A division bench of Lahore High Court Multan bench comprising Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry and Mehmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui on Thursday quashed the judgement of anti terrorism Court Dera Ghazi Khan headed by Malik Zulfikar Ali and acquitted five out of six convicts and turned the death sentence of Abdul Khaliq into life term imprisonment (25 years). The court acquitted Ghulam Fareed Mastoi, Fayyaz Hussain Mastoi, Faiz Bakhsh, Ramzan Pujar and Allah Ditta as the evidence were so deficient to warrant to the capital punishment.
How the judge awarded death sentence and I shall write down these remarks in his judgement, said Justice Ijaz Akhtar Chaudhry. The detailed judgement would be issued later.
Malik Muhammad Salim, a defence counsel of the convicts told," it was not a fit case for death sentence. "The verdict of the anti-terrorism court in August 2002 was largely influenced by media hype and government pressure."
The case shocked the country and sparked international outrage. Later the same year an anti-terrorist court in Punjab province sentenced six men to death by hanging and acquitted another eight defendants.
Defence lawyers said Multan High Court on Thursday had acquitted convicts Ghulam Farid, Fayyaz Hussain, Faiz Baksh, Ramzan Pojar and Allah Ditta Mastoi, while Abdul Khaliq was given life imprisonment and this appeal was admitted by the court purely on merit and this judgement, I think, was up to the mark and norms of the justice, lawyer Salim Malik said.
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