The Supreme Court’s constitutional bench on Friday conditionally allowed military courts to announce their reserved verdicts in cases against 85 civilians linked to the May 9 unrest last year.
Headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan, the bench included Justices Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Musarrat Hilali, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Naeem Akhtar Afghan, and Shahid Bilal Hassan. It clarified that these verdicts would be subject to the Court’s final decision on the appeals challenging the October 2023 judgment.
Read more: President Approves Bills Extending Tenure of Military Chiefs
Justice Aminuddin instructed that suspects eligible for sentence concessions should be released, while others should be transferred to jail once the military courts issue their verdicts. This comes after a previous SC ruling in October 2023 declared the trial of civilians in military courts unconstitutional, a decision conditionally suspended by the same court in December 2023, pending intra-court appeals.
