Islamabad:

The Supreme Court’s constitutional bench heard on Wednesday that a court’s decision to extradite civilian to the military custody of the trial on the basis of the first information report (FIR) alone was not correct.

Faisal Siddiqui, the lawyer of civil society, continued his arguments for a seven-member bench, led by Justice Aminuddin Khan in the Intra-Court appeal of the trial against civilians in military court. In his arguments, he said that the defendants could only be transferred after the indictment.

Siddiqui told the court that Uziir Bhandari, the lawyer of the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI), took the opinion that the jurisdiction of the intra-cart appeal was limited. “I don’t agree with Uziir Bhandari’s position,” he said.

When he was sitting on the bench Muhammad Ali Mazhar said Bhandari was dependent on Justice Mansoor Ali Shah’s note in the case of practice and procedure. Siddiqui said if the appeling was limited, “many of our appeals” would be rejected.

Siddiqui claimed that the constitutional bench could interrupt the trial against a civilian, even without declaring the provisions of the Army Act invalid. He also said that the commander’s arbitrary power to hand over the defendants under section 94 was not valid.

Also sitting on the bench, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan said he had asked the question from the start if there was any formal order from the ATC judge by hand over the defendant. Siddiqui replied that there was an order, but no reasons were given in it.

Justice Jamal Mandokhail asked if the court itself should decide whether it had jurisdiction to hear the case, or was it mandatory for any party to object to jurisdiction. On this righteous, Aminuddin said the court himself had to decide its jurisdiction.

Siddiqui Siddiqui said the nature of the crime was only decided after the indictment was filed. Justice Mandokhail said that if a magistrate handed over an accused to the army, even when the accused had the right to appeal, which would eventually reach the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court.

The consultation was postponed until Thursday (today).