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Police officers walk past the Supreme Court of Pakistan building, in Islamabad, Pakistan April 6, 2022. REUTERS
ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court has rejected the bail application of an accused suspected of setting fire to his rivals’ house and animals.
While hearing the plea on Friday, a division bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan asked whether the complainant’s house and animals were actually set on fire.
A police official responded that the house and animals had indeed been burned; however, no bullet casings were recovered at the scene. The plaintiff’s lawyer told the court that the accused, Amjad Ali, wanted to buy land from his clients and when they refused, he set fire to their house and animals.
Justice Khan asked what the police’s unreported investigations revealed. The police officer said the accused took an oath on the Holy Quran during a jirga, claiming that he did not commit the act.
Justice Khan remarked that if the courts had taken decisions based on the oaths taken on the holy book, the prisons would have become empty. “Verdicts based on such oaths are not part of the legal system and the police must gather appropriate evidence,” he stressed. The court later rejected the request for pre-arrest bail.
