← All Case Highlights

Badar-Ud-Din V. The State ,

MLD 2022 1346 · Balochistan High Court

This case concerns the murder of Barkat Ali and the shooting injury of Abdul Ghaffar, allegedly committed by Badar-ud-Din along with an absconding co-accused, over a dispute involving a court marriage between the complainant's son and the absconding accused's sister. The shooting occurred near a petrol pump in District Jaffarabad, and police registered an FIR within 25 minutes, naming the accused directly. The trial court convicted the appellant of murder (section 302(b) PPC) and causing injury (section 324 PPC), sentencing him to life imprisonment plus compensation, and separately to five years for the injury charge.

On appeal, the Balochistan High Court upheld the conviction. The court found the eyewitness accounts, including from the complainant and the injured witness, consistent and credible, noting that their presence at the scene was well established and unshaken despite lengthy cross-examination. It rejected the defense argument that the witnesses were unreliable merely because they were relatives of the victim, holding that relationship alone does not discredit testimony if it is otherwise truthful and uncontradicted. The medical evidence matched the eyewitness accounts, and physical evidence—recovered bullet casings, the weapon (found based on the accused's disclosure), and blood-stained items—was forensically confirmed and properly documented.

The case matters because it reaffirms key principles in Pakistani criminal law: prompt FIR registration strengthens prosecution credibility, relatives' testimony can be fully reliable, and forens

Read the full judgment →