No reprieve: PHC upholds death penalty for triple murder convict

ABBOTTABAD: The Peshawar High Court’s Abbottabad bench upheld the death penalty awarded to a man who had been convicted of a triple murder by a district and sessions’ court, lawyers said on Tuesday.

Giving details of the case, Advocate Masood Azhar said that on February 1, 2008, Gulzar – a resident of Muslimabad village had gunned down Zardad, his son Tahir and paternal nephew Khalid Zaman over the ownership of some trees.

A Haripur sessions judge had sentenced Gulzar to death and imposed a fine of Rs300,000 in 2009.

The convict, however, challenged his sentence in the Peshawar High Court.

After hearing arguments from all sides, a two-member PHC divisional bench comprising Justice Syed Afsar Ali Shah and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim upheld the lower court’s verdict and rejected the appeal.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2017.