Islamabad, May 7 A leading international human rights organisation on Thursday called on the Pakistani authorities to ban military trials of civilians and overturn all unlawful civilian convictions by these courts.
Pakistan Supreme Court’s constitutional bench, on May 7 2025, had overturned a previous Supreme Court ruling from October 2023 that stated that the trial before a military court of civilians involved in the May 9 protest was unconstitutional.
On the first anniversary of the ruling, Amnesty International called on the Pakistani authorities to end this "injustice" by banning military trials of civilians and overturning all unlawful civilian convictions by these courts.
Authorities, it said, must ensure that all those convicted are provided with a meaningful right to appeal to a competent, independent and impartial tribunal.
Isabelle Lassee, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, stated that Pakistan Supreme Court's decision in 2025 has "fundamentally undermined" the right to a fair trial and the right to liberty in Pakistan.
She mentioned that virtually every protection guaranteed under international human rights law was intentionally disobeyed by the court.
"A civilian before a military court is first subjected to a secret trial without procedural safeguards, conducted by army officials that lack independence and impartiality. If convicted, they are denied the right to appeal, despite orders by the Supreme Court that this protection be guaranteed," Lassee said.
She noted that those serving convictions are being deprived of the right to have their convictions and sentences independently and impartially reviewed. This includes May 9 protestors who are still serving their sentences and activists such as Idris Khattak.
In December 2024, the military court convicted 105 protesters who took part in the May 2023 protests following the arrest of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan and sentenced them to two to 10 years.
Another human rights activist, Idris Khattak, was convicted and sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment after a secret military trial in 2021. He was forcibly disappeared in 2019.
“They are not given access to the court’s reasoned judgements and, in many instances, they have not been provided with any written order at all, as part of a deliberate tactic to prolong their unlawful detention," stated Isabelle Lassee.
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