Supreme Court rejects appeal of death sentence convict

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday rejected the acquittal appeal of a death sentence convict Shabbir alias Shabo convicted for murder of his wife.

The trial court awarded capital punishment to Shabbir alias Shabo over murder of his wife in 2013. In the appeal, the high court maintained the trial court verdict in 2017. A two-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Sardar Tariq Masood heard the case.

During the course of proceedings, the counsel for the petitioner said that accused Shabbir and Irshad Bibi had a love marriage. He said that Irshad Bibi's family was not happy with this marriage. They had been married for a year and four months, he added. He alleged that Irshad Bibi's brother killed his sister for marrying against the will of the family.

Justice Qazi Faez Isa observed that the case should have been investigated by both sides. Either the girl's family or her husband killed her but there was no third person, he added. He asked why didn't the police investigate from both sides. There was a poor investigations in the case, he added.

He observed that if the girl had been killed by her family, they would not have left the boy as it could not possible that a brother killed his sister and left his brother-in-law. Mirza Abid Majeed, Deputy Prosecutor General Punjab, said that the girl's husband escaped after the murder and did not attend the funeral. He said that the FIR mentioned that the husband was suspicious of his wife and therefore killed her. The apex court after hearing arguments upheld the decisions of the trial court and the high court dismissing the appeal of the accused.