IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN 
(Appellate Jurisdiction) 
PRESENT: 
Mr. Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel 
Mr. Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed 
 
Criminal Petition No.126-P/2011 
(Against the judgment dated 23.11.2011 of the Peshawar High Court  
Peshawar passed in Cr.A. No.571/2009) 
 
Abdul Latif 
 
 
…Petitioner(s) 
 
 
 
 
 
Versus 
 
 
 
 
  
Noor Zaman and another 
 
…Respondent(s) 
 
For the Petitioner(s): 
Mr. Suhail Akhtar, ASC 
 
 
 
 
For the Respondent(s): 
N.R. 
 
Date of hearing: 
28.6.2021 
 
ORDER 
 
 
 
Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, J.- Falak Naz, 15, was 
shot dead at 10:45 a.m. on 28.7.2007 within the precincts of Police 
Station Dargai Malakand; the incident was reported by her cousin 
Muhammad Shakil; he blamed Noor Zaman respondent, an aspirant for 
her hand, to have committed the murder to avenge the refusal; he cited 
in the crime report one Zafar Ali as well as deceased’s aunt Pashmina 
as witnesses of the crime, swapped by her maternal uncle Yousaf Khan 
(PW-6) and mother Mst. Nasreen (PW-7) to drive home the charge in the 
absence of the complainant.  
 
 
The learned trial Judge while acquitting Muhammad 
Nawaz, co-accused, blamed for abetment, proceeded to convict the 
respondent under clause (b) of section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 
1860 and sentenced him to death vide judgment dated 19.11.2009, set 
aside by a learned Division Bench of Peshawar High Court vide 
impugned judgment dated 23.11.2011, primarily on the ground that 
after defection of all the witnesses named in the crime report, there was 
hardly an occasion for the trial Judge to return a guilty verdict on the 
strength of swapped witnesses, never named in the crime report.  
2. 
 
Learned counsel for the petitioner blamed exasperating 
delays in the legal process to justify complainant’s departure abroad for 
good; according to him, the witnesses though not named in the crime 
report, nonetheless, had seen the gory incident and, thus, their 
testimonies can be safely relied upon to secure the ends of justice as 
brutal murder of an innocent teenager must not go unpunished; 
Criminal Petition No.126-P/2018 
 
2
absence of a witness’s name in the crime report, otherwise proving his 
presence at the scene to have witnessed the crime is sufficient to bring 
home the charge as the First Information Report is not expected to be 
prosecution’s last word, concluded the learned counsel.  
3. 
 
Heard. Record perused. 
4. 
 
Gruesome murder of Falak Naz, a in her burgeoning youth, 
is most shocking to say the least, nonetheless, dispatching respondent 
to the gallows in the absence of reliable evidence, convincingly 
excluding every hypothesis of his innocence, is an issue altogether 
different. In our adversarial system of administration of criminal justice, 
responsibility lies with the prosecution to establish the charge “beyond 
doubt” on the preponderance of confidence inspiring evidence; the case 
in hand, unfortunately, fails to qualify the requisite standard/quality of 
proof. The complainant conveniently left the scene without even once 
appearing before the Court; same goes for the other witnesses that 
included Pashmina Bibi, no other than deceased’s aunt in first degree. 
No doubt, First Information Report is not an encyclopedia of 
prosecution’s case, nonetheless, it does contain certain details that 
serves as its mainstay in the voyage; witnesses are the most prominent 
part of those details as their testimonies provide evidentiary certainty 
regarding the guilt of an offender. Replacement of the witnesses 
previously named in the crime report with those, lacking reference 
therein, would inevitably tremor the whole edifice as the transposition 
reasonably hypothesizes their absence at the scene. Explanations 
furnished by the substituted set of witnesses find no support from the 
record as statement of Mst. Nasreen (PW-7), deceased’s mother, is 
contradicted both by the Investigating Officer (PW-8) as well as the site 
plan of the crime scene. In the absence of confidence inspiring evidence, 
the respondent could not have been convicted and sentenced merely on 
the strength of moral certainty regarding his guilt. View taken by the 
High Court being in accord with the well settled principles of safe 
administration of criminal justice calls for no interference. Petition fails. 
Leave declined.  
 
 
  
Judge 
 
Judge 
Peshawar, the 
28th June, 2021 
Not approved for reporting 
Azmat/- 
