ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court upheld on Monday the life imprisonment awarded to a man who had proclaimed himself to be Imam Mehdi. The court set aside terrorism charges against his accomplices.

On Feb 6, 2006, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Faisalabad had charged 27 people with different offences, including murder, murder attempt, terrorism, maintenance of public order and blasphemy laws under Section 295A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) dealing with deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings by insulting religious beliefs, Section 295B for defiling the Holy Quran and Section 295C for using derogatory remarks or defiling the name of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).

The trial court had sentenced Shahbaz Ahmad, the self-proclaimed Imam Mehdi, to death, and life imprisonment to the others 26.

But when the accused moved the Lahore High Court against the ATC judgment, the high court partly allowed their appeals by setting aside the death sentence awarded to Shahbaz Ahmad under Section 295-C PPC.

Monday’s judgment authored by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali recalled that Faisalabad DSP Malik Rasheed Ahmed had lodged a complaint with the Nishatabad police station against Shahbaz Ahmad and 25-30 others for taking out a procession on Dec 15, 2005, and resorting to aerial firing while marching towards Sargodha Road from Nishatabad Bridge. Holding banners and flags they made announcements through megaphone to either accept Shahbaz as Imam Mehdi or face his wrath.

The SC judgment held that from the evidence brought on record by the prosecution, bald and vague allegations were levelled since allegations in terms of Sections 295A and 295B PPC could not be proved against the accused other than Shahbaz Ahmad.

Though the accused accepted their guilt in unequivocal terms as regards to the allegations under Section 342 CrPC, on this count their conviction was to be maintained, the verdict said.

However, it said, the case of Shahbaz Ahmad was quite distinguishable from other appellants who had denied high-handedness on their part during the occurrence of the incident, arguing that they had taken out a peaceful procession.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2016