SHC commutes sentence of Saad Aziz in principal attack case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday dismissed the appeal of a banned outfit activist against his conviction in case pertaining to causing injuries to an educationist. The high court, however, commuted his 10-year imprisonment to the period of imprisonment he had already undergone.

Saad Aziz was sentenced to 10-year imprisonment for injuring then vice principal of a private medical college in the Ferozabad area on April 1, 2015. According to the prosecution, the appellant along with other absconding co-accused fired on the veteran educationist at her vehicle and injured her.

A counsel for the appellant submitted that he was falsely implicated in the case. He added that however on instruction of the appellant, he did not press the appeal on merit in wake of evidence brought on record regarding his involvement if the sentence is reduced to the period already spent by him in prison.

A division bench comprising Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Khadim Hussain Tunio after hearing the arguments of the counsel and perusal of the record observed that the prosecution had established its case against the appellant under attempt-to-murder charges but at no point, the prosecution was able to prove through cogent evidence that the appellant had attacked the victim with the intent to spread terror or harassment in society.

The high court dismissed the appeal of the convict but set aside his conviction under anti-terrorism charges. The court also reduced his sentence from 10-year imprisonment to the sentence he had already undergone for last six-and-a-half years.