IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PAKISTAN 
(Appellate Jurisdiction) 
 
PRESENT: 
Mr. Justice Mushir Alam 
Mr. Justice Yahya Afridi 
Mr. Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed 
 
 
Jail Petition No. 282 of 2017 
(Against the judgment dated 26.01.2017 
passed by the Lahore High Court Lahore 
Multan Bench Multan in Crl. Appeal No.689-
J and 840 of 2012 with M.R. No.77 of 2011)  
 
 
 
Muhammad Ramzan 
 
 
 
…Petitioner(s) 
 
 
 
 
 
Versus 
 
 
The State  
 
…Respondent(s) 
 
 
For the Petitioner(s): 
Mr. M. Sharif Janjua, ASC 
 
For the State: 
Ch. Muhammad Sarwar Sandhu, 
 
Addl. Prosecutor General Punjab 
 
Date of hearing: 
12.10.2020. 
 
JUDGMENT 
 
 
 
    Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, J.- The petitioner, 
alongside his brothers, namely, Muhammad Akram, Muhammad 
Aslam and Nazar Hussain, stands convicted by a learned Additional 
Sessions Judge, vide judgment dated 15.06.2011, for committing Qatl-
i-Amd of Mushtaq Ahmad, 45, at 9:00 a.m. on 15.10.2010 within the 
precincts of Police Station Saddar Vehari in the backdrop of a dispute 
over turn of water; he was sentenced to death while the remainders to 
imprisonment for life; the High Court altered penalty of death into 
imprisonment for life while acquitting the co-convicts from the charge 
vide impugned judgment dated 26.01.2017.  
 
Incident was reported by deceased’s widow Khurshid Bibi (PW-7) 
in the DHQ  Hospital at 10:35 a.m; she was statedly present with the 
deceased while irrigating the field when the accused, armed with clubs, 
confronted them within the view of Javed Abbas and Fateh Sher PWs. 
Muhammad Akram exhorted his companions whereupon the petitioner 
 Criminal Petition No.282 of 2017 
2
dealt the deceased a club blow on his head; as he felled on the ground, 
the co-accused thrashed him with multiple blows; commotion attracted 
the neighbourhood whereupon the accused took to the heels. The 
injured was medically examined 10:07 a.m. at D.H.Q. Hospital Vehari 
where he was brought by his cousin Nazeer Hussain; relevant column 
sans reference to police docket, however, the name of a PQR as 
Mumtaz Ahmed is mentioned therein. The medical officer, after receipt 
of a fee of Rs.200/- examined him to find a swelling measuring 8 cm x 
10 cm on the left side of the skull; after a brief struggle, he succumbed 
to the injury, a short while later. The petitioner, alongside co-accused, 
was arrested on 01.112010; pursuant to disclosures, they led to the 
recovery of clubs P-3, P-4, P-5 and P-6, albeit without blood stains. 
From amongst the accused, Nazar Hussain, statedly deaf and dumb, 
was medically examined same day through a Magisterial order of even 
date; he was noted with a wound with ruptured skin on the left side of 
skull; a cross-version agitated by the accused soon failed with the 
police, despite a direction by the Justice of Peace. Upon indictment, the 
accused claimed trial that resulted into their conviction under clause 
(b) of section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 1860 primarily on the 
strength of ocular account furnished by Mst. Khurshid Bibi (PW-7) and 
Fateh Sher (PW-8), confronted by the accused with a counter plea of 
assault, unleashed in the first place, by the deceased on Nazar 
Hussain co-accused, supported by medico legal certificate as well as a 
direction for registration of a cross case by a Justice of Peace.  
2. 
 
 Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that ocular 
account disbelieved by the High Court qua three out of four accused 
cannot provide evidential basis to single out the petitioner on a capital 
charge, particularly after exclusion of motive by the High Court; 
inconsequential recoveries also fail to qualify additional corroboration 
required to rescue the charge, next argued the counsel. The counter-
version, vividly spelt out by the skull injury of Nazar Hussain  
co-accused, has been pressed into service to argue that the genesis of 
the occurrence, shrouded into mystery, the petitioner cannot be 
blamed with any degree of certainty for inflicting solitary injury as each 
of the assailant was independently assigned blows to the deceased and, 
thus, trapped by a wider net, his conviction cannot be maintained 
without possibility of error. The learned Law Officer has faithfully 
defended the impugned judgment.  
 Criminal Petition No.282 of 2017 
3
3. 
 
Heard. Record perused. 
4. 
 
The deceased, gasping for his life, was first examined at 
10:07 a.m; medico legal certificate Ex.PE sans details about examinee’s 
physical condition in terms of his orientation to time and space or 
otherwise at the said point of time.  Police Karwai recorded by Zahid 
Hussain SI tends to suggest that he took over the deceased 
unconscious in injured condition in the emergency ward of DHQ 
Hospital Vehari to get him examined through Mumtaz Ahmed PQR, 
surprisingly without injury statement and a police docket, apparently, 
to have been issued after the injured had already been examined. 
Relevant column of Ex.PE reflects name of Nazeer Hussain son of 
Abdullah who brought the injured to the hospital; he is conspicuously 
absent both at the crime scene as well as the report and as to how he 
was able to escort the injured on his own to the hospital is a 
circumstance that clamours explanation; one Riaz is mentioned to 
have paid a fee of Rs.200/- for medical examination against his 
signatures whereas no fee was required for a medical examination in a 
police case as is evident by a cross on the relevant portion of Ex.PE 
relating to exemption for a police case; a cover up through overwriting 
as Govt. Fee on Ex.PE is a ludicrous attempt to hoodwink the reality. 
The deceased, still alive, was certainly brought by individuals other 
than mentioned in the crime report, a real possibility unmistakably 
suggested by Ex.PE and in retrospect tears apart the structure 
supporting the charge.  
 
Entire family comprising four brothers has been aligned in the 
crime report, each armed with a club and taking on the deceased; the 
solitary wound though proved fatal, nonetheless, does not correspond 
with the array and, thus, argument that the prosecution had cast a 
wider net merits serious consideration; with a real possibility of 
presence of innocent proxies, identification of the actual offender, 
through human endeavour, is an exercise fraught with potential risk of 
error, 
attribution 
of 
first 
blow 
assigned 
to 
the 
petitioner 
notwithstanding.  
 
Misfortune struck the neighbours, who otherwise lived in peaceful 
harmony, on a small event involving diversion of water by Nazar 
Hussain, a deaf and dumb member of petitioner’s family, as is evident 
from the charge as well as his examination under section 342 of the 
Code of Criminal Procedure 1898; he has been acquitted from the 
 Criminal Petition No.282 of 2017 
4
charge and it is also on the record that he received an injury during 
the brawl in his head for which the prosecution has not taken the 
investigating agency or the Court into confidence. These circumstances 
inescapably intrigue upon the integrity of the prosecution story; 
though ominous, nonetheless, calculated to have massively withheld 
relevant details of the events that occurred on the fateful day; 
concomitant uncertainty would inevitably cast away the entire case;  
it would be unsafe to maintain the conviction. Petition is converted into 
appeal and allowed; impugned judgment is set aside; the petitioner/ 
appellant is acquitted of the charge and shall be released forthwith, if 
not required to be detained in any other case.    
 
 
 
 
Judge 
 
 
Judge 
 
 
Judge 
Islamabad, the 
12th October, 2020 
Not approved for reporting 
Azmat/-