IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN 
(Appellate Jurisdiction) 
 
 
 
PRESENT: 
Mr. Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik 
Mr. Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel 
Mr. Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed 
 
 
 
Criminal Appeal No.85 of 2020 
(Against judgment dated 29.09.2015 passed by the 
Lahore High Court Lahore in Crl. Appeal Nos.122-J 
with M.R. No.131/2011) 
 
 
 
Muhammad Imran 
 
 
 
…Appellant(s) 
 
 
 
 
 
Versus 
 
 
The State  
 
…Respondent(s) 
 
 
For the Appellant(s): 
Mr. M. Siddique Khan Baloch, ASC 
 
For the State:  
Mirza Abid Majeed, 
 
Deputy Prosecutor General Punjab 
 
Date of hearing: 
29.10.2020. 
 
JUDGMENT 
 
 
 
Qazi 
Muhammad 
Amin 
Ahmed, 
J.- 
Indicted 
for 
committing Qatl-i-Amd of his wife Nasreen Bibi, 30, as well as 
daughters Aneela Bibi, 17, and Sawaira, 9, at 8/9:00 a.m. on 8.7.2010, 
within the precincts of Police Station Chatiana District Toba Tek Singh, 
Muhammad Imran appellant, convicted under clause (b) of section 302 
of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860,  had been condemned to death on 
three counts by the learned Sessions Judge Toba Tek Singh vide 
judgment dated 8.3.2011, upheld/confirmed by the High Court vide 
impugned judgment dated 29.9.2015, vires whereof, are being assailed 
by leave of the Court.  
2. 
 
Nasreen Bibi, deceased, was appellant’s second wife; she 
mothered three children, namely, Samiullah, Abu Bakar and Swaira; 
Aneela Bibi was born from appellant’s earlier wedlock; the marriage 
went on the rocks; upon complaints of violent treatment, appellant’s 
in-laws repeatedly intervened to restore congeniality between the 
spouses albeit with no success. According to the complainant, on the 
Criminal Appeal No.85 of 2020 
2
fateful day, the appellant once again violently lost temper and for that 
he was sent for by his daughter, in pursuant whereto, he alongwith 
Abdul Ghaffar (PW-7) and Muhammad Naveed (given up PW) visited the 
family at about 8/9:00 a.m. and once again tried to persuade the 
couple to amicably settle their differences; it was shortly thereafter that 
the appellant locked the deceased inside a room; attracted by the 
commotion, the witnesses saw the appellant through a window while 
dealing repeated Toka blows to the deceased; despite attempts, they 
failed to barge entry in the room to rescue them; after dealing with the 
deceased, the appellant, brandishing the weapon,  took to the heels. 
The victims succumbed to the injuries at the spot. It is alleged that the 
appellant was annoyed by complainant’s visit on his daughter’s call 
that he avenged upon the deceased. Autopsies commenced at 4:30 
p.m; Nasreen Bibi was noted with 11 incised wounds on various parts 
of her body whereas the girls suffered respectively 4 and 5 wounds of 
identical nature, generating hemorrhagic shock in each case, opined as 
cause of death. After his arrest, pursuant to a disclosure, the appellant 
led to recovery of bloodstained Toka (P-12) on 18.7.2010; blood 
scrapings were forensically confirmed that of human origin.  The 
appellant confronted prosecution evidence with the following plea: 
“I am involved in this case on the basis of 
suspicion. I was on job on that night. I am 
innocent. I came at the place of occurrence 
when police had reached there. Witnesses 
have deposed against me being closely related 
to the complainant.” 
However, led no evidence to establish the alibi. 
3. 
 
Learned counsel for the appellant contends that occurrence 
was an un-witnessed affair inasmuch as arrival of the witnesses at the 
crime scene is far from being probable and, thus, it would be unsafe to 
rely upon their testimony; the bottom line is that they being chance 
witnesses are not worthy of credit. It is next argued that the motive 
asserted by the prosecution is not only false but inconceivable as well, 
inasmuch as in the face of a run of the mill matrimonial dispute, the 
appellant had no earthly reason to violently slaughter his family that 
included his two daughters, having no nexus with the controversy. 
Alternately, it is argued that since the episode is shrouded into 
mystery, sentence of imprisonment for life, being a safer course, would 
meet the ends of justice. The learned Law Officer faithfully defended 
the impugned judgment; highlighting shockingly gruesome brutality, 
Criminal Appeal No.85 of 2020 
3
he has opposed alteration of death penalty into imprisonment for life; 
according to him, in the absence of any judicially recognized mitigating 
circumstance, the wage was rightly settled. 
4. 
 
Heard. Record perused. 
5. 
 
Prosecution case is structured upon ocular account 
furnished by Abdul Sattar (PW-6) and Abdul Ghaffar (PW-7); former is 
appellant’s father-in-law whereas the latter is distantly related with 
him and as such they are not expected to swap the culprit of gruesome 
murders with the appellant, himself figuring as son-in-law within the 
family bond. Nasreen Bibi was survived by two sons Samiullah and 
Abu Bakar who escaped assassin’s wrath; it is inconceivable that the 
complainant would falsely substitute father of his grand children, 
already devastated by the loss of their mother as well as sister. 
Circumstances of the case and evidence brought on the record do not 
admit any space to even obliquely entertain any hypothesis of 
substitution, otherwise a rare phenomena, antithetical to retributive 
human instinct. Similarly, uncongenial matrimonial relationship has 
not seriously been disputed and, thus, the cited motive cannot be 
discounted nor considered as inconceivable so as to extend any 
premium to the appellant. On the contrary, appellant’s awfully 
disproportionate violent response on his wife’s approach to her father 
for rescue and awful brutality inflicted by him on her and two 
unconcerned innocent daughters, one from his previous marriage, do 
not 
provide 
him 
any 
space 
to 
hide 
behind 
the 
shield 
of 
disproportionality of his appalling behaviour. Likewise, visit by the 
witnesses on the fateful day, cannot be viewed as improbable or 
unnatural. A father visiting his distressed daughter to mediate an 
ongoing dispute cannot be characterized as a witness arriving at the 
scene per chance. Both the witnesses furnished graphic details of the 
occurrence as well as the events collateral therewith; in a comfortable 
and confidence inspiring unison, they faced no serious challenge 
during 
the 
cross-examination, 
otherwise 
inconsequential 
and 
directionless, mainly comprising bald suggestions, vehemently denied. 
Recovery of Toka (P-12) provides additional corroboration, stained with 
blood of human origin, the weapon recovered upon appellant’s 
disclosure is singularly consistent with the injuries suffered by all the 
deceased. Ghulam Qadir, SI (PW-10) carried out the investigation; he 
unambiguously 
controverted 
position 
taken 
by 
the 
defence. 
Prosecution has successfully driven home the charge beyond 
Criminal Appeal No.85 of 2020 
4
reasonable doubt. On a most careful examination of the record, we 
have not been able to find out even a smallest space to entertain any 
hypothesis other than appellant’s guilt; his callously reckless disregard 
for human life in a trivial domestic situation without provocation and 
infliction of gruesome brutality on the poor souls of his own clan is 
chillingly shocking to the judicial conscience and, thus, wage settled by 
the trial Court, upheld by the High Court is conscionable on scales; he 
deserved nothing less. Appeal disallowed.   
 
 
 
 
 
Judge 
 
 
 
Judge 
 
 
Judge 
Islamabad, the 
29th October, 2020 
Not approved for reporting 
Azmat/-