PESHAWAR: One of the six convicts, sentenced to death in April by a military court after the Army Public School incident, happens to be a 10th grader, who was a juvenile when he was allegedly handed over to the security forces in 2009, claim his family members.

Mother of the convict Haider Ali moved Peshawar High Court on Wednesday requesting to declare the “so-called trial” by the military court as illegal and void on different grounds as he was a juvenile and remained in illegal detention for six years.

Bacha Laiqa, the woman, filed a writ petition in the high court stating that her son was regular student of 10th grade at Malakand High School, Sarsenai, Kabal tehsil in Swat. She claims that Haider Ali appeared in ninth grade board examination under Roll No.13170 and had obtained 388 out of 525 marks.

The petitioner has also attached attendance sheet of her son stating the he attended his school regularly and had no nexus with any of the militant outfits. According to his school record and birth certificate, the convict was born on Dec 1, 1994, which meant at the time of his alleged arrest in 2009 he was around 15.

Woman says her son was a juvenile when he was handed over to security forces in 2009

Six suspects -- Noor Saeed, Haider Ali, Murad Khan, Inayatullah, Israruddin and Qari Zahir -- were condemned to death on April 2 by the military courts, which have been established after the passage of 21st Amendment and subsequent amendments in the Army Act. The said amendments were challenged before the Supreme Court, which dismissed all the petitions against it on Aug 5.

The petition is filed through senior advocate Malik Mohammad Ajmal. It states that the petitioner’s husband was directed by the army authorities of 24 Baloch Regiment stationed in Swat to produce the detainee/ convict before them.

She added that he complied with the order and produced her son Haider Ali through members of a local jirga on Sept 21, 2009, at about 5pm, which was the day of Eidul Fitr. The petitioner stated that her husband and members of the jirga were assured by the army authorities that her son would be returned within few days.

She stated when her son was not released and his whereabouts were not disclosed by the authorities, her husband filed several applications before different authorities including the chief justice of Pakistan wherein he sought legal help for the release of the detainee.

The petitioner claimed that her son was kept incommunicado for many years and finally through news reports few months ago the family came to know that six persons including Haider Ali were convicted by the military court. However, she added, it was not specified under what charges they were tried and where the trial took place.

The respondents in the petition are: federation of Pakistan through ministry of interior, ministry of defence through its secretary, federal law secretary, provincial home secretary, chief of the army staff at GHQ, Peshawar corps commander, general officer commandant for Malakand division stationed at Khwazakhela (Swat) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa inspector general of prisons.

The petitioner stated that in its detailed judgment the Supreme Court had ruled that the judgments of the military court were subject to judicial review on two grounds: jurisdictional error and mala fide of law. She stated that her husband had also filed a petition under Article 184 sub-clause 3 of the Constitution in the Supreme Court for obtaining the attested/unattested copies of the relevant record pertaining to the conviction and sentence of his son as the same was requisitioned by the apex court during hearing of the petitions.

The petitioner stated that as per the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance, 2000 there was no death punishment for any crime committed by juvenile nor joint trial was allowed and only the juvenile court was competent to try any juvenile offender for any crime but in the instant case no such procedure had been adopted by the authorities concerned.

She requested the court to declare the proceeding of the military court as void and without lawful authority and jurisdiction being the result of mala fide of law and to direct the respondents to submit complete charge sheet before the competent court having jurisdiction in the matter for onward proceedings.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2015

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