All appeals in Mashal case verdict to be heard at PHC’s Principal Seat

PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court (PHC) bench on Monday ordered that all appeals filed against acquittal, enhancement of sentence and against conviction of the high profile Mashal Khan lynching case would be heard at PHC Principal Seat in Peshawar.

A single bench of Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth allowed an application filed by Advocate General (AG) Office. It had requested the court to transfer all appeals from the Peshawar High Court Abbottabad Circuit Bench and these be heard at the Principal Seat in Peshawar.

The state had filed three appeals against the decision of Anti-Terrorism Court in Mashal lynching case.

Iqbal Khan, father of Mashal Khan, had filed six appeals against acquittal of 26 accused and for enhancement of sentence of the convicted persons at Principal Seat of Peshawar High Court.

However, the convicted persons had filed appeals against conviction at the

PHC Abbottabad Circuit Bench. On February 27, the PHC Abbottabad Circuit Bench had suspended the three-year jail terms handed to 25 people in the Mashal Khan lynching case during a hearing on appeals against the February 7 Anti-Terrorism Court verdict in the case. It had ordered their release till the appeals were heard.

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) had convicted 31 of the 57 accused in the case, awarding death sentence to the prime accused, life imprisonment to five other convicts and three-year jail terms to 25 others. The court had acquitted 26 other accused as the prosecution failed to prove charges against them.

During hearing, Additional Advocate General, Waqar Ahmad submitted before the bench that the state and father of Mashal Khan had filed appeals at the PHC Principal Seat, while the respondent accused filed appeals against conviction in PHC Abbottabad Circuit Bench. He submitted that the incident occurred at Mardan and thus PHC Principal Seat would hear the appeals.

Barrister Ameerullah Chamkani, informed the court that Mashal’s father had filed six appeals at the Principal Seat and thus he wanted to contest the case in Peshawar. On the other hand, Iftikhar Ahmad, counsel for convicted persons, contended that the case had been tried at the ATC Abbottabad and the court also mentioned in the decision that the convicts may file appeals at the PHC Abbottabad Circuit Bench.

He opposed the state application for hearing the appeals at the PHC Principal Seat as it would be difficult for the convicts languishing at the Haripur Central Prison and lawyers from Abbottabad hired by the convicts.

 Mashal Khan, 23, a student of Mass Communication Department at the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, was lynched on April 13, last year allegedly by a mob

of students, staff members and outsiders after accusing him of committing blasphemy.