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Ali Gul V. The State,

YLR 2012 498 · Balochistan High Court

This case involves a murder in Balochistan where a man named Ali Gul was accused of shooting his cousin Zulfiqar Ali dead and injuring the victim's elderly father, Abdul Sattar, while they were harvesting a mustard crop in April 2005. The motive alleged was a matrimonial dispute, as the deceased's wife was the accused's cousin.

The trial court convicted Ali Gul, sentencing him to death for murder under Section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code, along with a separate sentence for attempted murder under Section 324 for injuring the father. Ali Gul appealed from jail, and the case also came before the Balochistan High Court as a mandatory reference for confirmation of the death sentence.

The High Court upheld the conviction and death sentence. It found the eyewitness testimony of the injured father and the complainant brother credible, noting their close relationship to the deceased did not automatically make them unreliable witnesses, since they had no personal grudge against the accused. The court also relied on strong supporting evidence: the weapon recovery, ballistics report matching the rifle, bloodstained evidence, and the fact that the FIR was filed promptly and named the accused.

Importantly, the court ruled that a weak or insufficient motive alone is not grounds to reduce a death sentence when other evidence strongly proves guilt. The appeal was dismissed, and the death sentence was confirmed.

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