PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has upheld the conviction of a militant by an assistant political agent for waging war against the state and attacking security forces.

It, however, reduced the convict’s prison sentence from 28 years to 14 years.

A bench consisting of Justice Qaiser Rasheed Khan and Justice Ijaz Anwar partially allowed appeal of the convict, Sahib Khan, who was sentenced by the APA in Kurram Agency, now Kurram tribal district, in 2017.

It ruled that the benefit of Section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure should be extended to him under which his period of detention prior to conviction should also be counted in his prison term. The court added that the sentences of 14 years imprisonment awarded to the appellant on two counts should run concurrently.

The APA had ordered the consecutive running of the sentences.

Halves 28-year prison sentence

Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel, lawyer for the appellant, contended that his client was convicted by the APA only on the basis of a report of a joint investigation team (JIT), while there were no specific charges against him.

He added that his client was not given opportunity of being heard.

The lawyer contended that the APA convicted the accused for the same offence twice i.e. 14 years for waging war against the state and 14 years for attacking personnel of security forces, and had ruled that the sentences should run consecutively.

He added that under the law, the APA had no powers to award sentence of more than 14 years imprisonment.

The court was informed that the appellant had already spent more than four years in prison when he was handed over to political authorities by the security forces and that period was not counted in his prison term.

CONVICTION SET ASIDE: A high court bench has set aside the conviction of a man by an anti-terrorism court and acquitted him in a case of possessing improvised explosive devices and other prohibited items.

Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar accepted an appeal filed by the convict, Fazalur Rehman, a resident of Sarband area in Peshawar, observing that the prosecution could not prove its case against him.

An FIR was registered against the appellant by the counter terrorism department on Apr 13, 2018, under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, Section 5 of Explosive Substance Act, and Section 15 of the Arms Act.

The CTD had claimed that it had received information from an intelligence agency that terrorists would smuggle explosives to Peshawar.

It added that the appellant was stopped by the CTD officials and seized a large quantity of safety fuses, detonators, detonating cords and indigenous improvised explosive devices.

The appellant was convicted by an anti-terrorism court and was sentenced to 30 years rigorous imprisonment on multiple counts.

The appellant’s counsel, Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, contended that the prosecution’s case was full of flaws but the trial court had overlooked them all while convicting his client. He said the appellant was taken into custody by a security agency around two months before the registration of the FIR.

The lawyer said the appellant was kept in illegal detention for few months before being handed over to the CTD and that he was implicated in the case thereafter.

He said there were glaring contradictions in statements of the prosecution’s witnesses, while the report of the bomb disposal unit also contradicted those statements.

The counsel said during trial, the appellant had told the court on oath that he was falsely implicated in the case and that any of the prosecution witness should also do so to declare his arrest on the place of the occurrence.

He added that his client had already said if a single prosecution witness confirmed on oath his involvement in the offence, he should be hanged.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2020