24 January 2023 :

In a move that has alarmed human rights activists in Pakistan, the Shehbaz Sharif government has approved a bill that will strengthen the country's contentious anti-blasphemy laws. Pakistan's National Assembly unanimously passed the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act 2023 on January 17, enhancing the minimum punishment for those who insult the revered personalities of Islam from three to 10 years along with a fine of 10 lakh Pakistani rupees.
The statement of objectives of the bill said disrespecting the companion of the Prophet and other personalities not only promoted terrorism and disruption in the country but also hurt people from all walks of life.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said that these amendments are likely to exacerbate the persecution of the beleaguered religious minorities and minority sects.
The HRCP Chairperson, Hina Jilani, in a statement issued from Lahore on January 20, said the enactment would further increase persecutions of the minorities.
"While the stated aim of this bill is to curb sectarianism, HRCP believes it is likely to exacerbate the persecution of Pakistan's beleaguered religious minorities and minority sects," according to her statement.
The bill also makes the offence non-bailable, thereby directly violating the constitutionally guaranteed right to personal liberty under Article 9, the HRCP said.
"Given Pakistan's troubled record of the misuse of such laws, these amendments are likely to be weaponised disproportionately against religious minorities and sects, resulting in false FIRs, harassment, and persecution," it said.
The human rights body said that increasing the penalty for alleged blasphemy will aggravate misuse of the law to settle personal vendettas, as is often the case with blasphemy allegations.
"At a time when civil society has been calling for amendments to these laws to prevent their abuse, strengthening this punishment will do the exact opposite," it said.
Under Pakistan's penal code, the offence of blasphemy is punishable by death or life imprisonment. Critics say they have been used by extremist groups to persecute minority faiths and unfairly target minorities.
Several people have been killed by the extremists, though none have been executed under these laws.
These regulations were introduced by former military ruler Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s to win the support of religious groups.
In a 2021 report, the United Nations experts said they were concerned by the continued persecution and acts of violence perpetrated by state and non-state actors in Pakistan, fuelled by claims of apostasy and blasphemy and often targeting religious or belief minorities.

14 September 2023 :

A Pakistani court on September 4, 2023 sentenced four individuals to death for committing blasphemy by sharing content deemed to be insulting to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and the Holy Qur’an, while another one was awarded seven years of rigorous imprisonment in the case. 
On September 4, a Rawalpindi district court judge, Ahsan Mahmood Malik, handed down the death sentence to Faizan Razzaq, Amin Rais, Muhammad Rizwan, and Wazir Gul for committing the offense, additionally imposing a fine of Rs100,000 ($325). 
“Death sentence of the convict shall not be executed unless it is confirmed by the Honourable Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi Bench, Rawalpindi,” the judgment read. 
As per Pakistani law, a death sentence awarded by a lower court has to be confirmed by the relevant high court before its execution. 
Another accused Usman Liaqat was sentenced to “rigorous imprisonment for seven years and with a fine of Rs100,000” in the case, according to the court order. 
The convicts were booked by Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in September last year, after the complainant, Umar Nawaz, accused them of creating a WhatsApp group and sharing blasphemous content on it. An FIA investigation team found them guilty of the crime following a forensic analysis of the group, according to the charge-sheet. 

07 June 2023 :

The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Pakistan's Mardan on May 30, 2023 convicted a man of committing blasphemy and sentenced him to death along with a fine of Rs 4,00,000, Pakistan-based The News International newspaper reported.
As per The News International, the convict had made a false claim of being a prophet using a mosque loudspeaker at Gulibagh in the limits of Hoti Police Station six years ago.
The court awarded the death sentence to Irfan, a resident of Gulibagh, who had falsely claimed to be a prophet. The members of the Tablighi Jamaat, who were present at the mosque at that time, had caught him and subsequently handed him over to the police. The police had registered a case against him.
The court also awarded him a ten year imprisonment under two other sections of the law, according to The News International.

01 June 2023 :

Nouman Asghar, a 24-year-old Christian from the city of Bahawalpur, in Punjab, was sentenced to death for blasphemy on May 30, 2023 by a court of first instance in Bahawalpur.
The young man had been arrested in 2019 for violating article 295-c of the Penal Code, which punishes contempt for the Prophet Mohammed, due to an alleged blasphemy through WhatsApp. Messages containing blasphemous drawings of the Prophet Muhammad were found on the mobile phone of the young man and his friend Sunny Mushtaq -who was also arrested- in the WhatsApp chat.
The trial against the young man concluded last January, but it took five months for the district judge of the Bahawalpur Magistrate Court to deliver the verdict, which was made public on May 30.
According to lawyer Aneeqa Maria Anthony, from the NGO "The Voice", which deals with the legal defense of Asghar and Mushtaq, "the magistrate ignored all the procedures and dismissed all the evidence in favor of the accused. He only wanted to complete his 'sacred duty' to punish an alleged blasphemer. We expect the same fate for Sunny Mushtaq. They were arrested for a teenage game. Their families are suffering greatly. Our legal team at The Voice is doing everything necessary to grant them justice, helping their families and standing by their side in these dark and difficult times".
The young man's family denies the accusation.
According to the lawyers, Mushtaq and Asghar received a blasphemous cartoon on their smartphones. However, that drawing was sent to them by Bilal Ahmad, a young Muslim, but the police took no action against Ahmad, who was the sender of the blasphemous image.
"This is another example of the misuse of blasphemy laws", says attorney Anthony, calling on authorities to conduct a fair investigation of the case and announcing an appeal.

27 March 2023 :

A Muslim man in Pakistan has been awarded a death sentence over blasphemous content on a WhatsApp group. He was convicted under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act and Anti-Terrorist Act by the court in Peshawar on March 24, 2023.
The convict, identified as Syed Muhammad Zeeshan, has the right to appeal against the court's conviction order on the highly-sensitive issue of blasphemy in Pakistan.
"Accused Syed Muhammad Zeeshan, son of Syed Zakaullah in custody has been convicted and sentenced after being found guilty", the court order said, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
Zeeshan, who is a resident of the northwest city of Mardan, was also fined 1.2 million rupees ($4,300) and handed a total of 23 years imprisonment. His counsel told AFP that a case was initiated after Muhammad Saeed, a resident of Talagang in Punjab province, filed an application with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) two years ago accusing Zeeshan of posting blasphemous content on a WhatsApp group.
"FIA had confiscated Zeeshan's cell phone and its forensic examination proved him guilty", he said.
According to the National Commission of Justice and Peace, a human rights and legal aid group in Pakistan, 774 Muslims and 760 members of various minority religious groups have been accused of blasphemy in the last 20 years.

25 September 2023 :

A district and sessions court in Lahore convicted on September 22, 2023 a man for raping his teenage daughter and sentenced him to death.
"A father is always considered a natural guardian and protector of his children, and if a daughter is teased by someone outside the house, she complains against him before her father while considering her father as her guardian but in the instant proposition, real father by committing incest has destroyed the personality, soul as well as body of his real minor daughter," noted Additional District and Sessions Judge Mian Shahid Javed in the detailed judgment.
"The minor has suffered psychological disaster," observed the judge, after the prosecution established its case through solid, concrete and confidence-inspiring evidence during the course of proceedings.
The offence committed by the convict is also shocking and outrageous for the public conscious and uprooting the fabric of society, observed the judge.
There is no mitigating circumstance rather the circumstances are aggravating, noted the judgment.
Accordingly, the accused was convicted under Section 376(3) of the Pakistan Penal Code, which pertains to rape, and was sentenced to death.
The convicted person identified as Rafique is to be hanged by his neck till he is dead, ordered the judge.
Moreover, the convict was directed to pay a fine of Rs1 million as compensation under Section 544-A of Code of Criminal Proceedure (CrPC) to the survivor.
The court instructed for this amount to be made recoverable as an arrear of land revenue. In case of default in payment of compensation, convict is to be imprisoned for six months.
The complainant, Suleman, was at his house on March 31, 2019, when he heard cries and noise coming from the house of his paternal aunt, Kausar, at around 8:30 am.
Suleman rushed to his aunt's house, which was adjacent to his own while M Ismail and Siddique also reached there.
His aunt informed him that her husband, the convict, had their 14-year-old daughter in the room and it was she who was crying.
Hearing this, Suleman, M Ismail and Siddique called for the convict to open the door, which he didn't. When they managed to break in they found the convict raping his daughter.
During the proceedings, the defence counsel had argued that a false case was registered against the accused - now convict - over domestic reasons, and that the prosecution had failed to prove its case.
The defence counsel had further argued that no evidence of bleeding or stains were found by the woman medical officer at the time of examination and had moved the court for acquittal.
The convict had maintained that the prosecution and witnesses were trying to grab his house through blackmail.
However, it was proven during the course of proceedings that the wife and the teenage survivor were already residing in the same house and hence, there was no need for them to be grabbing the house.

13 April 2023 :

A man was sentenced to death in Pakistan on April 7, 2023 for raping his minor daughter in the country's Punjab province.
Pervez Shahzad of Rahim Yar Khan, a place 500 kms away from Lahore, raped his 13-year-old daughter at home four months ago, following which the girl told about the incident to her maternal grandmother after which a case was registered against the suspect on the complaint.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Moeen Khokhar on April 7 announced the verdict against the accused after the prosecution presented evidence and witnesses against him.
The judge awarded him death penalty and imposed a fine of 1.5 m Pakistani rupee.

28 November 2023 :

An 18-year-old girl was allegedly killed by her own family after being sentenced to death by village elders for dancing with a boy in a viral social media video in Pakistan.
The killing on November 26, 2023, in the village of Barsharyal in Pakistan's mountainous Kohistan region, is being investigated by Pakistani police as a potential honour killing. 
A friend, who also appeared in the apparently edited viral footage, was sentenced to death as well but was rescued by police before it could be carried out. 
Masood Khan, deputy superintendent of police in the Kolai-Palas district, said: 'They shot dead one of them while police rescued the second one.
'We have launched an investigation to trace those who killed the girl and who either advised or convened a jirga (the village elders) and sentenced her to death.'
He added that nobody was above the law and all those involved in the brutal killing would be brought to justice at any cost. 
The second girl, who was rescued by the pol­ice due to the expected threats to her life, was returned home with her father soon after, as a senior civil judge ruled that her life was not in any danger.
The boys who appeared in the videos have also gone into hiding, fearing reprisals.
As per local tradition, the jirga had declared those who appeared in the images circulating on social media as 'chor' (thieves) and issued a decree for their killing. 
Every year, hundreds of women in Muslim Pakistan are victims of honour killings, carried out by relatives professing to be acting in defence of a family's honour often in deeply conservative rural areas, say human rights groups.
Dr Farzana Bari, a human rights activist told Geo.tv of her concern for the safety of the second girl. 
She believed that she would likely be murdered sooner or later and remains under serious threat, continuing that 'she has probably been misguided by her family. Knowing the kind of mindset that exists in the area, I think this girl would be killed.'
The caretaker chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Syed Irshad Hussain Shah, said he had ordered police to arrest those responsible.
'We are investigating,' Khan said, adding that male relatives of the young woman were believed to be involved in the killing, as public images of women are considered taboo in the area.
Such killings are often carried out over perceived offences such as elopement, fraternisation with men outside marriage or other infractions of religious and cultural values on female modesty, despite campaigns by rights groups and tighter laws.
Last year, an appeals court acquitted the brother of a social media star, Qandeel Baloch, of her murder, a 2016 killing that sparked national outrage and changes in laws covering honour killings. 
Yet another incident occured in the same area in 2011 when a video of local girls cheering for a dancing boy went viral.
All five women in the video were allegedly killed, along with the boy's four brothers, on the orders of a local jirga.
Those involved in the murders of the 2011 case have recently been released.  
We have been unable to reach those involved for comment. 
The investigation is ongoing and so far no arrests have been made. 

08 March 2023 :

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on 7 March 2023 convict­ed three more accused persons involved in Johar Town bomb blast case.
The court handed down the death sentence on nine counts to accused-Samiul Haq, Uzair Akbar and Naveed Akhtar- in the case. The court also or­dered forfeiture of their properties besides award­ing rigorous imprisonment and imposing fine.
ATC Judge Abher Gul Khan convicted the ac­cused on proving charges against them. The court conducted the trial proceedings through video link due to security reasons.
The court recorded statements of 60 prosecu­tion witnesses during the proceedings whereas fo­rensic evidence and CCTV footage were also made part of the record.
The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) had filed the challan (charge sheet) against three ac­cused. The CTD declared the accused- Samiul Haq and facilitators Uzair Akbar and Naveed Akhtar, guilty in the challan. The CTD had requested the court for awarding strict punishment to the ac­cused as sufficient evidence was available against them. The CTD had registered the case against the accused under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Sections 302, 336, 186 and others of the Paki­stan Penal Code.
The ATC had already handed down death sen­tences to four accused in the matter, besides awarding five years imprisonment to a female ac­cused.
On 23 June 2021 a powerful blast in Johar Town killed three people and injured 24 others, including a police constable.

31 October 2023 :

Peshawar High Court has commuted death sentence awarded to a convict to life imprisonment for killing four of his close family members including his father and brother in Nowshera district around six years ago, Dawn reported on October 30, 2023.
A bench consisting of Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Sahibzada Asaduallah partially allowed the appeal filed by the convict named Zahoor, a resident of Balu area, by upholding his conviction by the trial court but reduced his sentence.
Interesting situation emerged as the convict entered into compromise with all the adult legal heirs of the deceased persons, whereas one of the legal heirs was a minor to whom he had to pay Diyat money. However, he claimed to be destitute having no money to deposit for the said minor legal heir.
The bench observed that in the light of available evidence, it arrived at the conclusion that the prosecution proved that the appellant committed murder of his father, brother, minor nephew and niece, therefore, it was a case where the provision to section 338-E of Pakistan Penal Code, pertaining of Fasad-Fil Arz (mischief on earth) was attracted.
“Resultantly, we are not convinced to acquit the accused on the basis of partial compromise, rather are going to deal with his case under section 338-E PPC,” the bench observed.
An FIR of the occurrence was registered against Zahoor at Akbar Pura police station in Nowshera on April 17, 2017, under section 302 and 324 PPC. The complainant in the FIR was Ms Saira, wife of deceased Faqir Hussain.
She claimed that she along with her father-in-law Atlas Khan, husband Faqir Hussain, minor daughter Manahil, minor son Nisar, brothers-in-law Arshad Khan and Zahoor was present at house when an oral altercation took place between Zahoor and his father Atlas Khan. She stated that Zahoor wanted to sell a house belonging to Atlas Khan, whereas the later was reluctant to do so.
She said that after midnight, Zahoor opened indiscriminate firing on the inmates which resulted into death of the said four persons.
The trial court had convicted the appellant on November 12, 2019, and had sentenced him to death on four counts and also ordered him to pay compensation of Rs200,000 to legal heirs of each of the deceased persons.
Advocate Sajeed Afridi and Mohammad Nauman Khan represented the appellant whereas Barrister Amirullah Khan Chamkani appeared as amicus curiae to assist the court on law point whether in the light of partial compromise the appellant could be acquitted under Qisas and Diyat provisions of PPC.
During course of hearing of the appeal, the major legal heirs of all the four deceased persons affected a compromise with the appellant on their behalf as well as on behalf of a minor legal heir, however, the appellant was unable to pay share in Diyat to the extent of the minor legal heir named Yahya, a son of Faqir Hussain.
Sajeed Afridi requested the court to accept the appeal and order acquittal of the appellant on the basis of partial compromise. He said that the appellant was very poor and he had no resources to pay the Diyat amount to the minor legal heir.
In its 22-page detailed judgment, the bench referred to different judgments of the superior courts on the said point.
The bench observed that the punishment awarded to the appellant was under Ta’zir and not Qisas because the proof required for a case of Qisas under section 304 of PPC had not been produced before the trial court.
The bench further observed that as the instant case was a case of Ta’zir where compromise had been affected between the appellant and legal heirs of the deceased persons, that too during pendency of the appeal, therefore, in the light of the judgments of superior court the instant case was to be dealt with under section 338-E PPC, dealing with waiver or compounding of offences.
The court observed where an offence was waived or compounded, the court may in its discretion having regard to facts and circumstances of the case, acquit or award Tazir to the offender according to the nature of the offence.

10 May 2023 :

The Sindh High Court on May 8, 2023 commuted the death penalty of two appellants to life imprisonment in a murder case.
An antiterrorism court had sentenced Mohammad Qasier and Mohammad Sohail to death in September last year for kidnapping and murdering 15-year-old Junaid in March 2019.
Both convicts, through their lawyers, challenged the trial court order before the high court and after hearing both sides and examining the evidence, a division bench headed by Justice K. K. Agha commuted the death sentence to life term.
The bench in its verdict observed that the prosecution had proved its case against the appellants, adding that the case was based on circumstantial evidence as there was no eyewitness or a last seen witness.
It further noted that both the appellants had recorded their confessional statements before a judicial magistrate and the confessions appeared to have been made voluntarily.
The bench said that both the appellants had also worked together and lived close to each other and planned to abduct the victim boy for demanding a ransom from his father. However, they killed him as they feared the boy could identify them if released.
About offences under the Anti-Terrorism Act, the court noted that there was no evidence to prove that the crime was committed with a design, intention or purpose to create terror, but rather to extort money by way of ransom and the provisions of ATA were not applicable in the case.
“Although the evidence suggests that the motive behind the abduction was to receive a ransom for the return of the abducted Junaid we find that although money may have been collected in case that situation arose no actual demand for ransom has been proven by the prosecution through either ocular evidence or other forms of evidence for example audio recording and as such we acquit the appellants for the offence under Section 365-A of PPC,” the bench ruled.
Regarding sentencing, the bench noted that since the case was based on circumstantial evidence and there was need to show extra caution, the death penalty was being reduced to life imprisonment.
According to the prosecution, the victim went missing on March 11, 2019 and on April 6 his mobile phone was activated. The police traced the man, Waseem Nadir, who was using the phone and he told investigators that he had purchased the cell phone from one Sohail. The police managed to arrest Sohail and his accomplice Qaiser and they both confessed to have kidnapping and killed the boy. The police recovered parts of the victim’s body on a lead provided by the appellants.

27 April 2023 :

The Sindh High Court on April 17, 2023 commuted the death sentence handed down to a man into life imprisonment in a triple murder case.
An additional district and sessions court (West) had sentenced Mohammad Shadeed to death in April 2022 for killing his wife Aneela and two minor children in their home in Orangi Town in April 2019.
The convict, through his counsel, filed an appeal against capital punishment before the SHC and after hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings of the case, a division bench comprising Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Khadim Hussain Tunio commuted it into life term.
The bench in its judgement observed that “undoubtedly, the crime went unwitnessed and committed in the four walls of the house and in such matters the case of prosecution fully dependent on circumstantial evidence”.
“The prosecution witnesses had deposed about appellant’s high temperament and familial disputes with his wife and he used to torture her,” it added.
The verdict stated that the murder weapon, a dagger, was also recovered on a lead provided by the appellant and its forensic report confirmed that the same was found to be stained with human blood.
While taking into account the statements of witnesses and extrajudicial confession of the appellant, it further noted that “prosecution has curated an unbroken chain of circumstances and essentially proved the culpability of appellant for murder of his wife and children”.
The bench observed that it was also established that the appellant often lost control of himself due to his short temper and it could easily be argued that when a person was put in such a state, one lost control of their consciousness and did things that they would often not have done had they not been in that state of provocation.
“In a case of similar nature based on circumstantial evidence and extrajudicial confession, the Supreme Court had converted death penalty into life term,” it added.

30 November 2023 :

An Attock court on November 29, 2023 sentenced a man to death in a murder case registered with Attock Sadsar police station in 2020.
According to the FIR registered under section 302 and 34 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in Attock Saddar Police station, the accused Ansar Mehmood shot and killed Ibrahim over some old enmity on June 13, 2020.
Later, police arrested the accused and recovered the weapons utilized in the murder and attempted murder case. The convict was also ordered to pay Rs0.15 million as damages.

07 November 2023 :

Muzaffargarh Additional District and Sessions Judge Tariq Maqsood sentenced a man to death for murder and imposed a fine of Rs500,000, Dawn reported on November 4, 2023.
The other accused was acquitted due to doubt.
On March 31, 2022, during a wedding ceremony in Chak Mithan, Nadar Ali Sumra along with his friend opened fire.
Irfan who was standing there was struck in the face and died.
The Civil Line police registered a case against the accused on the complaint of deceased’s brother Allah Dutta in April, 2022.
The police presented the challan in court, leading to the judgment in the case in which Nadar was found guilty and sentenced to death, while co-accused Zeeshan Kanira was acquitted of the charges.

02 November 2023 :

Three men were sentenced to death on five counts each in a case involving the murder of five people in Barki area, Dunya News reported on October 31, 2023.
The accused were given the death penalty after being found guilty in the case of killing five people in Barki area of Lahore.
Sessions Court Judge Shoaib Anwar Qureshi pronounced the verdict against 10 accused involved in the case. 
Six accused Heera, Zulfiqar Ali alias Sohni, Abdul Jabbar, Muhammad Waqar, Liaquat Ali and Jahangir were produced in the court.
Accused Farman Ali, Rehmat Ali, Waqas Ali and Qadir Ali alias Chan appeared before the court on bail.
The court pronounced the verdict after the presence of all the accused involved in the case.
Lawyer Asghar Ali Gul completed the arguments on behalf of the accused while Farhad Ali Shah gave arguments on behalf of the plaintiff.
The judge sentenced accused Heera, Zulfikar and Jahangir to death five times while acquitting accused Abdul Jabbar, Muhammad Waqar, Liaquat Ali, Qadeer, Rahmat Ali and Farman Ali.
It should be noted that a case was registered against the accused six years ago in 2018 under the provisions of murder.

25 October 2023 :

Peshawar Judge of Child Protection Court, Hina Mehwish, on October 19, 2023 awarded three death sentences and a fine of Rs one million to an accused for molesting and later burning the body of an eight-year-old girl some three years ago.
According to the prosecution, the accused named Asif Raza, alias Malang, had raped an 8-year-old girl and later dumped her body into a graveyard after burning it in the vicinity of Badaber police station.
A case under sections 364, 302, and 376 was registered against the accused at Badaber police station, on the outskirts of Peshawar.
A challan was presented in the court after the completion of the investigation against the accused.
The court, after affirming allegations against the accused as proven, awarded a death sentence on three counts and a fine of Rs 1 million to the accused. The accused had molested and later burnt the body of an eight-year-old girl near Kohat Road on November 18, 2020.
The area people had staged strong protests against this heinous crime for days.

11 October 2023 :

Pronouncing verdict in the case of killings of two security guards of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in Narowal, Additional District and Sessions Judge Tariq Anjum on October 10, 2023 ordered that four convicts in the case be twice hanged to death.
The guards on Aug 16, 2022 were transferring cash to a van from the main branch of the National Bank in Narowal when four gunmen snatched the money. When guards resisted, the robbers shot and injured guards Muhammad Shahbaz and Mahmood Khan. Both guards later succumbed to their injuries at the Narowal District Headquarters Hospital.
During the incident, one of the bandits was also injured. The robbers fled after looting Rs9 million from the van.
The city police arrested the gang in Gujranwala within three hours of the incident and recovered the stolen money from Sabatin Raza, Rashid Ali, Asim Raza and Hasan Raza.
In addition to the death sentences, the court also ordered the convicts to pay Rs700,000 in compensation to the victims’ families.
The convicts were also sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs100,000 for the crime of robbery.
An additional six months of imprisonment will be imposed if the compensation is not paid to the heirs.
The judge also handed down life terms on three counts to other bandits - Asim and Hasan - along with a fine of Rs800,000.
A six-month imprisonment will be added in case of non-payment of the fine.

08 August 2023 :

Additional Session Judge Rehmat Ali awarded the death penalty to an accused of murder case in Multan on July 21, 2023.
According to the prosecution, accused Hassan Shafique, a resident of Mouza Deeh in premises of Shah Shams police station had a land dispute with Majid of the same locality.
In a fit of anger, the accused Hassan Shafique shot Majid dead after the exchange of hot arguments in the year 2021. The police concerned registered the case number 580/21 under Section 302/34 and arrested the accused.
Additional Session Judge Rehmat Ali awarded the death penalty to the accused and imposed a fine of Rs 100,000 as compensation of the family of the deceased.
The accused would face another six year imprisonment in case of default in payment of compensation amount.

18 May 2023 :

A Pakistani District and Sessions Court on May 17, 2023 awarded death sentence to an accused involved in the murder of his father.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Malik Mushtaq Ahmed Ojla announced the verdict after hearing the arguments from both the sides. The court also imposed Rs 500,000 fine on the accused, Saqlain Arzoo.
According to the prosecution, the convict had killed his father Muhammad Arif over a family dispute. A case was registered against the convict at the Race Course Police station in 2022.

18 April 2023 :

The Sindh High Court on April 5, 2023 upheld the death sentence handed down to a man by the trial court in a double murder case.
A model/sessions court had sentenced Mohammad Qasim to death in January 2020 for killing Mohammad Farooq and his nephew Mohammad Haris over a minor dispute in November 2019 in Abdullah Memon Goth within the limits of the Shah Latif police station.
The convict, through his counsel, had challenged the conviction before the SHC. After hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings of the case, a division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha dismissed the appeal and upheld the capital punishment.
The appellant did not press the appeal on merits and only sought a reduction in his sentence from death penalty to life imprisonment on the ground that prosecution could not establish any motive for the killings.
The bench noted that two to three months before the incident in question, the appellant pulled out a pistol during an altercation as he suspected that a relative of the victims had stolen his Wi-Fi router, but the area people intervened and resolved the issue and the same was also reported to the police.
After taking a holistic view of the evidence, it observed that the prosecution had proved the motive behind the killing which was a dispute over the Wi-Fi router.
The bench also said that the appellant was named in the FIR with the specific role of shooting both the victims and there was an eyewitness of the case and his evidence were found to be reliable, while medial and other documentary evidence also supported the oral evidence.
Two innocent persons were murdered over a petty dispute in front of the victims’ house in broad daylight in the presence of their female relatives, it added.
The bench said that based on the particular facts and circumstances of the case, the appellant did not deserve any leniency in sentencing, especially as there were no mitigating circumstances and only aggravating factors that a deterrent sentence was more appropriate one to deter such brutal crimes.

30 March 2023 :

The Model Criminal Trial Court, Larkana, on 29 March 2023 awarded death sentence to three suspects and imposed on them Rs1,500,000 fine each after finding them guilty of killing a police constable Nadeem Lashari over a land dispute.
After the sixth additional session judge Irfan Ali Ujjan, who presided over the court, awarded the capital punishment to Talib Sargani, Abid Sargani and Qurban Sargani, the convicts were whisked away to Larkana central prison.
Manthar Ali Lashari, the victim’s father, said in the FIR that the convicts killed his son at Wadha Mori in the jurisdiction of Sehar police station on 2 February 2020.

20 March 2023 :

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on 13 March 2023 maintained the death sentence of accused Zahir Jaffar in the Noor Mukadam murder case, upholding the trial court's decision. The judges also overturned the 25-year jail term of accused Zahir Jaffar into the death penalty.
The high court rejected Zahir's plea along with the pleas of his household staff, Mohammad Iftikhar and Mohammad Jan — both co-accused in the case — who had challenged the trial court's verdict.
A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq announced the verdict, which was earlier reserved on 21 December.
The court's decision for the double death sentence came following Jaffer's crime of 27-year-old Noor's murder and rape.
He received a 25-year imprisonment sentence with hard labour and a fine of Rs0.2 million after the rape was proven.
A Pakistani court on February 2022 sentenced the US national of Pakistani origin, Zahir Jaffer, to death for raping and beheading Noor Mukadam, a daughter of a former diplomat.
The crime had sparked outrage across the South Asian nation, and the gruesome murder dominated headlines ever since.
A sessions court in Pakistan's capital Islamabad sentenced Zahir to death for the murder.
The maximum sentence was 'necessary', the victim's father said after the sentencing. "I have been saying that this is not just my daughter's case; it is a case for all the daughters of my country," he said.
Investigators say Jaffer lured Mukadam to his home, held her there for two days and then brutally murdered her. Two of Jaffer's employees, Mohammad Iftikhar and Mohammad Jan, were jailed for ten years, each on charges of abetting in the crime.

01 March 2023 :

A court in Pakistan on 24 February 2023 sentenced a man to death for murdering a woman in limits of Attock City police station on 12 April 2022.
The Session Judge Asad Ali also imposed a fine of Rs 0.5 million on the accused identified as 19 years old Muhammad Yousaf, an Afghan national.
According to the FIR registered under section 302 and 34 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), the accused shot the married woman for her refusal for having extra marital relationship.
The prosecution produced substantial evidence against the accused which established involvement of Yousaf in the cold blood murder of the woman.

22 January 2023 :

A Khyber court on 19 January 2023 convicted a resident of killing his sister and another person in the name of family honour and sentenced him to death.
District and sessions judge Hidayatullah Khan pronounced that the prosecution had proved the charge against the accused, Mohammad Farooq, without any shadow of doubt and therefore, he had been declared guilty of the offence.
The court awarded the punishment of death to the accused on two counts under the Pakistan Penal Code’s sections 302 and 311 and directed him to pay the compensation of Rs500,000 each to the legal heirs of both the deceased.
It declared, “Right to life is an inviolable fundamental constitutional right and the law of the land altogether discredited murders on the pretext of honour.”
The law has banned out-of-court settlement in honour killing cases to eliminate the practice.
The court observed that customs, how strong and how old they might be, couldn’t override and replace the statutory law or much so the Quranic commandments.
It added that honour killings had been left as the “choice of family” but the custom was no less than ignorance and a serious violation of human rights.
The court ruled that there was no ill will of mala fide of the police to falsely charge the accused or substitute him in place of a real culprit.
The FIR of honour killings was registered at the Milward police station on 13 November 2021.
ASI Saleem Khan, who was the complainant in the case, said he had received information that a case of double murder had taken place in a residence at Mirikhel area and both the deceased had been buried without postmortem.
The complainant said he reached the crime scene and learned from the residents and relatives of both deceased that Mohammad Farooq had killed his 18-year-old sister and a man in the name of family honour at home and fled.
Both bodies were exhumed on the orders of a judicial magistrate. Postmortem reports revealed that the two died from forearm injuries.
The accused was arrested on 14 January 2021, after a court rejected his plea for pre-arrest bail.
Parents of the slain woman had recorded statements with a judicial magistrate insisting that their daughter was murdered. They, however, refused to charge anyone with the murder. Also, the woman’s husband said he was not interested in pursuing the case.
The slain man’s father claimed that his son was killed by the accused. He, however, said since it was a case of honour killing, he did not name the accused in the case.
Senior public prosecutor Shafiullah appeared for the state and contended that the accused had escaped after the killings and didn’t even attend the funeral of his sister, an act that proved “his guilty mind.”
He added that the process of exhuming bodies was also contested by the accused’s parents, which was another proof of his involvement in the offence.
Mr Shafiullah said the deceased were buried without postmortem examination proving their killing in the name of family honour.

19 September 2023 :

Aziz Bugti is serving a 210-year imprisonment and has been sentenced to death four times.
Bugti hails from the area of Dera Bugti in Balochistan and is serving a sentence for planning and planting explosives and was arrested during the era of former president Pervez Musharraf.
He has already spent 18 years in Central Prison Karachi.              
However, this has not deterred him from being a painter.  
“I was a vengeful person, I had a lot of hate inside me for people and I did not even consider myself Pakistani for some time, but now I feel part of the system more than ever”, Bugti said.
Speaking to MM News, Bugti said he could not read, write or paint when he arrived at the Central Jail. However, he took art lessons to educate himself.
He learned painting and became an artist who has also participated in different exhibitions. He also took part in a contest by the State Bank in which over 200 artists from across Pakistan participated.
“I did not know how to read or write. Neither did I know how to paint or what colours are. When I got here, I took interest and worked hard,” he said.
Bugti said they are now preparing for Sindh Cultural Day in which they decorate their sections in jail. Bugti said he is not alone and has a team of other inmates working with him. Bugti said he has built a sculpture of his student, who is also a death-row prisoner.
ASP Central Jail Misbah said many prisoners studying fine arts have learned the craft and are teaching others.
His concept of the Sindh Wall was to give inmates an opportunity to showcase the culture of the province by painting ajrak and rilli motifs on the walls.
He said such projects show that prisoners can also work on such arts and crafts.
He said the concept of jail was a place where crime increases but it has reformed into a corrections facility.
He said the department has renamed Sindh Prisons and Corrections Facility and now attempts to rehabilitate prisoners. This includes providing fine arts, bead-making, English classes and even anger management. He said this helps to rehabilitate prisoners and make them productive members of society.
Prisoner Aziz Bugti serves as a reminder to hate crime but love life. It shows that prisoners are not violent criminals but members of the society.