IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN 
(Appellate Jurisdiction) 
 
PRESENT: 
Mr. Justice Mushir Alam, Chairman  
Mr. Justice Sardar Tariq Masood 
Mr. Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed 
Dr. Muhammad Al-Ghazali, Ad-hoc Member-I 
Dr. Muhammad Khalid Masud, Ad-hoc Member-II 
 
 
 
 
Criminal Shariat Appeal No.23 of 2017 
(On appeal against the judgment dated 
20.09.2011 passed by the Federal Shariat 
Court, Lahore, in Jail Criminal Appeal 
No.282/I 
of 
2004, 
Criminal 
Appeal 
No.342/L of 2004 and Criminal Murder 
Reference No.17/1 of 2004)  
 
i. 
Qaisar Mehmood 
 
ii. 
Muhammad Shaban 
 
 
 
…Appellant(s) 
 
 
 
 
 
Versus 
 
 
The State  
 
…Respondent(s) 
 
 
For the Appellant(s): 
Mr. Anis Muhammad Shahzad, ASC 
 
For the State: 
Ch. M. Sarwar Sidhu,  
 
Addl. Prosecutor General Punjab. 
 
Date of hearing: 
02.12.2020. 
 
JUDGMENT 
 
 
           Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, J.- Hafeez Ullah (PW-3), 
a street vendor, was in his usual business pursuit at 5:00 p.m. on 
13.5.2003, near Qazafi Park located within remit of Police Station City 
Muridke; his daughter Ramsha, 3 ½, was playing nearby, the 
appellants emerged at the scene and after cuddling the child 
affectionately took her inside the nearby factory where they worked; 
the unsuspecting father did not view child’s departure with any 
concern or alarm, however, as the child did not return after lapse of 
considerable time, he along with Muhammad Tufail and Muhammad 
Asif PWs approached the appellants who informed them that she had 
already left after a brief stay with them; overnight search yielded no 
results; in the morning both the witnesses saw the appellants once 
again while coming out of the factory with a gunny bag thrown by them 
Criminal Shariat Appeal No.23 of 2017 
 
2
near complainant’s home; it carried corpse of the child with massive 
marks of violence all over the body, confirmed by autopsy; these 
included a ligature mark around the neck and a bloodstained swollen 
vulva; vaginal parts were massively damaged with freshly torn bleeding 
hymen; fourchette was torn with a tear on right labia minora 
measuring 0.7 x 0.5 x 0.5 c.m; rectum was noted with an anal tear 
measuring 1.5 cm x 1 cm around the anus, going deep into the body. 
Severe hemorrhagic shock coupled by asphyxia led to the cardio 
respiratory failure as a collective consequence of injuries, inflicted 
within preceding 24 hours; forensic analysis of the swabs secured 
during autopsy established seminal stains; the Medical Officer 
confirmed sexual assault beyond child’s endurance. The appellants, 
after cleansing their breasts, one by one, before Muhammad Ismail 
(PW-11), escaping outrage in the neighbourhood, saved themselves by 
surrendering before the police on 14.5.2003; both of them were 
medically found potent; seizures, pursuant to their disclosures as well 
as during spot inspection, comprise string (P-1), bloodstained chaddar 
(P-2), bloodstained shoe (P-3) and gunny bag (P-4) alongside 
bloodstained earth, secured vide inventories; upon indictment they 
claimed trial. Prosecution produced as many as 13 witnesses to drive 
home the charge; confronted therewith, the appellants shifted the 
blame onto one Ansar, maternal cousin of factory’s owner as being the 
culprit, saved through good offices of Ishtiaq Ahmed, a sub-inspector 
at the same police station; they also produced Muhammad Sharif, 
milkman (DW-1) and Muhammad Aslam (DW-2) in their defence. The 
learned trial Judge, vide judgment dated 28.09.2004, returned both 
the appellants a guilty verdict; they were convicted and sentenced as 
under: 
Under Section 364-A PPC  
Imprisonment for life, each. 
 
Under Section 302(b) PPC & 
Section 10(4) of the Offence of 
Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) 
Ordinance, 1979 
 
Death on both counts with a 
direction to pay Diyat in the sum 
of Rs.150,000/- each to the legal 
heirs of the deceased,  
 
The Federal Shariat Court upheld the convictions and sentences, albeit 
conversion of Diyat into compensation within the contemplation of 
section 544-A of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, vide judgment 
dated 20.09.2011, being assailed through leave of the Court.  
2. 
 
  Learned counsel for the appellants contends that the 
appellants are victims of a misplaced and misconceived suspicion, 
Criminal Shariat Appeal No.23 of 2017 
 
3
orchestrated by Ishtiaq Ahmad sub-inspector to save the neck of one 
Ansar, a relative of the factory owner, who in fact had molested the 
child and since the appellants worked in the same premises, they were 
swapped as scapegoats; that extrajudicial confession narrated by 
Muhammad Ismail (PW-11), being joint in nature, is liable to be 
excluded from consideration leaving the last seen evidence furnished 
by Hafeez Ullah (PW-3), Muhammad Asif (PW-4) and Muhammad Tufail 
(PW-5) in a lurch. One weak piece of evidence cannot corroborate 
another weak piece of evidence and, thus, it would be unsafe to 
maintain 
the 
conviction 
with 
ultimate 
irreversible 
corporeal 
punishment, concluded the learned counsel. The learned Law Officer 
has 
faithfully 
defended 
the 
impugned 
judgment; 
highlighting 
abhorrently shocking nature of the crime inflicted upon a child of 
extreme tender age, he has referred to various pieces of evidence led by 
the prosecution to argue that prosecution produced straightforward 
evidence, available under the circumstances, inexorably pointed upon 
appellants’ culpability, situated within the proximity of time and space, 
with no animosity or grudge with the complainant or the witnesses, 
admitting no space to entertain any hypothesis other than their guilt; 
he has prayed for dismissal of the appeal. 
3. 
 
Heard. Record perused. 
4. 
 
Prosecution has relied upon a chain of circumstances 
comprising child’s departure in appellants’ company, heading towards 
the factory, seen again while disposing of the corpse concealed in a 
gunny bag (P-4); their confession shortly before arrest and subsequent 
recoveries of incriminatory bloodstained articles from their residential 
room 
in 
the 
factory; 
these 
uninterrupted 
continuing 
links, 
synchronized in a chain of circumstances, emerging in quick 
succession, are tallied by findings, recorded in the autopsy report that 
unambiguously confirmed a beastly carnal assault within the 
durations compatible with the incidence of events related by the 
witnesses; seizure of blood, string (P-1), Chaddar (P-2) and shoe  
(P-3), each with stains of blood, from inside the room occupied by the 
appellants, duly depicted in site plan (Ex.PW-13/6), establish beyond 
an iota of doubt that the child was molested to death in the room 
located in the factory where both the appellants admittedly worked for 
good; they were strangers neither to the complainant nor to the child 
and, thus, in a position to lure the latter without raising any suspicion, 
Criminal Shariat Appeal No.23 of 2017 
 
4
in a neighbouhood where children are vulnerably exposed. The 
appellants were identified, with the child before her death and at the 
time of disposal of the corpse, by the witnesses having no apparent 
motive either to falsely implicate them or swap them as suggested with 
one Ansar, a relative of the factory owner, as such substitution could 
not be manipulated in the small interregnum. Given the horrific 
magnitude of brutality inflicted upon the poor soul with entire locality 
in a state of shocking grief, appellants’ selection as scapegoats from the 
multitude of people by a police officer, without much substance or 
status, is a story that may not find a buyer. The incident immediately 
went viral with senior police officers being on board and, thus, it is 
rather difficult to assume that a sub-inspector of the police would be in 
a position to divert the course of investigation so as to let off the actual 
offenders by roping the innocent. Similarly, the argument, articulated 
at length, to assail the evidence of last seen and extrajudicial 
confession being inherently weak and, thus, liable to be excluded is 
entirely beside the mark. There are no empirical parameters to 
characterize reliability of a particular piece of evidence, either as strong 
or weak, for the purpose of prosecution of offenders, as the victims 
seldom fall prey to their tormentors under ideal conditions and thus, it 
would be rather naïve to expect choice evidence to meet standard of 
proof, thus, in a given situation the Court is required to assess 
integrity of available evidence so as to consider its adequacy in a given 
situation 
having 
regard 
to 
the 
universal 
principles 
of 
safe 
administration of criminal justice; for the said purpose, direct evidence 
furnished even by the injured witnesses, apparently with no axe to 
grind, can be dismissed, if otherwise found lacking the ring of truth; 
likewise, applying the same principle, the Court may rely upon the 
evidence of last seen, without a demur, if found free from any taint, 
constituting a reliable link between the offender and the victim within 
the proximity of time and space. In the present case, appellants’ 
employment as well as residence in the factory situated next to the 
complainant’s outlet is a common ground; both of them were seen 
while taking the child by her father as well as witnesses who are 
resident of the locality. The family immediately after child’s 
disappearance set out in her search and approached the appellants in 
the first place; they jointly pleaded ignorance while they owed an 
explanation; it is on the following day that they are seen while 
Criminal Shariat Appeal No.23 of 2017 
 
5
disposing of the corpse for the obvious reasons that it was simply not 
possible for them to hide it inside the factory, frequented by other 
workers. Duration of violence endured by the child is compatible with 
the noted timeframe of assault, death and autopsy; she being a child of 
extreme tender age could not survive merciless carnal assault and her 
cavities, both rectal as well as vaginal, with a freshly torn hymen, were 
noticed by the medical officer as profusely bleeding. In this backdrop, 
the evidence of last seen against the appellants, in itself, admits no 
space to entertain any hypothesis other than appellants’ guilt. 
Appellants’ confession shortly before their arrest, in circumstances 
reflects, a desperate conduct to ward off the consequences of intense 
rage that gripped the neighbourhood. Investigative conclusions are 
consistent with appellants’ culpability; witnesses produced by them, in 
retrospect 
aggravated 
their 
predicament. 
In 
the 
totality 
of 
circumstances established through various pieces of available evidence 
constitute a chain of circumstances with no missing link between the 
child and her assassins and, thus, the Courts below rightly served her 
justice though without possibility of any temporal recompense for most 
agonizing horror she experienced in disbelief. We discovered from the 
record that Qaisar Mehmood convict was a minor at the time of 
commission of crime, therefore, penalty of death inflicted upon him on 
both counts is reduced to imprisonment for life with concurrent 
commutation, benefits of pre-trial period inclusive. Convictions and 
sentences of Muhammad Shaban are maintained. With the above 
modification qua Qaisar Mehmood, the appeal is partly allowed, 
however, the same is dismissed vis-à-vis Muhammad Shaban convict.    
 
  
 
 
Chairman 
 
 
Member 
 
Member 
 
 
Member 
 
Member 
Islamabad, the 
2nd December, 2020 
Not approved for reporting 
Azmat/-