ISLAMABAD, Nov 6: The Federal Shariat Court on Thursday set aside the sentence of amputation of a hand and a foot awarded to four persons, and ordered their release as they have already undergone 11 years of imprisonment.

An additional district and sessions judge, Lahore, after nine years of trial had convicted four persons— Khalid Mehmood, Azhar Hussain, Zafar Hussain and Pervez— in March 2001. They were arrested on May 18, 1992, for stealing Rs78,000 from the Habib Bank Fleming Branch, Lahore.

The sessions judge had ordered that right hand from wrist and left foot from ankle shall be amputated of each accused. This order was passed under Section 17(3) of the Offences Against Property (Enforcement of Hadd) 1979.

The convicts approached the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) against the judgement.

The Shariat court after hearing Dr Sohail Ahmad advocate and Babar Ali advocate, counsels for the appellants, set aside their conviction and converted it into Tazir.

The state represented by advocate Mohammad Sharif Janjua did not oppose the setting aside of the judgment.

The FSC bench was consisted of Chief Justice Ijaz Yousaf, Justice Dr Fida Mohammad Khan and Justice Saeed-ur-Rehman Farrukh.

Advocate Dr Sohail stated that his clients were awarded 10-year imprisonment in addition to amputation of their hands and feet. They had already remained in jail for 11 years, and if their imprisonment was calculated in the light of exemptions, it would go beyond 20 years, he told the court. The Shariat court came to the conclusion that the evidence produced in the case was not up to the standards of Tazkiatul Shahood.

It was one of the rare cases in which the lower court ordered the amputation of limbs, but so far no such punishment has been upheld by the superior courts in Pakistan.