KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has granted bail to an elderly woman and her daughter in an attempted murder case.

A single-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Khalid Hussain Shahani noted that the trial court had rejected the bail applications of both the women mainly on the basis of their prior criminal record, but they cannot be the sole and overriding basis for refusal of the bail.

Applicants Hajira and her daughter, Shaheena, through their counsel moved the SHC after an additional sessions judge (ASJ) had dismissed their post-arrest bail applications in March in a case pertaining to their alleged involvement in hatching a conspiracy to murder their stepson and stepbrother Yousuf Khan in August 2023 in Gulshan-i-Maymar.

Their counsel argued that the applicants had been framed in the case on account of a pre-existing civil and inheritance dispute between the parties and there was a delay of 21 days in lodging of the FIR which was fatal to prosecution’s case as no plausible explanation for such delay has been offered.

An assistant prosecutor general opposed the bail pleas and stated that the applicants were specifically nominated in the FIR with roles of hatching a conspiracy to murder the complainant and a clear motive existed in the shape of a previous case about murder of complainant’s father Abdul Hameed in 2029 in a North Nazimabad locality.

The prosecutor also contended that initially, both women were convicted in the murder case by the trial court and sentenced to death before their acquittal by the superior courts and both had remained fugitives from the process of law for around two-and-a-half years despite knowledge of the FIR and that “their abscondence was a circumstance which weighed against the grant of bail”.

The bench in its order noted that admittedly, no person received any injury in alleged firing incident, the entire roles attributed to applicants were of abetment and hatching a conspiracy to cause the attack and there was a delay of 21 days in lodging the FIR while there were material contradictions in the prosecution’s own narration.

“As regards the factors of the accused persons’ prior criminal record and abscondence, relied upon by the learned ASJ to dismiss the bail applications, this Court is of the view that while such factors are not irrelevant, they cannot be the sole and overriding basis for the refusal of bail, particularly when the substantive legal grounds in favour of the applicants, including no injury to any person, role confined to abetment without connecting evidence, a 21-day delay in the FIR, and serious contradictions in the prosecution story, collectively indicate that the case requires further inquiry,” it added.

The bench also observed that apparently, the trial court had placed disproportionate weight on criminal antecedents of applicants without conducting tentative assessment of the merits of present case that the law required.

Referring to Section 497(1) of the criminal procedure code, it further said that such proviso conferred upon high court a specific discretion to enlarge women accused on bail even in cases falling within the prohibitory clause after considering ground realities of women in custody, their health conditions and personal circumstances.

The bench maintained that Hajira was an elderly woman suffering from chronic ailments including high blood pressure and diabetes and her continued incarceration in the absence of compelling reasons would constitute an avoidable hardship.

Subsequently, it allowed the bail applications of both the applicants subject to each furnishing a solvent surety in sum of Rs50,000 and said that its observations were tentative in nature and must not prejudice the case of either party at trial.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2026