Mashal’s father challenges acquittals in court

PESHAWAR: Muhammad Iqbal, father of late Mashal Khan, on Saturday challenged the Anti-Terrorism Court verdict and filed five appeals in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to seek enhancement of sentence awarded to the convicts in his son’s lynching case.

Earlier, Aimal Khan, brother of Mashal Khan, had filed an appeal against the acquittal of 26 accused in the high court.

Muhammad Iqbal filed his appeals through a team of lawyers including Barrister Ameerullah Khan Chamkani, Fazal Khan, Muhammad Ayaz and Shahab Khattak.

In the appeals, he sought punishment to all the 26 acquitted people, enhancement of sentence from four years to life or death sentence to the other 25 accused, death sentence for the five accused who were awarded life imprisonment and also another death sentence to Imran Ali, who has already been awarded death sentence on two counts.

Talking to members of the media after filing the appeals, Muhammad Iqbal said the acquittals of the accused in the Mashal Khan case would set a negative example for the youth in the country.

“I have filed these appeals to maintain the rule of law by seeking sentence for all the accused,” he added.

He argued that the Mashal case is important because the future of all the students and youth of the country is connected to this case.

He pointed out that his family had expressed dissatisfaction over the ATC verdict in the Mashal Khan lynching case and this was the reason it had filed six appeals against the accused and convicts so that they get appropriate punishment to maintain rule of law and give a message to the whole world that law prevails in Pakistan.

The lawyers contesting the Mashal case expressed confidence that the accused who were acquitted by the court would be punished as there is ample evidence available against them as they were part of an unlawful mob with the common intention to kill Mashal Khan.

The provincial government, through Advocate General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has also filed three appeals against the ATC verdict, and sought capital punishment for all the accused and enhancement of punishment for those who have already been punished by the court in the case.