IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN  
(Appellate Jurisdiction) 
 
PRESENT:  
MR. JUSTICE MAQBOOL BAQAR 
MR. JUSTICE YAHYA AFRIDI 
MR. JUSTICE QAZI MUHAMMAD AMIN AHMAD 
 
 
Jail Petition No.417 of 2019 
(Against the judgment dated 14.05.2019 passed by the 
Lahore High Court Lahore in Cr.A No.1532/2016 & Cr. 
Rev. Noi.1646/2016) 
 
 
 
Jabar Ali  
 
 
…Petitioner(s) 
                                        VERSUS 
 
 
The State 
 
…Respondent(s) 
 
 
For the Petitioner(s): 
Nemo 
 
 
For the State 
Ch. Muhammad Sarwar Sidhu, Addl. 
A.G. Punjab 
 
 
Date of Hearing: 
29.09.2021 
 
 
 
 
 
     O R D E R 
 
 
 
Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, J.- Indicted for committing 
Qatl-i-Amd of Muhammad Hussain deceased, 33/34, Jabar Ali, petitioner, 
was returned a guilty verdict  by a learned Addl. Sessions Judge at Jhang 
vide judgment dated 22.06.2016; convicted under clause (b) of section 302 of 
the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860, he was sentenced to imprisonment for life 
along with compensation, vide judgment dated  22.6.2016, upheld by a 
learned Judge-in-Chamber of the Lahore High Court vide impugned 
judgment dated 14.05.2019, vires whereof, are being assailed through the 
captioned petition.  
 
Reported to the police by Arshad Mehmood (PW-8), the incident 
occurred at 8:30 p.m. on 9.10.2014 within the precincts of Police Station 
Ahmad Pur Sial, District Jhang, in a marriage ceremony, when petitioner’s 
presence amongst the women folk was objected by the deceased; the former 
retaliated, outside the house, with a fire shot on the left side of latter’s chest; 
the second shot went astray; autopsy confirmed receipt of fatal shot, within 
the preceding 24 hours, being the immediate cause of death. Spot inspection 
includes seizure of casings (Ex.P-4/5), forensically found wedded with a .30 
caliber pistol (P-6), recovered pursuant to petitioner’s disclosure on 
26.10.2014. As the petitioner claimed trial, the prosecution primarily relied 
upon ocular account, its mainstay, comprising statements of Arshad 
Jail Petition No.417/2019 
 
Mehmood (PW-8) and Liaqat Ali (PW-9), concurrently received with approval 
by the Courts below.  
2. 
 
We have independently gone through the statements of the 
witnesses with the assistance of learned Law Officer to find that on the 
fateful night, the petitioner, the deceased and the witnesses, related to one 
another, were present inside the house of Ghulam Shabbir in Rasm-e-Hina of 
his son Javed Akhtar; the invitees included a number of females, 
traditionally participating in the event and it is in this backdrop that 
petitioner’s stroll amongst the ladies was viewed as an act unbecoming by 
the deceased, suggesting recusal. It is shortly thereafter that the petitioner 
targeted the deceased in front of Ghulam Shabbir’s house, a point vividly 
depicted in the unrebutted site plan (Ex.PB/I); graphic details of the incident 
furnished by both the witnesses have been found by us straightforward and 
confidence inspiring; considerable distance between the venue and the 
respective abodes of the witnesses, highlighted in the cross-examination, 
given the occasion, satisfactorily explain their presence at the scene; both of 
them comfortably withstood an otherwise inconsequential cross-examination 
without embarrassment. Durations recorded by the medical officer are 
consistent with the prosecution case and so are confirmatory the forensic 
report as well as recovery of weapon (P-6). Defence plea that the deceased 
was done to death by unknown assailants in a dacoity is a position, 
belatedly introduced for the first time during the trial; substitution is a rare 
phenomena, 
antithetical 
to 
retributive 
human 
instinct; 
formidable 
prosecution evidence singularly pointed towards petitioner’s culpability, in 
the absence of any foundational basis, does not admit any space to entertain 
such an hypothesis. An unreported dacoity involving homicide, allegedly 
converted into petitioner’s nomination for the crime, in a small interregnum 
of time, that too, without any earthly reason, is a story too illusory to find a 
buyer. Finding of guilt recorded by the trial Court, rightly affirmed by the 
High Court, found by us on our own analysis, being in accord with the 
principle of safe administration of criminal justice, calls for no interference. 
Petition fails. Leave declined.  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
JUDGE 
 
 
 
JUDGE 
 
 
 
JUDGE 
ISLAMABAD 
29th September, 2021 
Azmat/* 
“Not approved for Reporting” 
 
Jail Petition No.417/2019 
 
 
