PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has set aside the sentence of life imprisonment awarded to a Mardan resident by a model court for the honour-related murder of his wife and acquitted him.

A bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan Chamkani and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim accepted a criminal appeal filed by convict Jehangir of Toru area, observing that the prosecution didn’t prove the charge against the accused.

The prosecution had alleged that the appellant had killed his wife, Sawera, suspecting her of having extramarital affair with cousin Zubair.

The FIR of the occurrence was registered at the Toru police station under Pakistan Penal Code sections 302 and 311.

The prosecution had claimed that two days before the incident, Zubair was also allegedly killed by the appellant.

Mardan resident was sentenced by model court for killing wife

It added that father of Zubair had told police that Jehangir was their relative and lived close to their house.

The prosecution said Zubair’s father had claimed that Jehangir had asked his son to accompany him to his house and when he went along with him, they heard gunshots and found Zubair dead inside Jehangir’s house.

It claimed that Jehangir fled and killed his wife two days later.

Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, lawyer for the appellant, said the model court had convicted his client on Dec 6, 2019, and sentenced him to life imprisonment without looking into flaws in the prosecution case.

He said while the prosecution claimed that motive behind the murder was honour-related as the appellant suspected relations between his wife and Zubair, the said motive could not be proved.

The lawyer said his client was earlier acquitted in the Zubair murder case, while the prosecution’s case regarding the murder of his wife was shattered.

He added that there was no witness to the incident and the appellant was falsely implicated in the case.

INQUIRY ORDERED: A high court bench consisting of Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar directed the provincial police chief to conduct an inquiry into the complaint of a schoolteacher with physical disability about his severe torture by the officials of Sarband police station for three days.

The bench admitted to regular hearing the petition of teacher Makhdum Shah asking the police chief to conduct an impartial inquiry into the allegation.

Yasir Arafat, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client was taken away from school by officials of Sarband Police Station on Oct 31, 2019, and was tortured in custody.

He said his client was also given electric shocks.

The lawyer said his client had also submitted a complaint to the provincial police chief seeking action against the responsible officials but to no avail.

Additional advocate general Qaiser Ali Shah submitted comments on behalf of police saying the father-in-law of the petitioner has a dispute with police and the allegations of the petitioner are unfounded.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2020