Punjab tells LHC a convicted civilian cannot claim fundamental rights

The Punjab government has told the Lahore High Court (LHC) that a civilian who commits an offence against the state and is convicted cannot claim the protection of fundamental rights, and has asked the court to dismiss a petition by Barrister Hassaan Khan Niazi, nephew of PTI founder Imran Khan, Dawn reported.

Niazi’s petition challenges his handover to the army and his later trial in a case related to the May 9 riots.

The government’s report

The report was submitted on Monday, almost a year after it was first sought, on behalf of the provincial government by the home secretary and inspector general of police. The deputy inspector general of police (legal) said every citizen’s first duty is loyalty to the state, citing a 2005 LHC judgment (PLD 2005 LAH 721).

Its main points:

• “Convicted prisoner”: it describes Niazi as a convicted prisoner whose release through a second round of litigation, other than by appeal, is not permissible.
• No court order needed: it says no judicial order was required for his handover because he was neither in judicial custody nor on remand.
• Absconder: it says Niazi was an absconder, unlike 16 co-accused whose transfer was sought from an anti-terrorism court while they were in jail.
• Not the SHO: it says the Sarwar Road station house officer neither handed over custody nor received a letter from the commanding officer, and that the investigation in-charge, who is not a party to the petition, did so.

What the Supreme Court ruled

The report says the Supreme Court’s May 7, 2025 ruling on intra-court appeals upheld military trials but gave the accused the right to appeal, not the right to file constitutional petitions. Niazi has already filed an appeal under Section 133-B of the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, it says, and “the same question of law cannot be challenged in two different forums simultaneously”, so the petition is not maintainable.

It accuses him of misreading the Supreme Court’s short order, which applied only to petitions pending or filed against anti-terrorism court orders, and of hiding facts about his appeal and his father Hafeezullah Khan Niazi’s earlier proceedings. It also says Niazi did not attach the military court’s order, an objection the high court upheld in two other petitions.

The case behind it

Niazi is a proclaimed offender in FIR No. 96/2023, registered on May 10, 2023 at the Sarwar Road police station in Lahore Cantonment over an attack on Jinnah House, the residence of the Lahore Corps commander. Police arrested him in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on August 16, 2023. The next day the commanding officer of the 54 Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Battalion asked for his custody, saying his alleged offences fell under the Official Secrets Act and the Army Act and were triable by court-martial. Police handed him over under Section 76 of the Army Act.

Background

The LHC is also hearing other politically charged cases, including the detention of Imran Khan’s sisters and Noreen Niazi’s treatment.

Why it matters

The case goes to a central question: whether civilians tried by the army can still go to civilian courts. The state’s position is that conviction ends the right to file constitutional petitions and leaves only the army’s own appeal process. Niazi challenges his handover to the army, while the government says his appeal under the Army Act makes the petition improper.

What to watch: how the LHC rules on the petition’s maintainability, and whether it asks for more records, since the government’s report itself says the military court’s order was not attached.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn.