PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Thursday set aside capital punishment awarded to former husband of prominent Pashto singer Ghazala Javed and acquitted him in the double murder of Ghazala and her father on the basis of compromise between the two parties.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rahseed and Justice Syed Afsar Shah accepted a criminal appeal filed by the convict, Jehangir Khan, observing that the legal heirs of the two deceased persons, Ghazala Javed and her father Javed Khan, had pardoned the appellant under the law.

The appellant was convicted by an additional district and sessions judge, Mohammad Tariq Pervez Baloch, on Dec 16 for the double murder and was sentenced to death on two counts with a fine of Rs70 million.

The court had also convicted him for injuring Farhat Bibi, a sister of deceased Ghazala Javed, and sentenced him to 10 years rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs1 million.

Advocate Inam Yousafzai appeared for the appellant and contended that all the legal heirs of the deceased persons including mother and six brothers and sisters of Ghazala had pardoned the appellant under the Qisas and Diyat sections of Pakistan Penal Code.

Families reach agreement under diyat law

He stated that all the legal heirs had recorded their statements before the court of additional district and sessions judge, saying that they had forgiven the appellant in the name of Allah and had no objection to his release.

Ghazala Javed and Javed Khan were killed on June 18, 2012, by a group of armed men at Dabgari Garden area when she had just left a beauty parlour.

Farhat Bibi was complainant in the case. She alleged that as her sister had filed a case for dissolution of her marriage with Jehangir Khan, therefore, he was annoyed with that and had threatened to kill her.

She claimed that she had seen Jehangir and his two accomplices, Naseer and Salam, firing at them which resulted in death of Ghazala and her father.

The two accomplices have presently been absconding.

Ghazala Javed, who was in her early 20’s, had married Jehangir on Feb 7, 2010, and separated from him on Dec 4, 2011 through judgment of a family court at her native Swat. She had assumed fame few years before her death and her audio and video CDs and cassettes were selling like hot cake not only in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but also in Middle East where Pakhtuns work in large number.

Following the occurrence, the suspect remained absconder for around two months and was apprehended by police on Aug 29, 2012, from his residence at Hindki Daman area.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2014