt implementation of the military court's verdict of Ali's death sentence until September 8.
The court subsequently adjourned the hearing while issuing notices to the federal government, defence secretary, home secretary, General Officer Commanding Malakand and other concerned officers.
Earlier on Saturday, the Supreme Court office declined to entertain a petition moved by Zahir Shah, the father of Haider Ali, in which he sought orders for the authorities to provide the record of the trial court proceedings so that a proper appeal challenging the judgment of the military court could be filed either before the Supreme Court or the high court. "The Peshawar High Court has ordered the military court to halt the execution of my client Haider Ali, who was awarded the death sentence by a military court on August 13," Ajmal Khan, lawyer of the death row convict said.
Khan said the military personnel came to visit Ali's parents to inform them of the sentence but did not say what the conviction was for.
On the same date, the military announced the death penalty for six militants linked to an assault on a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar that killed 151 people in the country's deadliest terror attack, but Ali's name was not included on that statement.
He said Ali was handed over to the military in 2009 by a local council of elders, known as a jirga, and his family has not heard from him since.
"The family of my client was never allowed to meet him since the military took him into custody in 2009 - they won't even say anything about where he is to his parents," he said.
Khan said the family only heard about the death sentence through the media. "My client was a grade 10 student at the time of his arrest and was around 15-year-old," he said. A court official confirmed details of the case, saying Ali was listed as a missing person and a petition for his recovery had been with the court for five years. - AFP