IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN 
(Appellate Jurisdiction) 
 
 
PRESENT: 
Mr. Justice Maqbool Baqar 
Mr. Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed 
 
 
Cr. M.A. No.130-K/2019 in Cr. Petition No.137-K/2019  
and Criminal Petition No.137-K/2019  
(For restoration - Against the judgment 
dated 30.04.2018 passed by the High 
Court of Sindh at Karachi in Crl. Appeal 
Nos.309 & 336 of 2913) 
 
 
Muhammad Imran 
 
 
…Petitioner(s) 
 
 
 
 
 
Versus 
 
The State  
…Respondent(s) 
 
 
For the Petitioner(s): 
Mr. Muhammad Ashraf Kazi, Sr.ASC 
 
For the State: 
Mr. Hussain Bukhsh Baloch, Additional 
Prosecutor General Sindh. 
 
Date of hearing: 
20.03.2020. 
 
JUDGMENT 
 
Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, J.- 
 
Cr.M.A. No.130-K/2019 in Cr.P. No.137-K/2019. For the reasons 
mentioned in the application, the same is allowed; main petition is 
restored to its original number.  
Criminal Petition No.137-K/2019. 
 
2. 
 
 Malik Safeer, 30, was stabbed to death on 16.8.2005 at 
10:15 p.m. within the precincts of Police Headquarter Garden Karachi; 
incident was reported after midnight at 1:30 a.m. by his brother Malik 
Shahzada Khan (PW-2); he nominated Muhammad Imran, petitioner, 
along with Jahanzeb, Saleem Khadra, since acquitted, and Khalid 
Shah, P.O.  
 
As per complainant, a police constable, on the fateful night, he 
was sitting outside his home with his friend Fazal Abbas (PW-4) when 
Umar Daraz (PW-9) laid information about an ongoing brawl between 
the deceased and the accused, outside Darbar Peer Kunda; he rushed to 
the scene to find the deceased being stabbed by Muhammad Imran 
Cr. M.A. No.130-K/2019 in Cr. Petition No.137-K/2019  
and Criminal Petition No.137-K/2019  
 
 
2
within his view; the accused decamped from the venue and the 
deceased, in injured condition, shifted to the hospital, however, 
succumbed to the injuries on way. A dispute over a cell phone handset 
is cited as a motive for the crime.  
 
Autopsy conducted at 1:30 p.m. revealed three cavity deep stab 
wounds on both sides of the chest, with resultant cardiac failure 
without reference to durations. The accused, barring the P.O, were 
arrested on 17.8.2005; a bloodstained dagger/Churra was recovered 
upon disclosure of acquitted co-accused Saleem Khadra. Prosecution 
case is structured upon ocular account furnished by Malik Shahzada 
Khan (PW-2), Fazal Abbas (PW-4) and Umar Daraz (PW-9), confronted 
by the petitioner with the following plea:- 
“I am innocent. I have been falsely implicated in 
this case due to enmity as on the day of incident 
deceased and PW Riasat attacked on our house 
and injured my mother. In this respect uncle 
Jahanzaib reported at P.S. Nabi Bux vide rapat 
No.52 at 22:40 hours dt. 16.8.2005. I produce 
Roznamcha entry No.52 as Exh.26/A and ML 
certificate of my mother as Exh.26/b. The report 
was against deceased Malik Safeer and PW Riasat. 
Police had issued a letter in favour of my mother to 
visit hospital for treatment. Accordingly she went 
and examined. I produce police letter and hospital 
slip as Exh.26/C and 26/D. As a counter blast this 
FIR has been registered. The deceased was 
criminal person. There were so many criminal cases 
were registered at P.S Nabi Bux and Jamshed 
Quarter. I produce FIR No.58/2002 registered 
against deceased Malik Safeer & others, as 
Exh.26/E. He was criminal person and any other 
criminal person murdered him and the complainant 
falsely involved me in this case. I am innocent.”  
 
Unimpressed by the plea, the learned trial Judge returned a guilty 
verdict under clause (b) of section 302 read with section 34 of the 
Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 and sentenced the accused to imprisonment 
for life vide judgment dated 30.10.2018, upheld by a learned Judge-in-
Chamber, 
qua 
the 
petitioner 
vide 
impugned 
judgment 
dated 
30.04.2018, being impugned through Cr. Petition No.137-K of 2019, 
barred by delay of 353 days, condoned in the interest of justice.  
3. 
 
Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that occurrence 
did not take place in the manner as alleged in the crime report lodged 
after considerable delay despite the police station, located close by; that 
presence of the witnesses appears to be extremely improbable as given 
their number, they could have easily apprehend the petitioner or 
intervene to rescue the deceased; that receipt of injuries by petitioner’s 
mother Ramseela Begum is established through official documents and 
Cr. M.A. No.130-K/2019 in Cr. Petition No.137-K/2019  
and Criminal Petition No.137-K/2019  
 
 
3
witnesses, a circumstance, suggestive of a different scenario, that 
escaped notice by the courts below; discrepant statements by the 
witnesses have been referred to conclude that prosecution had not been 
able to drive home the charge beyond reasonable doubt. The learned 
Law Officer has faithfully defended the impugned judgment. 
4. 
 
Heard. Record perused. 
5. 
 
Ocular 
account, 
prosecution’s 
mainstay, 
has 
been 
furnished by the witnesses, found by us out of tune with one another; 
Fazal Abbas (PW-4) has been silent about material details of the 
incident, otherwise succinctly related by the complainant whom the 
witness statedly accompanied to the venue. On the contrary, according 
to his statement, in examination-in-chief, the witness appears to have 
arrived at the scene after the deceased had already fallen. Umar Daraz 
(PW-9) is prosecution star witness; according to him, Khalid Shah and 
Jahanzeb, co-accused, held iron bars whereas the petitioner carried a 
Churri, a position that is not shared by the other witnesses; they are 
also discrepant on the manner and mode of their arrival at the crime 
scene; according to Umar Daraz PW, they reached the scene on a 
motorbike whereas remainder of the witnesses are reticent as to how 
they covered the distance; they is no unanimity amongst them on the 
passage, they took the deceased to the hospital. These contradictions, 
viewed in the retrospect of arrival of the witnesses exactly at a point of 
time when the petitioner started inflicting blows to the deceased with 
their inability to apprehend him without there being any weapon to 
keep them effectively at bay, cast shadows on the hypothesis of their 
presence during the fateful moments.  It was an odd hour of night 
without any source of light as admitted by no other than Fazal Abbas 
(PW-4) himself. Petitioner’s mother Mst. Ramseela was medically 
examined under a police docket at 10:30 p.m. on 17.8.2015; she was 
noted with an incised wound on the palmer aspect of her right hand; 
wound though not extensive, nonetheless, suggests a happening 
incompatible with the case set up in the crime report, a possibility 
further strengthened by a Rapat of even date incorporated in the daily 
diary at the same police station. Despite defence’s inaptitude to clearly 
put-forth its case, a different story is spelt out from prosecution’s own 
case. Argument that occurrence did not take place in the manner as 
alleged by the witnesses does not appear to be unrealistic. Co-accused, 
blamed to have clutched the deceased to facilitate the petitioner have 
since been acquitted on the same evidence without reproach. Recovery 
Cr. M.A. No.130-K/2019 in Cr. Petition No.137-K/2019  
and Criminal Petition No.137-K/2019  
 
 
4
of Churra/dagger from inside Darbar, that too, upon the disclosure of a  
co-accused, fails to inspire confidence so as to be received as 
independent corroboration. It is by now well settled that benefit of a 
single circumstance, deducible from the record, intriguing upon the 
integrity of prosecution case, is to be extended to the accused without 
reservation; the case is fraught with many. It would be unsafe to 
maintain the conviction. Criminal Petition is converted into appeal and 
allowed. The appellant is acquitted from the charge; he shall be released 
forthwith, if not required to be detained in any other case.  
 
 
 
Judge 
 
 
 
 
 
Judge 
Karachi, the 
20th March, 2020 
Not approved for reporting 
Azmat/- 
