SHC seeks explanations on unusual sentences passed

Punishments are not prescribed in the relevant laws

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has sought explanations from judicial officers who have given unusual sentences to citizens for committing non-heinous crimes in recent weeks. Judicial sources told The Express Tribune that the registrar of the high court had called for explanations from the additional district and sessions judge and a judicial magistrate on Saturday.

The judicial officers were told to submit written explanations as to why they had given unusual sentences to the accused after they were found guilty of committing offences, but not given punishments prescribed in the relevant laws.

The sources said that the SHC registrar sought these explanations on two separate notices put up by the member inspection team, an office that monitors working of the subordinate judiciary. The first one related to the judgment passed by the District East Judicial Magistrate-XXVIII Shoaib Elahi on October 11 wherein a convict was sentenced to stand at traffic signal for two hours a week for a whole year holding a placard on speed awareness.



The magistrate sentenced the accused Muhammad Qasim, guilty of injuring a police constable, Zubair Ahmed, by hitting him with his motorcycle on September 27, 2015. The police officer, who had stopped them to let the convoy of then president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf through, fractured his leg. The magistrate also ordered the convict to pay Rs50,000 to the police officer in three installments within three months.

The second notice related to the judgment passed by District West’s Additional District and Sessions Judge Haleem Ahmed, who had sentenced a man convicted of possessing an illegal weapon to three years of daily congregational prayers.

Announcing this unusual sentence on November 8, the judge also ordered that the convict will undergo seven years of imprisonment and pay Rs50,000 fine if he is found defaulting on his sentence.



SC’s inspirational judgment

Sources said that the judicial officers had awarded sentences that are not prescribed in the relevant laws in light of the judgment passed by the Supreme Court (SC) on community service for offenders.

Justice Qazi Faiz Isa, then chief justice of the Balochistan High Court passed a judgment ordering convicted wildlife hunters to plant trees and take care of them for one year. In 2009, the district Dasht’s judicial magistrate awarded a six-month imprisonment and Rs3,000 fine to each of four convicts for killing two female markhors.