KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday commuted the death sentence of a man to life imprisonment in a case pertaining to the murder of his wife.

A two-judge bench hea­ded by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha ruled that the prosecution proved its case against the appellant, but the capital punishment was being commuted to life term since it had not alleged any motive against the appellant for killing his wife.

An additional and sessions court had sentenced Murshid to death in January 2017 for stabbing his wife, Mahnaz, to death in the house of the victim’s brother in Orangi Town in March 2014. The trial court had also awarded other imprisonments in other connected offences as he also injured Shaheen Bibi, wife of the complainant, when she tried to protect the victim.

The convict challenged the death penalty before the high court and after hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings, the bench dismissed the appeal and maintained the trial court order as far as the sentences of imprisonments were concerned, but commuted the death sentence to life term.

The bench in its judgement observed that the prosecution had proved its case beyond a shadow of a doubt since the two eyewitnesses, Shaheen and his daughter, deposed against the appellant and the medical evidence, recovery of the crime weapon and arrest of the appellant on the spot had also corroborated the testimonies of the witnesses.

According to the prosecution, the accused came to the house of his brother-in-law, Ijaz Ahmed, the complainant, and stabbed his wife to death and injured the complainant’s wife.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2019