The Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench on Wednesday overturned an earlier decision that had nullified civilian trials in military courts.
In a 5-2 majority verdict, the seven-member bench—led by Justice Aminuddin Khan and comprising Justices Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Naeem Akhtar Afghan, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Hassan Azhar Rizvi, Musarrat Hilali, and Shahid Bilal Hassan—upheld intra-court appeals filed by the federal and provincial governments. These appeals challenged a previous ruling by a five-member bench that had barred the military trial of civilians involved in the May 9, 2023 riots.
Read more: Lawyers reject civilian military trials.
Justices Mandokhail and Afghan dissented from the majority opinion.
The bench reinstated three clauses of the Army Act—2(1)(d), 2(d)(2), and 59(4)—that had been previously struck down. It also referred the matter to the government, instructing it to legislate within 45 days to provide civilians the right to appeal verdicts issued by military courts.
Earlier, on December 13, 2024, the constitutional bench had conditionally allowed military courts to issue reserved verdicts in the cases of 85 civilians detained for the May 9 events. On December 21, military courts sentenced 25 of those individuals to prison terms between two and ten years, later sentencing 60 more in connection with the same unrest.
