Law: Pakistan Penal Code (PPC),1860

Section: 302(b), 149 , 148

Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 (XLV of 1860)-- ----Ss. 302(b), 149 & 148--Qatl-e-amd--Conviction and sentence--Challenge to--Medical evidence--Blackening observed around entry wounds could not have occurred if shots had been fired from positions described in site plan--This observation finds corroboration in Modi’s Medical Jurisprudence, which establishes that blackening around fire-arm entry wounds is possible only when a shot is fired from a distance of less than three feet--The medical evidence is manifestly at variance with and contradicts ocular testimony--The PFSA report merely states that weapon was in working condition--The report does not establish any connection between fire-arm and commission of alleged offence and, accordingly, is of no substantive assistance to prosecution--With regard to alleged motive, FIR asserts that deceased, husband, had passed away, and that accused, and others, being his step-brothers, sought to usurp his property from deceased--The prosecution has badly failed to discharge onerous burden cast upon it to establish guilt of appellants beyond reasonable doubt--The evidence adduced, when appraised in accordance with settled principles governing criminal adjudication, does not inspire requisite confidence to sustain appellants’ conviction--It is a cardinal tenet of criminal jurisprudence that benefit of every reasonable doubt must be extended to accused as a matter of right and not of grace--In instant case, doubts arising from prosecution evidence are real, substantial, and material, and cannot be brushed aside as same are not speculative or artificial--Appeal allowed.                                                            [Pp. 596, 597 & 598] A, B, C & D 2011 SCMR 323 & 2014 SCMR 749. M/s. Nighat Saeed Mughal & Humayun Rashid, Advocates for Appellants. Ms. Sumara Shafi, Deputy District Public Prosecutor for State.…