PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has requested Peshawar High Court to club all the appeals originated out of the judgment of an anti-terrorism court in Mashal Khan lynching case and conduct its hearing at the principal seat of the court in Peshawar.

PHC Chief Justice Yahya Afridi took up for hearing a petition filed by the provincial government KP advocate general and directed the accused persons to file their written reply to the said petition. The bench fixed March 26 for next hearing of the petition.

Qaiser Ali Shah, the additional advocate general, contended before the bench that presently several appeals had been filed by the provincial government, Mashal’s family members including his father Iqbal Khan and brother Aimal Iqbal Khan and the convicts in the case.

He pointed out that while government and Mashal’s family had filed appeals in the principal seat in Peshawar, the convicts had challenged their conviction before the PHC Abbottabad circuit bench. He said that recently a bench in Abbottabad suspended sentences of three years imprisonment awarded to 25 of the convicts by the trial court and set them free on bail.

Govt requests court to conduct hearing of petitions in Peshawar

Mr Shah stated that it would be in the interest of justice to club all the appeals. He said that the appeals should be heard by the same bench in Peshawar, otherwise there was possibility that different benches would pronounce different verdicts on the appeals.

An anti-terrorism court had on February 7 convicted 31 of the 57 accused persons facing trial in the last year’s Mashal Khan lynching case, awarding death sentence to the prime accused, life imprisonment to five of them and three-year imprisonment to 25 others.

The ATC, which had conducted trial inside Haripur jail, had, however, acquitted 26 of the accused persons observing that prosecution failed to prove charges against them.

Initially, Mashal’s brother Aimal Iqbal Khan had filed an appeal against acquittal of the 26 accused persons by the trial court. Later on, the provincial government filed three appeals challenging acquittal of the 26 accused persons and for enhancing sentences of the 31 convicts.

In the appeal against acquittal of the 26 accused, the provincial government has prayed the high court to set aside the judgment of ATC to the extent of their acquittal and they may be convicted and punished under different provisions of law.

One of the three appeals was filed for awarding death sentence to five of the convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court.

In the third appeal, the government has challenged awarding lesser sentence to 25 of the accused, who were acquitted of the charges of murder, criminal conspiracy and terrorism, but were sentenced to three-year imprisonment for lynching and one-year imprisonment for desecrating Mashal’s body.

On February 24, Mashal’s father Mohammad Iqbal had filed five appeals in Peshawar challenging acquittal of 26 of the accused and seeking enhancing sentences of the 31 convicts.

Mr Iqbal had also challenged the acquittal of the convicts in several of the provisions of Pakistan Penal Code and Anti-Terrorism Act by the trial court.

The 31 convicted persons including the only accused, who was sentenced to death, Imran Khan, had filed appeals before the PHC Abbottabad circuit bench.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2018