US and UK criticize Pakistani military court convictions of civilian supporters of Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD — The United States and the United Kingdom have expressed concern over convictions imposed by Pakistani military courts to 25 civilian supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan over their alleged involvement in riots last year.

The convictions had previously also been criticized by the European Union and domestic human rights activists.

''The United States is deeply concerned that Pakistani civilians have been sentenced by a military tribunal for their involvement in protests on May 9, 2023. These military courts lack judicial independence, transparency, and due process guarantees,'' the State Department said in a statement on Monday.

It asked Pakistan to respect the right to a fair trial and due process.

The Foreign Office in London said that while the U.K. respects Pakistan's sovereignty over its own legal proceedings, ''trying civilians in military courts lacks transparency, independent scrutiny and undermines the right to a fair trial.''

It added: "We call on the government of Pakistan to uphold its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.''

The statements were referring to the violence that erupted after Khan's arrest in Islamabad in May 2023.

The former premier was ousted through a no-confidence vote in the parliament in 2022, and he was convicted of corruption and sentenced in August 2023. Since then, he has been behind bars. Khan's popular opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI, is in talks with the government to secure his release.

Responding to the growing international criticism, Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday that the country is "fully committed to fulfilling all its international human rights obligations.''

In a statement, it said Pakistan's legal system was in consistent with international human rights law, and the verdicts by the military courts had been made under a law enacted by the parliament and in line with the judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

It said Pakistan will ''continue to engage with the international partners, including the European Union to uphold the international human rights law, without any discrimination and double standards.''

The 25 supporters on Monday received prison terms ranging from two years to 10 years, which the army in a statement warned acted as a ''stark reminder'' for people to never take the law into their own hands.

The PTI has rejected the convictions of civilians, demanding they should be tried in the normal courts if they were involved in the riots.

Without mentioning international criticism of the convictions, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday accused the PTI of ''hiring foreign lobbying groups to run campaigns against Pakistan."

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government has accused Khan of masterminding the violence, a charge he denies.

Earlier this month, Khan and dozens of others were indicted by a civilian court on charges of inciting people on that day, when demonstrators attacked the military's headquarters in Rawalpindi, stormed an air base in Mianwali in the eastern Punjab province and torched a building housing state-run Radio Pakistan in the northwest.