Law:

Section:

Zina --.-- --.-- Definition of --.-- Zina means commission of sexual intercourse by a man with a woman, without having being married to each other --.-- It is thus obvious that no one can be accepted as a witness of zina unless he actually sees with his own eyes commission of (زنا) --.-- shameful act being committed by a male and female who are not validly married to each other. Witness --.-- --.-- Competency --.-- A witness must be a competent witness in all cases --.-- Conditions for a competent witness, interalia, includes possession of sound reasoning faculty, puberty, probity, absence of enmity/bias/interest, eyesight in case of facts which require to have been seen, capacity to speak or communicate with rectitude, and to be male and not convicted of perjury or giving false evidence as well as being a Muslim in cases of Hudood --.-- Since award of Hadd sentence entails a very severe harsh punishment, therefore, its proof requires extremely strict conditions.Tazkiyah-al-Shahood --.-- --.-- Scope of --.-- Duty of Court --.-- Tazkiyah al-shahood (purgation of witnesses) is a peculiarity of Islamic procedure --.-- In its intent, scope and extent it is distinguishable from normal cross-examination --.-- Tazkiyah is a technical term of Islamic System of evidence which requires clearing a witness from accusation or suspicion cast upon him by opposite-party, by holding an enquiry by a Qadi, openly or secretly, himself or through an official purgator --.-- Under Islamic system of law, like other legal systems, opposite-party has every right to test, weaken, or destroy credit of a witness by cross-examination --.-- Purgation does not bar that right of opposite-party but at same time, it should not be used to disadvantage of party producing witness --.-- We may mention that while cross-examination is right of defence, Tazkiyah al-Shuhood (تزکیة الشھود)" is a duty of Court to ascertain veracity of witnesses in cases of Hudood (حدود), that each one of them is just and righteous, worthy of credence, reliable, truthful and not a previous convict of perjury or other major offence --.-- Sentence of Hadd, as stated above, is extremely…