KARACHI: A district and sessions court has sentenced a man to life in prison in an 18-year-old murder case.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (west) Aurangzeb Shah found Muhammad Iqbal guilty of shooting Jameel Khan to death and wounding his friend Waseem Qazi in April 2006.

The court imposed a fine of Rs500,000 as compensation to be paid to legal heirs of the deceased and in case of default the convict would have to pay to undergo an additional six-month imprisonment.

Explaining the reasons for not awarding the death penalty, the court noted that the conviction of Iqbal was solely established upon ocular evidence, but there was a general allegation of making fire against the convict, which created “mitigating circumstances”.

During the trial, state prosecutor Arif Sitai submitted that defence counsel had cross-examined eyewitnesses at length but no contradiction was brought on record in favour of the accused.

“Minor contradictions and procedural discrepancies are bound to happen, due to lapse of time, but the court should take a dynamic view in the heinous offence like murder,” he stated.

He also argued that prosecution witnesses (PW) had fully implicated the accused with the commission of the offence by adducing the evidence against the accused. Eight PW statements were recorded in court, during the trial.

According to the prosecution, the convict and co-accused came on two motorcycles in Raheedabad, Baldia Town in April 2006, and shot dead the victim and wounded his friend.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2024