IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN 
(Appellate Jurisdiction) 
 
 
PRESENT:  
Mr. Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik 
Mr. Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah 
Mr. Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed 
 
Criminal Appeal No.7-P of 2013 
(Against the judgment dated 31.01.2007 
passed by the Peshawar High Court, 
Peshawar in Criminal Appeal No.530 of 
2005). 
 
State thr. Advocate General, KP 
…Appellant(s) 
VERSUS 
Muhammad Rafiq & others 
…Respondent(s) 
 
 
For the Appellant(s) 
: Syed Qaisar Ali Shah,  
Additional Advocate General, 
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 
 
 
 
For the Respondent(s) 
: N.R. 
 
 
 
Date of Hearing 
: 29.04.2019 
 
Judgment 
  
 
Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, J.- Through leave of 
the Court, respondents’ acquittal from the charge of homicide by a 
learned division bench of the Peshawar High Court vide impugned 
judgment dated 31.1.2007 has been called into question; they were 
returned a guilty verdict by a learned Additional Sessions Judge, at 
Swabi for committing qatl-e-amd of Tariq Ahmed and Muhammad 
Rafiq on 11.10.1990 within the precincts of Police Station Swabi 
while they were being sent off by their mother Mst. Poshan, PW, on 
their way to Islamabad; convicted on two counts of homicide they 
were sentenced to imprisonment for life on each, to run 
concurrently with benefit of Section 382-B of the Code of Criminal 
Procedure, 1898. 
2. 
 
Learned counsel for the appellant contends that there 
was no occasion for the learned High Court to acquit the 
respondents from the charge inasmuch as prosecution successfully 
proved its case beyond a shadow of doubt on the strength of 
confidence inspiring evidence leaving no space to entertain any 
Criminal Appeal No.7-P of 2013 
2
hypothesis other than their guilt. It is next argued that presence of 
Mst. Poshan, PW with her sons at the time of their departure for 
Islamabad cannot be viewed with suspicion; on the contrary her 
last detour with the deceased sons is most confidence inspiring 
and she certainly is not expected to swap the real offenders 
through substitution. The impugned acquittal has resulted into 
miscarriage of justice warranting interference by this Court, 
concludes the learned counsel. 
2. 
 
Magnitude of calamity and concomitant trauma for the 
family, notwithstanding what weighed with the learned High Court 
nonetheless is improbability of complainant’s presence at the crime 
scene during the fateful hours. Emotional attachments apart it is 
rather unusual for a woman more so in a pashtoon rural 
neighborhood to accompany her sons at a public thorough fare 
who 
had 
already 
spent 
preceding 
day 
in 
her 
company. 
Prosecution’s dilemma has been further compounded by deviation 
of Inzar Gul from his previous statement; conflict between ocular 
account and medical evidence noticed by learned High Court is not 
unrealistic. Once presence of Mst. Poshan, PW is found suspect, 
the testimony of Inzar Gul is also cast away. In this backdrop, 
impugned acquittal is premised on a prudently possible view which 
cannot be reversed merely on contra contemplation.  Appeal is 
dismissed.      
    
 
 
 
 
JUDGE 
 
 
 
JUDGE 
 
 
 
Islamabad, the 
29th of April, 2019 
Ghulam Raza/* 
JUDGE 
 
