logo
IHC seeks details of precedents in court martial cases

IHC seeks details of precedents in court martial cases

Express Tribune22-05-2025

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday sought previous judicial precedents, where details of the court martial proceedings were provided to the court.
IHC Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro heard the plea for the production of the details of the charge sheet against former Pakistan Air Force (PAF) officer Air Marshal (retd) Jawad Saeed, who had been given 14-year jail term by a military court for leaking sensitive information.
The petitioner's lawyer Abdul Waheed Advocate, besides the additional attorney general and the PAF legal officials appeared in the court on Thursday. During the hearing, the PAF officials did not present the record of the court martial proceedings and the charge sheet against Jawad Saeed.
The PAF officials told the court that according to the PAF Act, the record of the sentence given and the record of the charge sheet could not be provided. The petitioner's lawyer said that this had never happened before under their own law. However, the PAF officials denied that claim.
The petitioner's lawyer pleaded to the court that injustice had been committee in the case against Jawad Saeed, adding that neither he was given the lawyer of his choice, nor the record. He said that Jawad Saeed's family was also not informed.
Justice Soomro told the petitioner's lawyer to present court precedents at the next hearing in which the record had been provided in such a case. The lawyer replied that he would present the Supreme Court's decisions and court precedents, adding that full bench judgments were available in similar cases.
Justice Soomro asked the lawyer to present the court precedents in the form of para-wise comments and adjourned further hearing of the matter until June 17.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Amendments to orders for accuracy: Commissioner IR has powers under Sec 221(1) of IT law: SC
Amendments to orders for accuracy: Commissioner IR has powers under Sec 221(1) of IT law: SC

Business Recorder

time3 hours ago

  • Business Recorder

Amendments to orders for accuracy: Commissioner IR has powers under Sec 221(1) of IT law: SC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court ruled that the Commissioner Inland Revenue has jurisdiction under Section 221(1) of Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 to amend the orders by rectifying any mistake apparent from the record. The 24-page judgment, authored by Justice Munib Akhtar, set aside the impugned judgments of the Lahore High Court (LHC) and the Islamabad High Court (IHC). It held; 'the tax references out of which these matters arise shall be deemed pending in the respective High Courts and the questions of law raised therein decided in accordance with law and consistently with this judgment.' Section 122 (5A) ITO: Power granted to IR commissioners is not without boundaries: ATIR 'CPLA 431-L/2023 involves questions of law other than the one decided by this judgment. This leave petition is returned to the office to be fixed in the ordinary course before an appropriate Bench,' it also said. A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Munib Akhtar, and comprising Justice Ayesha A Malik and Justice Shahid Waheed heard the department (FBR) petitions against the LHC and IHC decisions. Babar Bilal appeared in CPLA Nos.4583 to 4585/2023. The judgment noted that the matters relating to the deemed assessment order (and indeed, the deemed amended assessment order) fall only and always within the first part (of Mehreen Zaibun Nisa), with all ensuing 'inevitable corollaries' applying accordingly. One of these is that the deemed orders of both kinds must be regarded as orders 'passed' by the Commissioner within the meaning, and for the purposes of, Section 221(1). 'The Commissioner therefore has the jurisdiction to amend the orders by rectifying any mistake apparent from the record'. The judgment decided the question; 'Whether the Commissioner has jurisdiction under subsection (1) of Section 221 of the 2001 Ordinance to amend, in exercise of the power thereby conferred and, in the manner, and to the extent therein stated, what is known as a deemed assessment order under s. 120 to rectify a mistake apparent from the record?', in favour of the Commissioner and against the taxpayers. The High Courts had answered the question in the negative. The Department urged that both the courts erred materially in this regard. The taxpayers pray that the impugned judgments be upheld as having reached the correct conclusion in law. The judgment confirmed that the error made by the High Courts was to conflate the two deeming provisions into one. It was on account of this mistake that both judgments, whose reasoning run in parallel, concluded that there was no application of mind by the Commissioner and that the mistake always lay where, and by whom, in fact made, i.e., the taxpayer. However, once this unfortunate fusing is unpacked, and what the subsection actually does and require is realized, the mistake becomes apparent. Had the subsection only contained the deeming required by clause (b), then there could be merit to what the learned High Courts concluded. In such a situation, the only 'state of affairs' required to be imagined would be the deemed issuance of an assessment order. It could perhaps then be said that the deeming did not reach or touch any mistake to be found as a matter of fact in the return, and hence the deemed assessment order did not deal with any such thing. In this situation the attribution of the mistake, being outside the scope (or beyond the limit) of the legal fiction could be said to lie where, and by whom, actually made as a matter of fact. But that of course is not the case. There is also the (precedent) deeming required by clause (a). Once that is kept in mind then the inevitable conclusion is that there was, as a matter of law, a (deemed) application of mind by the Commissioner. Since it operated (as it could only) on the return, an inevitable corollary is that it is the whole of it, mistakes and all, that is the assessment (deemed) to have been made. And it is the (deemed) assessment so made that then results in the (deemed) issuance of the assessment order. In our view, it is only in terms of this bifurcation that subsection (1) can be properly understood and applied. A rolling up of the two clauses into one, with respect, led to the error into which both the learned High Courts fell. Thus, in the principal LHC judgment much emphasis was placed on s. 221(1) requiring that the order be 'passed' by the Commissioner. The matters before the Supreme Court arose under the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 in relation to the jurisdiction, under subsection (1) of Section 221, of the Commissioner to rectify any mistake apparent on the face of the record and thereby amend what is known as a deemed assessment order under s. Most of these matters come from the Lahore High Court, where the principal judgment is dated 27.04.2022. That decision disposed of eight tax references that had been filed by the Commissioner and was followed in all the other matters in the said High Court by various orders of different dates. Islamabad High Court, where the principal judgment is dated 20.09.2023 which disposed of tax references filed by the Department. Both High Courts reached the same conclusion on the question now before the Court and therefore, all these matters were heard together and are being decided by this judgment. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025

Sentence suspension in £190m case: IHC grants 7-day to NAB for appointing special prosecutor in IK, Bushra's pleas
Sentence suspension in £190m case: IHC grants 7-day to NAB for appointing special prosecutor in IK, Bushra's pleas

Business Recorder

timea day ago

  • Business Recorder

Sentence suspension in £190m case: IHC grants 7-day to NAB for appointing special prosecutor in IK, Bushra's pleas

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) granted seven days to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for appointing special prosecutor in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi's appeals seeking suspension of their sentence in £190 million case. A two-member bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Sardar Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Asif, on Thursday, heard the case and adjourned the hearing until June 11, when the NAB told the court that it needed time to prepare arguments for the case. During the hearing, Barrister Salman Safdar, representing the Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi argued that the petitions for suspension of the sentence were heard, after much prayers and supplications, adding that today's date has not been given easily. NAB Prosecutor Rafay Maqsood appeared before the court and said that his request is that the federal government had to appoint a special prosecutor in this case but he has not been appointed yet. Rafay prayed the court to grant four week, stating that they had received the notice yesterday. The acting chief justice said for issuing notification for the prosecution team seven days are enough. Salman Safdar contended that more than 300 cases have been filed against the founder of PTI and the trial court sentenced him. Lawyer Latif Khosa said 'the PTI founder is in jail without any evidence; the PTI founder neither will go abroad nor is there any risk of tampering with the record.' The court directed the NAB prosecution team to notify the special prosecutor within seven days and adjourned the hearing until June 11. In this matter, founder PTI Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi approached the IHC seeking suspension of their sentences in the £190 million case. They moved the court through their counsel Barrister Salman Safdar and cited the state and the chairman NAB as respondents. Counsel Salman stated in petition that the petitioners were convicted by the Accountability Court (I) Islamabad through judgment dated 17.01.2025, wherein, they were held guilty for commission of offence of corruption and corrupt practices as defined u/s 9(a)(ii)(iv)(vi) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 and Imran was sentenced u/s 10(a) of the National Accountability Ordinance, 1999 to undergo rigorous imprisonment (RI) for 14 years and fine amounting to Rs1,000,000. Through the instant petition, they sought indulgence of this court for 'Suspension' of conviction and sentence awarded to them, till the final disposal of the main appeal already filed in the IHC. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025

Imran, Bushra fail to get Eid relief
Imran, Bushra fail to get Eid relief

Express Tribune

timea day ago

  • Express Tribune

Imran, Bushra fail to get Eid relief

Imran Khan and Bushra Babi could not get a relief ahead of Eidul Azha as the Islamabad High Court (IHC) allowed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to appoint a special prosecutor to present its point of view on the couple's pleas seeking the suspension of their sentences in the £190m case. A division bench of the capital's high court, comprising IHC Acting Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Asif, on Thursday took up the PTI founder's and his wife's applications, seeking their release on bail after suspension of their sentences in the corruption case. During the hearing, Barrister Salman Safdar, representing Imran and Bushra, quipped that they had managed to get the applications listed for hearing "after countless prayers and pleas". He claimed that cases –Toshakhana I case, Toshakhana II, and then the £190 million case – were fabricated to keep the couple behind bars. "This is the most controversial verdict. The Supreme Court had made observations on the judge who delivered this verdict," he said. Islamabad Accountability Court-I Judge Nasir Javed Rana on January 17 sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi respectively to 14 and seven years in prison in the £190 million case In addition to the prison sentences, the court also imposed fines of Rs1 million on Imran and Rs500,000 on Bushra. The couple later challenged the verdict in the IHC. Referring to other cases, Safdar said the trial courts convict Imran and Bushra but high courts later state that the convictions are wrong and suspend such verdicts. NAB Prosecutor Rafiq Maqsood stated that he was informed about the case just a day earlier and received the notice only the previous night. "I request that since the federal government has to appoint a special prosecutor for this case, and correspondence is needed with the Ministry of Law, we should be granted four weeks' time," he said. Safdar, however, requested the court to decide Bushra's plea for suspension of her sentence prior to Eid." "If they want to bring a special team against the PTI founder, they can go ahead—we are not afraid," he added. Latif Khosa, who also belongs to the PTI, said Imran Khan is in jail without any evidence. "He has no intention of fleeing the country or tampering with the record," he said. The court remarked that the legal team should be given time to notify their representation. It adjourned the hearing until June 11.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store