Bail to 25 convicts: PHC upholds verdict in Mashal lynching case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday upheld a decision of granting bail to 25 convicts in Mashal Khan lynching case.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Musarrat Hilali dismissed both the petitions filed against the suspension of sentence to 25 convicts and their release on bail.

Mashal Khan’s father Muhammad Iqbal and the provincial government through Advocate General office had filed bail cancellation applications in the high court.

After completion of arguments in the cases, the court first reserved the decision for some time and then announced that both the petitions against the suspension of the three years sentence and release on bail are dismissed.

Mashal Khan, a 23-year-old student of the Department of Mass Communication at the Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, was lynched by a mob over the allegation of blasphemy on April 13, 2017.

The anti-terrorism court, which conducted the trial of the lynching case inside the Haripur Central prison, had convicted 31 of the accused and acquitted the remaining 26.

The 25 convicts, who were released on bail, were sentenced by the trial court to three years rigorous imprisonment each under Section 11-WW (lynching) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, with a fine of Rs50,000 each. They were also sentenced to one-year imprisonment each with a fine of Rs50,000 under section 297 (indignity to human corpse), section 148 (rioting) and section 149 (unlawful assembly) of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). The trial court had ruled that the sentences would run concurrently.

However, the PHC Abbottabad Circuit Bench had suspended the conviction of 25 convicts and issued their release order on bail till decision in their appeals against conviction.

The lawyers for complainant Muhammad Iqbal said while the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) had empowered an appellate court to suspend a sentence and set free a convict on bail, the Anti-Terrorism Act in clear terms provide that the appellate court shall not release the accused on bail.

They said under Section 25(8) of the ATA, the accused won’t get bail until the high court decided their appeal.

The lawyer added that the ATA was a special law and, therefore, it should prevail over other laws. He said the appellate court had erred in releasing 25 convicts on bail as it didn’t follow the law.

The lawyer said under its appellate jurisdiction, the high court is not empowered to suspend a sentence awarded under the ATA and to release a convict on bail.