PESHAWAR, Jan 31: An Afghan national sentenced with the amputation of his limbs by a trial court filed an appeal before the Federal Shariat Court here on Tuesday.
The appeal will be taken up for preliminary hearing by a full bench of the Shariat Court here on Feb 1 (today). The bench comprises Justice Dr Fida Mohammad Khan, Justice S. A. Manan and Justice Saeedur Rehman Farrukh. The appeal was filed by the Voice of Prisoners, an organisation dealing with the cases of destitute women and prisoners.
Advocate Noor Alam Khan, chairman of the organisation, in the appeal states that the trial court had overlooked various important points while convicting the appellant Ajab Khan under section 17(3) of the Offence against Property (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979.
He has also requested the court to suspend the impugned judgment delivered by the additional district and sessions judge here on Jan 26. He stated that the witnesses appearing in the trial did not qualify the condition of tazkiyatu shahood given in the ordinance and thus the appellant could not be sentenced under hadd.
The trial judge, Mohammad Jamal Khan, had pronounced that the accused was sentenced and punished with the amputation of his right hand from the wrist and his left foot from the ankle. The court also convicted him under section 412 of the Pakistan Penal Code and sentenced him to five years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs30,000.
The appellant was charged in an FIR registered at the Hasthnagri police station on April 5, 2005. The complainant, Mohammad Islam, had stated that the accused had snatched Rs320,240 from him while he was boarding a bus and when he raised an alarm two police officials of the Rider Squad arrested him and recovered the money.
The trial court on Tuesday directed the staff to prepare a reference in accordance with the law and send it to the Federal Shariat Court, Islamabad, for confirmation of the sentence.
The court on Wednesday released the detailed judgment wherein it was observed that testimony of a fasiq (sinner) is also acceptable if he is a person of social status and authority.
