ISLAMABAD: The transfer of cases to military courts appears to have slowed down as for the past couple of months not a single case has been transferred to them.

The cases are with the interior ministry, but these have not been sent to the army authorities apparently because of missing documents.

The slowing down is also being linked to appeals pending before the Supreme Court. Executions in at least eight high-profile cases have been stopped because of the appeals in the apex court.

The last batch of cases was transferred in December. These included an attack on a bus in Karachi’s Safoora Goth on May 13 last year, in which 45 Ismailis were killed, and the murder of rights activist Sabeen Mehmood.

After December, sources in the interior ministry claim, the provinces and the Islamabad administration forwarded only those cases which were already under trial in anti-terrorism courts or where the offences were not covered by the Pakistan Army Act.

For instance, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government referred two murder cases to military courts, but the committee concerned of the interior ministry sent them back. Similarly, Islamabad sent six cases, but these were already under trial in anti-terrorism courts of the federal capital.

According to an official, trial in these cases is under way at a normal pace and the accused in most of the cases were ‘facilitators’ and, therefore, the interior ministry did not recommend their transfer. However, the official claims that the lack of information about the detainees at internment centres is also proving to be a headache.

The problem emerged when the interior ministry, in September last year, asked the defence ministry for the age of the detainees at internment centers whose cases had to be transferred to military courts.

As per procedure, all cases require the federal government’s approval before transfer to military courts. Hence, the defence ministry could not send these cases to the courts directly.

The government had to determine the age because in August last year, the Peshawar High Court suspended a death sentence awarded to Haider Ali by a military court. The high court said since Ali was a juvenile, he could not be executed because the juvenile justice system ordinance prohibited trial of an underage suspect other than by a designated court.

A military official also confirmed some of this story by saying that the provinces had forwarded cases which were not relevant to military courts.

“The interior ministry’s committee, which studies and forwards cases to the military courts, includes representatives of Judge Advocate General branch. Sometimes it seems that the provinces forward cases without doing their homework.”

However, in his opinion, the more pressing issue was that “the conviction in a number of cases could not be executed as eight appeals are pending before the Supreme Court”.

Initially, the apex court was hearing three such appeals, but with the passage of time, more appeals made their way to the court against military courts’ convictions. Eventually, the SC clubbed all of these.

According to the military official, three hearings — March 7, 9 and 17 — were adjourned without any progress.

“These convictions have been awarded by the military courts and the military appellate courts had rejected the appeals against convictions. The Chief of Army Staff also dismissed the mercy petitions of the convicts, but now they are pending before the apex court,” he pointed out.

The military’s spokesman refused to comment.

A spokesperson for the interior ministry said the officer concerned was out of reach.

Syed Nayyab Hassan Gardezi, a law officer at the attorney general’s office, told Dawn that the AG office was pursuing all the cases, including appeals filed against the convictions awarded by military courts.

“The law takes its due course and time for the disposal of such matters.”

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2016