Aftab Iqbal Khilji v. State,
CLC 2013 1297 · Balochistan High Court
This case involves a police officer, Aftab Iqbal Khilji, who was convicted in two separate criminal cases: one for possessing illegal arms and another for accepting a bribe (illegal gratification). His appeals against both convictions were dismissed by the Balochistan High Court in 2002 and 2004. Years later, in 2009, he filed review petitions asking the High Court to reconsider those earlier judgments, arguing his lawyer had not properly argued his case and that he had already suffered hardship, including losing his job.
The High Court examined whether it had the power to review its own criminal judgments, noting that while the law does not explicitly allow review of criminal judgments, courts can use their inherent powers to correct clear errors or jurisdictional mistakes if leaving them uncorrected would cause serious injustice.
The Court found no such error here. It noted the review petitions were filed nearly five years after the original judgments, with no reasonable explanation for the delay, and suspected the petitions were filed mainly to create grounds for his reinstatement in the police force, which had occurred shortly before the review petitions were filed. The Court called this suspicious and indicative of bad faith by both the petitioner and police authorities.
The Court refused to interfere with the convictions and sentences, dismissing the review petitions. The case highlights limits on using court review powers to reverse settled convictions long after the fact, especially when motivated by service-related benefits rather than genuine legal errors.
یہ مقدمہ ایک پولیس افسر، آفتاب اقبال خلجی، سے متعلق ہے جسے دو الگ الگ فوجداری مقدمات میں سزا سنائی گئی تھی، ایک غیر قانونی اسلحہ رکھنے کے جرم میں اور دوسرا رشوت (غیر قانونی مالی فائدہ) لینے کے جرم میں۔ ان دونوں سزاؤں کے خلاف اس کی اپیلیں بلوچستان ہائی کورٹ نے بالترتیب 2002 اور 2004 میں خارج کر دی تھیں۔ برسوں بعد، 2009 میں، اس نے نظرثانی کی درخواستیں دائر کیں اور ہائی کورٹ سے استدعا کی کہ وہ ان سابقہ فیصلوں پر نظرثانی کرے۔ اس کا مؤقف تھا کہ اس کے وکیل نے اس کا مقدمہ صحیح طریقے سے نہیں لڑا تھا اور یہ کہ وہ پہلے ہی کافی مشکلات جھیل چکا ہے، جن میں اس کی ملازمت سے برطرفی بھی شامل ہے۔
ہائی کورٹ نے اس سوال کا جائزہ لیا کہ آیا اسے اپنے فوجداری فیصلوں پر نظرثانی کرنے کا اختیار حاصل ہے۔ عدالت نے نوٹ کیا کہ اگرچہ قانون واضح طور پر فوجداری فیصلوں پر نظرثانی کی اجازت نہیں دیتا، تاہم عدالتیں اپن