KARACHI, May 6: A sessions court on Friday sentenced a man to life imprisonment in a murder case and acquitted his two brothers of all charges for lack of evidence.

Additional district and sessions judge (Malir) Ambreen Aslam, who conducted the trial, pronounced the judgment after recording evidence of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.

Ali Zaman and his two brothers, Rahmat Zaman and Akhtar Zaman, were booked for killing Habib within the remit of the Sachal police station over a property dispute in February last year. The court also directed the convict to pay Rs50,000 as compensation to legal heirs of the deceased and in case of non-payment, to spend an additional three months in prison.

According to the verdict, all the prosecution witnesses have supported the case of the prosecution and deposed against accused Ali Zaman.

The court observed that the victim had a property dispute with accused Ali Zaman, who in his confessional statement recorded by a judicial magistrate admitted to having killed the victim. It said that the crime weapon was also found in his possession and the prosecution has successfully proved its case against Ali Zaman beyond a shadow of a doubt.

However, the court ruled that the case of co-accused Rahmat Zaman and Akthar Zaman was on a different footing as no solid evidence came up on record to link them with this offence.

The prosecution said that the accused had a dispute with the deceased over a plot located in Sachal area and a Jirga was held in February 2010 to settle the dispute, but both sides had a heated argument and the accused gunned down the victim. The accused were later arrested the same day.

A case (FIR No 346/2010) was registered against them under Sections 302 (punishment for qatl-i-amd) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.