Abdul Wahid and others V. The State and others,
YLR 2021 913 · Balochistan High Court
This case from the Balochistan High Court involved a criminal appeal arising from a firing incident in which one person was killed and several others were injured, allegedly by a group of fourteen accused persons belonging to a rival family. The trial court had convicted some of the accused of murder, attempted murder, and related offences. The convicted persons appealed, while the state also filed an appeal against acquittals of others, and a criminal revision was filed as well.
The High Court found serious problems with the prosecution's evidence. It noted that during alleged indiscriminate firing by fourteen armed men, it was implausible that witnesses who were shot in the back could still specifically identify and attribute individual roles to each accused. The complainant and injured witnesses also failed to mention each other's injuries in their statements, further undermining credibility. The FIR was lodged nearly seven hours after the incident, which the court found suspicious, suggesting it was filed only after medical reports were obtained and names were deliberately selected. Additionally, there were unexplained delays and contradictions regarding when witness statements were recorded.
Based on these doubts, the court concluded that the case appeared to be an attempt to falsely implicate as many male members of the rival family as possible. It allowed the appeal against conviction, acquitting the accused.
This judgment reinforces important principles in Pakistani criminal law: unexplained delays in filing FIRs and recording statements, along with implausible eyewitness accounts, can create reasonable doubt sufficient to overturn convictions, even in serious cases involving death.
بلوچستان ہائی کورٹ کا یہ مقدمہ ایک فائرنگ کے واقعے سے متعلق فوجداری اپیل پر مشتمل تھا جس میں ایک شخص ہلاک اور کئی دیگر زخمی ہوئے تھے، اور الزام یہ تھا کہ یہ کارروائی حریف خاندان سے تعلق رکھنے والے چودہ ملزمان کے ایک گروہ نے کی تھی۔ ٹرائل کورٹ نے بعض ملزمان کو قتل، قتل کی کوشش اور متعلقہ جرائم میں مجرم قرار دیا تھا۔ سزا یافتہ افراد نے اس فیصلے کے خلاف اپیل دائر کی، جبکہ ریاست نے بھی دیگر ملزمان کی بریت کے خلاف اپیل دائر کی، اور ایک فوجداری نظرثانی کی درخواست بھی دائر کی گئی۔
ہائی کورٹ نے استغاثہ کے شواہد میں سنگین خامیاں پائیں۔ عدالت نے نوٹ کیا کہ چودہ مسلح افراد کی مبینہ اندھا دھند فائرنگ کے دوران یہ ناقابلِ یقین تھا کہ جن گواہوں کو پیٹھ پر گولیاں لگیں، وہ پھر بھی ہر ملزم کی شناخت اور اس کے مخصوص کردار کی نشاندہی کر سکیں۔ مدعی اور زخمی گواہ بھی اپنے بیانات میں ایک دوسرے کے زخموں کا ذکر کرنے می