Islamabad:
In an interesting development, the Supreme Court acquitted two people on Friday – one of them a former district judge and sessions – the accusation of murder of the son of another lawyer, Khalid Hussain Shahani, who is now a judge at the High Court of the Sindh (SHC).
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) had condemned the former district and sessions judge to death, Sikandar Lashari, and co-accused Irfan Khan in August 2018 for having murdered Aqib Shahani, 19, in Hyderabad in February 2014 for having had an affair with the daughter of Lashari.
In April 2020, the SHC had confirmed the death penalty. A appeal bench led by judge Muhammad Ali Mazhar noted that the guilt of the two accused had been proven.
He had declared that the evidence including the clear admission of guilt by the former district judge by means of a video declaration secretly recorded in the office of a police officer and the revelation of material and uncontrolled facts through a recording of appeal data connected the former judge to killers.
The convicts then moved the SC who acquitted them on Friday. At this time, written by judge Athar Minallah, the SC cited a defective investigation and weak proceedings as a reason to leave the accused. A detailed order in the case will be published later.
