Widow wins 8-year battle for husband's 'shaheed' status

LAHORE:

A widow has succeeded in securing the status of 'shaheed' for her husband eight years after his death, overcoming resistance from the police department, which had argued he was not entitled to the recognition.

A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC), headed by Justice Sultan Tanvir Ahmad, announced the decision while hearing an intra-court appeal filed by the provincial government and other concerned authorities.

The authorities had challenged an earlier order of a single bench that had granted the 'shaheed' status to the petitioner's husband.

The bench noted that the main grounds cited by the appellants for opposing the widow's claim were that the medical board's report and opinion lacked certainty regarding whether the death was directly caused by the injuries sustained during the incident, and that a considerable time had lapsed between the injuries and the death.

However, the court observed that no intervening cause had been identified by the additional advocate general or the police department's representative to suggest that the chain of causation between the injuries and the death had been broken.

The bench further noted that the applicable rules made no distinction between a death occurring immediately after an incident and one that took place after a lapse of time.

According to case details, on February 15, 2009, upon receiving a wireless message regarding a robbery, police officials, including Muhammad Saifullah - the husband of the respondent - reached the place of occurrence.

During cross-firing, Muhammad Saifullah sustained bullet injuries and was shifted to a hospital in a serious condition. One of his kidneys was badly damaged and subsequently removed.

Meanwhile, three of the robbers were also killed.

As per the police report, Muhammad Saifullah remained admitted to various hospitals and ultimately passed away on May 8, 2017, at the District Headquarter Hospital, Okara.

The respondent's widow then filed an application before the police department to declare Saifullah as 'shaheed'. Upon the failure to do so, she approached the court through a constitutional petition.

The court, while allowing the petition, granted the status of 'shaheed' to Saifullah on October 26, 2022. Dissatisfied with the decision, the provincial government and other concerned authorities filed the present intra-court appeal.