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Ghulab Khan and others V. The State and others,

YLR 2012 112 · Balochistan High Court

Ghulab Khan and others v. The State involved a fatal shooting arising from a matrimonial dispute. During an altercation, several accused allegedly fired on the complainant's family, and one victim died from gunshot wounds. The trial court had sentenced Ali Bakhsh to death, and two others, Sabir and Gulab Khan, to life imprisonment under section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code (intentional murder). The convicts appealed for acquittal, while the complainant sought enhancement of sentence to death for the two lesser-sentenced men.

The Balochistan High Court examined the eyewitness testimony, medical evidence, and forensic recovery of the weapon. It found the witnesses credible despite being relatives of the deceased, since their presence was natural and their accounts were corroborated by medical and ballistic evidence.

However, the Court found that the fatal injury—a single wound to the thigh—was not of a kind ordinarily likely to cause death. This meant the crime fit the legal category of "qatl-e-shibh-e-amd" (quasi-intentional killing) under section 315, rather than full intentional murder under section 302. The Court therefore set aside the death sentence, convicting the main accused instead under section 316, with 25 years' imprisonment (life imprisonment).

Additionally, since no specific violent act was proven against the co-accused despite being armed, and no weapons were recovered from them, the Court acquitted them, applying the principle that only the person who inflicted the fatal blow is individually

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