ISLAMABAD, Jan 26: The Supreme Court decision that Qari Sharif, who had brutalized his wife, Zainab Noor, should be lodged in jail for 10 more years, has not been implemented and the prayer leader remains a free man.
Shahnaz Bukhari, head of an NGO, Progressive Women Association, who had pursued the case upto Supreme Court, told Dawn that Qari Sharif was not arrested by the police despite the orders of the apex court.
“It is frightening to imagine that such a dangerous man is allowed to roam freely in the society,” she said.
Qari Mohammad Sharif, an Imam Masjid (prayer leader) in Kahuta, had subjected his wife to severe torture, using electric shocks and rods, and damaged her three vital organs.
After the case was reported in the press, he was arrested and his case referred to the Suppression of Terrorist Activities Court, which sentenced him to 30 years imprisonment. The victim was sent to England for treatment on government expenses by the then prime minister, Benazir Bhutto. She is permanently carrying urinary bag after treatment in London.
According to the trial court’s decision, the sentence was to run consecutively, meaning that the convict would have to remain in jail for 30 years.
The LHC, on the appeal of Qari Sharif, reduced the punishment to 10 years, holding that all the three injuries were caused in one transaction. Qari Sharif, however, came out of jail after six years, as he was given remissions in sentence by the jail authorities in violation of court order that he should not be given any benefit under section 382 of CrPC.
Under this section, the prisoners are given remissions as provided in the jail manuals and general amnesty given by the executive functionaries from time to time.
When the matter was brought to the notice of the Supreme Court, it changed the decision of the LHC, observing that the “LHC judges were wrong in holding that these organs had been damaged as a result of one injury in a single transaction”.
The Supreme Court, in its judgment, observed that injuries, and the manner in which they were caused, could not have been comprehended/visualized by the legislature, that was why appropriate sentence had not been provided in law for such barbaric act.
Shahnaz Bukhari said she had learnt on authority that the brother of Qari Sharif came to Supreme Court to explore the possibility of filing review petition against the Supreme Court’s judgment.