Major (retd) Adil Farooq Raja and Captain (retd) Haider Raza Mehdi, two former Pakistan Army officers, were found guilty and sentenced on Saturday for “inciting sedition” under the Pakistan Army Act, 1952, by the Field General Court Martial (FGCM), according to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations.
The two retired officers are accused of inciting sedition among army personnel while performing their official duties and violating the Official Secrets Act, 1923, which pertains to espionage and actions that are detrimental to the state’s safety and interest. This accusation was made, according to the military’s media wing.
Mehdi received a 12-year sentence of harsh imprisonment, while Raja received a 14-year sentence.
According to the ISPR, the appropriate legal procedure resulted in the conviction and judgment of both people on October 7 and 9 of this year by a court of competent jurisdiction.
“Pursuant to the awarded sentence, the ranks of both officers have been forfeited on 21 November 2023,” said the ISPR.
Currently, both of the court-martialed ex-servicemen are stationed outside of Pakistan.
Speaking to Geo News, senior journalist Mazhar Abbas claimed that social media played a role in introducing the public to both of the guilty officials.
“You can see that they discussed the Pakistan Army in their vlogs, particularly the ones that targeted the establishment after May 9.” As we say in media, negativity always sells, and Abbas’s vlogs prove this ”
He stated that he thought the trials of those found guilty in military courts after May 9 were only getting started.
“I think that the civilians’ military trials have just begun. The number of other retired officers who are being held or court-martialed is unknown at this time. Nonetheless, I think that this is the beginning of the hearings for those who were prosecuted following the violence on May 9, and regardless of whether they are imprisoned in civilian or anti-terrorism courts, we can anticipate that their cases will go quickly. I think these issues will be resolved very quickly,” the veteran reporter continued.
Syed Muhammad Ali, a national security specialist, stated that these penalties are significant because both of the guilty are retired army officers who fled the nation and had numerous corruption charges brought against them.
“To divert attention from their cases, they launched a social media effort. Speaking to Geo News, Ali claimed that “through this campaign, they spread hateful and fake propaganda against the army by sitting abroad.”
In this sense, there are four crucial facets of national security. One of them is that their entire narrative over the past two years has been to undermine public confidence in the armed forces and to promote hatred and insurrection against the army,” he stated.
The expert went on to say that their second objective was to incite discord and misinformation against the military among army members, and their third was to conceal their cases of corruption.
He listed the fourth as the fact that both of these officers came from a family with many members serving in the military.
“This is really humiliating and a major blow to the sacrifices made by their families. In the past few years, they have had numerous opportunities to defend themselves, but they have chosen not to do so because all the evidence was against them, the speaker continued.
“These penalties are necessary to keep the army’s rank and file morale high, to uphold discipline, and to send a message to the public that members of the force will face consequences for acting against their institution, endangering national security, or advancing foreign agendas.”
“But their case cannot be completely viewed in relation to the May 9 as since the last two years, almost every single one of their vlogs was to spread hatred against the army, unrest among army personnel, defame the army, and tarnish Pakistan’s name internationally,” he stated.
In response to a question about whether they will be summoned back to Pakistan by Interpol, Ali stated that the procedure had already begun because their passports had been processed.
“Their red warrants will be issued through Interpol and they will be extradited to Pakistan so that they can be punished,” he said
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