Law: Pakistan Penal Code, 1860

Section: 302(b)

Law: Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898

Section: 544-A

Law: Qanun-e-Shahadat Order, 1984

Section: 2(4),17(2)(b), 122,129

Law: Indian Evidence Act, 1872

Section: 106

Summary The Supreme Court dismissed Habib Ullah’s jail petition and upheld his conviction for murdering his wife, Aqeela Bibi, inside their matrimonial home. Although there was no direct eyewitness to the killing, the Court held that the cumulative circumstantial evidence—domestic quarrels, the daughter’s last-seen account, the accused bringing a hammer home, the medical evidence, his disappearance immediately after the incident, and abscondence for nearly seven years—formed a complete and unbroken chain establishing guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The judgment also emphasizes that domestic homicides are “crimes of difficult proof” and require gender-sensitive investigation and careful application of the Qanun-e-Shahadat Order’s rules on special knowledge, circumstantial evidence, and adverse inference. Core Points The petitioner was convicted under section 302(b), PPC for murdering his wife, Aqeela Bibi, on 14 September 2011 in their home. The alleged motive was persistent domestic conflict and intense quarrels over a mobile phone during the three days before the occurrence. The minor daughter, Fazeela Bibi (PW-2), stated that she saw her father bring a hammer home and later saw both parents enter their shared bedroom. The next morning, the children found their mother dead with her head smashed, while the petitioner had disappeared. The post-mortem evidence confirmed fatal skull fractures caused by a heavy, hard, blunt object—consistent with assault by a hammer. The petitioner neither informed the police nor contacted the deceased’s relatives, sought medical assistance, attended funeral rites, or cared for his children. His abscondence for almost seven years, until arrest on 26 February 2018, was treated as corroborative conduct reflecting consciousness of guilt. The Court held that matrimonial-home homicides are often difficult to prove because they occur in private, usually without independent eyewitnesses, and evidence may be concealed or destroyed. Once the prosecution establishes foundational facts pointing to circumstances especially within the husband’s knowledge, Article 122, QSO requires him…