The Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned life sentence handed to a man who was convicted in 2012 for allegedly burning his wife alive.
Muhammad Imran was sentenced to death by a district court after a case was registered against him in Faisalabad in 2012. Upon his appeal, Imran’s death sentence was turned into life imprisonment by a high court.
Today, the Supreme Court bench said that prosecution was unable to prove the case against Imran and overturned his sentence, giving him benefit of the doubt.
Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, who was heading the bench that overturned the sentence, noted that according to the woman’s medical report, there was a gas cylinder blast and her injuries indicated the same.
“The medical report contradicts the prosecution’s story,” observed Justice Khosa. “The first investigation report was registered eight days after the incident. The intentions of the accused’s in-laws changed later and they thought they could get some money [out of the incident],” said Justice Khosa, adding: “This means the family was lying.”
“The Supreme Court’s job is to explain the Constitution and the law. Look how difficult our job is, then people say we don’t do justice — they don’t do justice to themselves,” he said.
Since becoming the chief justice in January, Justice Khosa has spoken frequently about the flaws that ail the justice system. Last month, Justice Khosa announced that the court is on a “journey towards truth” which entails strict action against those found to be guilty of having given false testimony in court cases.
“If any part of any testimony is found to be false, the whole of it [the testimony] will be disregarded,” the chief justice had warned.
