LAHORE, April 6: A Supreme Court bench on Thursday upheld the decision of the Lahore High Court under which the capital punishment of Rehmat Shah Afridi, the editor of daily The Frontier Post, was commuted to life imprisonment.

Comprising Justice Khalilur Rehman Khan Ramday and Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmad, the apex court bench dismissed a petition of Mr Afridi for leave to appeal against the decision of the LHC announced on June 3, 2004.

The court also dismissed a petition for leave to appeal moved by the federal government seeking the revision of the same decision with the purpose of enhancing the punishment for life in prison to death penalty.

Advocate Abid Hasan Minto submitted on behalf of the petitioner that Mr Afridi was punished for his newspaper’s assertive role and bold criticism on the policies of the then (Nawaz Sharif) government.

He submitted it was a case of political victimisation as there was no material evidence available to the special court, constituted under the Anti-Narcotics Act, which could serve as a basis for awarding death penalty to the journalist.

Mr Minto submitted that the entire case of the prosecution was woven around certain video and audio tapes as evidence, whereas such material could hardly constitute valid evidence.

He submitted that the trial court also failed to inform the accused about disposing the case property which was required under the law. He stated that the trial court had never been in a position to establish that the material it had got destroyed was part of the marijuana consignment which was allegedly recovered from the editor.

Special public prosecutor Khawaja Sultan Ahmad submitted on behalf of the federal government that sufficient material evidence was available with the LHC to uphold the trial court’s award of death sentence to the accused. He submitted that the size of the consignment was large enough to award him death penalty by the trial court and the appellate bench of the LHC to have upheld the punishment.