ISLAMABAD: Former Chief Justice Jawad S. Khawaja has taken a significant step by filing a petition in the Supreme Court, challenging the participation of Justice Tariq Masood in a bench responsible for hearing appeals against trials in military courts.
In the filed petition, Khawaja expressed concerns about Justice Masood’s previous stance on applications related to military courts. He is calling for the exclusion of Justice Masood from the bench overseeing military court appeals and suggests the formation of a new bench by the judges’ committee for these proceedings.
The petition highlighted that both Justice Faiz Isa and Justice Tariq Masood had recused themselves from a 9-member bench handling these cases. Justice Masood’s earlier opinion, dated June 26, declared the petitions against military courts as inadmissible.
Khawaja argued that the relevant law should have been initially challenged in the High Court. He contends that having Justice Masood preside over appeals connected to military courts contradicts principles of justice. He urged to pause the bench, led by Justice Masood, from adjudicating on intra-court appeals.
It is pertinent to mention here that Senior Supreme Court judge, Justice Ijazul Ahsan on Monday had also raised objections on the formation of two benches – one hearing the intra-court appeals against the judgement declaring the trials of civilians in military courts as unconstitutional and the other Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi’s plea against the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) proceedings.
