Bench rules terrorism charges must be proved as per standards set by apex court
鈥 Sets aside death sentence of two appellants in kidnap, murder case
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday voiced concern over the alarming increase in the registration of ordinary criminal cases under terrorism charges and observed that such a high number of terrorist incidents negatively impact the country in the comity of nations.
A two-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Omar Sial made these observations while overturning a death penalty handed down to two appellants in a case pertaining to kidnapping for ransom and murder of a woman.
An antiterrorism court had sentenced Mehboob Akhtar Mian and Abbas Bangash to death in December 2022 for kidnapping for ransom a woman, Aziz Akhtar, in October 2020 from Gulshan-i-Hadeed and later killing her. The body was recovered from a well at a farmhouse in Dhabeji.
The convicts through lawyers Mohammad Farooq and Iqbal Khattak challenged the capital punishment before the high court and after hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings, the bench allowed the appeals and exonerated the appellants.
The bench in its judgement said that the charge of terrorism was not proved in this case while a case of kidnapping for ransom was also not established and an ATC has exclusive jurisdiction to hear and adjudicate cases that fall within the schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act, but that does not necessarily mean that it must also convict someone under the terrorism law.
The terrorism charge must be proved using the standards extensively and intensely analysed by the Supreme Court in the case of Ghulam Hussain vs the state, it added.
The bench also noted that the trial court was not appropriately assisted as the apex court judgement in question was not brought to its attention since a substantial number of conditions stipulated by the Supreme Court were not adhered to in this case.
The SHC further said: 鈥淚t must also not lose sight of the fact that branding every case as a terrorism case without the requirements of terrorism being proved has a negative impact on the country among the nations of the world.
鈥淭he world looks at these statistics before making many decisions. The country is also embarrassed when such a high number of terrorist cases in our country is cited to us,鈥 it added.
The bench in its order also observed that the prosecution was unable to reveal and prove the true facts of the matter which created doubt in its case and the benefit of the doubt must go to the accused persons.
It noted that identifying the body from the well was also not without doubt as it was apparent from the evidence that the identifying object, i.e., the ring, was an afterthought while the divergence of prosecution witnesses鈥 accounts on the state of the body when recovered also created doubt.
It also stated that absence of important witnesses raised a presumption that they would not have supported the prosecution鈥檚 case had they appeared at trial court.
The discovery of the body on Bangash鈥檚 lead from land possessed by Mahboob, a retired army officer, was not devoid of doubt, it added.
The bench further noted that the investigators had evidence that the woman, Aziz, may have gone to Sanghar to see her mother, but same was not investigated like many others.
Apart from linking Mehboob with the murder by alleging that the guard on the farmhouse was his, there was no other evidence against him and one can consider the allegation made by co-appellant in his Section 164 CrPC statement, but the same was not admissible as evidence.
In any case, Bangash at trial told the court that the police had tortured him to make a statement accusing Mehboob and there appeared to be an element of truth in this assertion, it added.
One of the areas that is most unusual is Bangash being taken out of judicial custody and the next day showing the body and then making a confession and blaming Mehboob for all the evil and such conduct baffles a reasonable mind, it added.
The bench said that both appellants have come out as hard-talking and rough men and it also seemed that they capitalised on Mehboob鈥檚 former career in the army to gain an edge in their 鈥渁reas of business interest鈥. That would, however, not mean, ipso facto, that they kidnapped and murdered Ms Aziz and they had no reason to do so.
Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2025