KARACHI: A model court awarded on Wednesday life imprisonment to a convict for murdering his wife over some domestic dispute in 2016.

M. Zahir was found guilty of strangling his wife Parveen to death in Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

Additional district and sessions’ judge Javed Iqbal of the model criminal trial court (East) noted that the prosecution successfully proved the allegations against the accused to prove the murder charge.

He observed that while murder charge was an offence punishable by death, the court was awarding him life imprisonment considering his young age and also his being the sole guardian of three daughters.

The judge also ordered the convict to pay Rs1 million compensation to the legal heirs of the victim.

The judge cancelled bail of the convict, who was present in the courtroom, and remanded him to prison to serve out his sentence.

The state prosecutor, Mohammad Ashraf Bhatti, argued that there was sufficient evidence to connect the role of the accused with the offence, as he not only murdered the victim, but also tried to hush up his crime by trying to bury her body inside their house.

He contended that the accused, who was a supplier of reti and bajri, had contracted second marriage with the victim, whom he brutally killed.

He asked the court to strictly punish the accused in accordance with the law.

On the other hand, defence counsel Amanullah Kakar contended that his client was out of the house at the time of the alleged offence, but the police framed him in the present case at the behest of the family of the victim.

He asked the court to acquit his client of the alleged false and fabricated allegations.

A case was registered under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2021