Convict’s plea put off

Published September 27, 2006

LAHORE, Sept 26: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday adjourned till after Eid holidays the hearing of two petitions seeking reduction and increase in the punishment awarded to a convict of murder attempt on Justice Khwaja Sharif in January, 2004.

A local sessions court had, in a decision in March the same year, handed down Yousuf a punishment of 139 years in prison. Yousuf later moved the LHC in a petition seeking reduction in his term. On the other hand, Bilal Sharif, the son of Justice Sharif, also moved the court with a plea that the period of imprisonment should be increased.

Justice Sharif, who was attacked by a sacked domestic servant with a knife, had pardoned the accused a few days after the attack.