IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN 
(Appellate Jurisdiction) 
 
 
 
 
PRESENT: 
Mr. Justice Sardar Tariq Masood 
Mr. Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed 
 
 
 
Jail Petition No.497 of 2015 
(Against judgment dated 18.11.2015 passed by the 
Lahore High Court at Rawalpindi Bench in Crl. Appeal 
No.602 of 2010) 
  
 
Mazhar Ellahi 
  
 
…Petitioner(s) 
 
 
 
 
 
Versus 
 
The State 
…Respondent(s) 
 
For the Petitioner(s): 
Mr. Kashif Ali Malik, ASC 
 
Syed Rafaqat Hussain Shah, AOR 
 
For the State: 
Mr. Ahmad Raza Gillani,  
 
Additional 
Prosecutor 
General, 
Punjab 
 
Date of hearing: 
20.2.2020. 
 
JUDGMENT 
 
 
 
Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, J.- Jan Muhammad 
alias Jani, 18, was done to death on 22.5.2007 at 7:30 p.m. within 
the remit of Police Station City Hassan Abdal District Attock; from 
amongst the witnesses Sajid Mehmood (PW-10) was also repeatedly 
shot when he beseeched the assailants to spare the deceased. 
Statedly accompanied by his son Imran Khan, since acquitted, 
Mazhar Ilahi, petitioner herein, is blamed for successive shots, 
both upon the deceased as well as the witness. Motive for the 
crime is a suspected liaison allegedly carried by deceased’s brother 
with petitioner’s daughter. Incident was reported same day at  
9:15 p.m. in the Civil Hospital where the injured was examined 
and autopsy conducted at 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. respectively. 
Recoveries include seizure of blood and casings from the spot and 
a .30 caliber pistol (P-7), pursuant to a disclosure. Assailants 
 Jail Petition No.497 of 2015 
2
claimed trial; while extending benefit of the doubt to Imran Khan 
co-accused, the petitioner was convicted for homicide as well as 
murderous assault; vide judgment dated 28.5.2009, on both the 
charges, he was sentenced to death and imprisonment for  
10 years, with direction to pay compensation as well as fine;  
a learned Division Bench of Lahore High Court at Rawalpindi 
maintained the convictions albeit with alteration of death penalty 
into imprisonment for life; the High Court additionally convicted 
the petitioner under Section  337 L(ii) of the Pakistan Penal Code, 
1860 and sentenced him to rigorous imprisonment for one year 
with concurrent commutation, under-trial  period inclusive, vide 
impugned judgment dated 18.11.2015, vires whereof were assailed 
through a jail petition, argued by Mr. Kashif Ali Malik, ASC on a 
variety of grounds, absence of motive qua the deceased being most 
prominent. It is next argued that notwithstanding, absence of a 
specific role, acquittal of Imran Khan co-accused raised the 
prosecution case to the ground, as fall out thereof, according to the 
learned counsel, casts away testimony of the injured witness as 
well; suppression of forensic report destroyed the entire edifice, 
concluded the learned counsel.  
2. 
 
With the assistance of the learned counsel for the 
petitioner as well as the learned Law Officer, we examined the 
record to find out a remarkable promptitude in registration of the 
case, examination of the injured and autopsy of the deceased soon 
thereafter. Occurrence took place within the bounds of the locality 
where presence of the witnesses, particularly one having extensive 
injuries cannot be viewed with suspicion. We have otherwise found 
their statements in a complete unison with details of the salient 
aspects of the occurrence as well as events collateral therewith; 
they have been confronted with cross-examination, devoid of 
direction and hopelessly inconsequential. Though the High Court 
discarded recovery of .30 caliber pistol (P-7), nonetheless, the 
injuries endured both by the deceased as well as the injured are 
consistent with the weapon, singularly used with awful lethality by 
the petitioner. Totality of circumstances does not admit any 
hypothesis other than petitioner’s guilt. Non-assignment of 
effective shot to Imran Khan, acquitted co-accused, in the face of 
multiple fire shots and available wounds, in retrospect, lends 
 Jail Petition No.497 of 2015 
3
additional credence to the prosecution case, his acquittal 
notwithstanding. Benefit for absence of forensic report and a 
misdirected motive has already been extended to the petitioner 
despite shocking brutality inflicted by him upon the deceased, still 
a 
teenager, 
besides 
targeting 
Sajid 
Mehmood 
PW 
who 
unsuspectingly intervened to rescue the deceased in good faith. 
Scales are in balance. Petition fails; leave declined.    
 
 
 
Judge 
 
 
Judge 
Islamabad, the 
20th February, 2020 
Not approved for reporting 
Azmat/-