IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN 
(Appellate Jurisdiction) 
 
PRESENT: 
Mr. Justice Mushir Alam 
Mr. Justice Yahya Afridi 
Mr. Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed 
 
 
 
Criminal Petition No. 50-Q of 2017 
(Against 
the 
judgment 
dated 
19.06.2017 passed by the Balochistan 
High Court, Quetta in Crl. Appeal 
No.337/2016)  
 
 
 
Muhammad Ashraf 
 
 
 
 
…Petitioner(s) 
 
 
 
 
 
Versus 
 
 
The State  
 
…Respondent(s) 
 
 
For the Petitioner(s): Mr. Zahoor Ahmed Chishti, ASC 
 
For the State:  
Mr. Wallayat Hussain, 
 
 
 
 
Addl. Prosecutor General Balochistan 
 
Date of hearing: 
13.10.2020. 
 
 
 
 
 
ORDER 
 
 
 
    Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, J.- Mehboob Ali, 35, 
was shot dead during the wee hours of 21.6.2015, while asleep as a 
guest in the house of his brother Abdul Karim (PW-5), located within 
the precincts of Police Station Levies Dashat, Mastung. Incident was 
reported 
by 
his 
sister 
Zarnaz 
(PW-1), 
a 
resident 
in 
the 
neighbourhood; she accused the petitioner alongside Dur Khan, 
Qadir Bukhsh, Badal Khan, Haji Khan and Muhammad Yousaf, 
away from the law till date, for the murder in the backdrop of a 
previous dispute. Spot inspection includes seizure of blood as well as 
18 casings of Kalashnikov. Autopsy report confirmed multiple 
entrance wounds on the forehead with corresponding exits, 
cumulatively leading to the death. The petitioner was alone to 
contest indictment before the learned Sessions Judge Mastung; vide 
 Criminal Petition No.50-Q of 2017 
2
judgment dated 08.10.2016 he was convicted under sections 302, 
449 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 and sentenced to 
imprisonment for life and seven years RI, respectively, with a 
direction to pay compensation as well as fine, upheld by the High 
Court of Balochistan vide impugned judgment dated 19.06.2017, 
albeit with a direction for concurrent commutation of sentences, pre-
trial period inclusive.  
2.  
 Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the 
deceased was done to death under mysterious circumstances in an 
unseen occurrence, noticed subsequently and reported through the 
witnesses, stage-managed after consultations; that despite his 
having endured the period of physical remand, no recovery was 
effected from the petitioner, a circumstance in itself, vindicating his 
position. Occurrence being a night affair, reported after inordinate 
delay, the question of assailants’ identity is looming large on the 
scene, concluded the learned counsel. The learned Law Officer has 
faithfully defended the impugned judgment.  
3.  
Heard. Record perused. 
4.  
The prosecution has primarily relied upon ocular account 
furnished by Mst. Naz Malik (PW-3), Abdul Fatah (PW-4) and Abdul 
Karim (PW-5); the last is real brother of the deceased whom he 
visited during the fateful night in the month of Ramzan; Mst. Naz 
Malik is a niece, wife of Abdul Fatah (PW-4), residents of the locality; 
all of them unanimously pointed their fingers upon the petitioner, 
accompanied by the absconding co-accused who took on the 
deceased shortly after close of Sehar. In this backdrop, the 
hypothesis of a mistaken identity in the month of June with early 
dawn is beside the mark. Given the location of police station at a 
distance of 30/32 kilometers from the place of occurrence in the 
province of Balochistan with primitive means of communication, 
report straight at the police station cannot be viewed with suspicion. 
With assistance of learned counsel, we have gone through the 
statements of witnesses to find them in a confidence inspiring 
unison; inconsequential cross-examination mostly comprising of 
bald suggestions, each vehemently denied, fails to reflect upon the 
credibility of witnesses; on the contrary, confirms an ongoing dispute 
between the deceased and Dur Khan, one of the accused still 
 Criminal Petition No.50-Q of 2017 
3
absconding. The witnesses being inmate of the premises, themselves 
have no axe to grind against the accused nor are expected to swap 
the actual offender with the innocent, as there is nothing on the 
record to even obliquely entertain any theory of substitution; they 
have rightly been held as worthy of credence; reliance upon their 
testimonies by the Courts below being in accord with the principles 
of safe administration of criminal justice calls for no interference. 
Petition fails. Leave declined.  
 
 
 
Judge 
 
 
Judge 
 
 
Judge 
Islamabad, the 
13th October, 2020 
Not approved for reporting 
Azmat/-