PESHAWAR, June 12: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday upheld the life sentence awarded to a convict along with Rs200,000 fine for killing his sister when she refused him a loan.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai and Justice Mohammad Raza Khan dismissed the appeal filed by Khursheed Khan, observing that the evidence on record proved the involvement of the appellant in the crime.

The appellant was convicted by a subordinate court in Mardan district.

The court had also ordered him to pay a compensation of Rs100,000 to the bereaved family.

According to the prosecution, Khursheed Khan had killed his sister, Meena Gul, on Oct 27, 2000. Husband of the deceased, Humayun Khan, was in prison on account of a crime.

The prosecution claimed that the appellant was asking her to lend him Rs1,000. When she declined, he attacked her residence at night and killed her.

A daughter of the deceased was the eyewitness of the occurrence.

Initially, the witness remained silent as she was scared that her uncle would harm her. After two years when Humayun had been released from prison the girl told her father that her uncle had killed her mother. The appellant was charged on July 2, 2002.

The prosecutor contended that the witness had directly charged the appellant for the offence.

CLERK CONVICTED: An accountability court on Tuesday convicted a low-ranking official of the General Post Office in an accountability reference and sentenced him to three years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs1 million.

The court, presided over by Mr Subhan Sher Khan, observed that the prosecution had proved its case against the accused.

The convict, Aurangzeb Khan, was a clerk at the GPO and was charged along with two of his colleagues, Gul Mohammad and Ziauddin, with misappropriating money meant for a money order. They were arrested on Dec 30, 2004.

According to the prosecution, the three accused had entered into plea bargain with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and they pledged to pay Rs1.6 million. The present accused Aurangzeb had guaranteed on behalf of the other two accused persons.

They were released on April 1, 2005. While they paid Rs700,000 to the NAB, the remaining two accused fled and have now been absconding. Aurangzeb was re-arrested in July 2006, and a reference was filed against him as he was guarantor of the other two accused persons.