...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.High Court’s Abbottabad
... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden....
circuit bench suspending sentences of 25 convicts and releasing them on bail in the Mashal Khan lynching case have raised many eyebrows. The stance adopted by the concerned additional advocate general of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government, who had not opposed the suspension of the sentences before the court, has also been criticised by Mashal’s father Iqbal Khan and his lawyers.
A two-member bench of the high court had on Feb 27 heard applications for suspension of sentences and granting bail to the said 25 convicts. Those applications were filed in the criminal appeals of the convicts challenging their conviction by an anti-terrorism court on Feb 7.
The anti-terrorism court, which conducted trial of the lynching case inside the Haripur central prison, had convicted 31 of the accused persons, whereas remaining 26 accused were acquitted. The court had also issued perpetual arrest warrants of four of the absconding accused persons and they were declared proclaimed offenders.
The said 25 convicts, who are now released on bail, were sentenced by the trial court to three years rigorous imprisonment each, under section 11-WW of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, with a fine of Rs50,000 each. The said provision of ATA was incorporated in the law in Feb 2017 through the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2017, and it deals with lynching.
They were also sentenced to one-year imprisonment each with fine of Rs50,000 under section 297 (indignity to human corpse), 148 (rioting) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of Pakistain Penal Code (PPC). The trial court had ordered that their sentences shall run concurrently.
Before the high court, the counsels appearing for the said 25 convicts had contended that as their sentences were short one, they may be released on bail by suspending their sentences till final disposal of their appeal. It was contended that these petitioners were behind bars for the last about 10 months, but there was no likelihood that their appeal would be fixed for hearing in the near future due to the huge backlog of criminal cases before this court.
The bench in its order observed that the additional advocate general had also got no objection to the desired suspension of the sentences to the extent of petitioners who were sentenced to three years imprisonment.
The court had granted them bail on condition of furnishing two sureties each of Rs200,000. While the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) has empowered an appellate court to suspend a sentence and set free a convict on bail, the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) in clear terms provides that the appellate court shall not release the accused on bail.