Sarfaraz Shah murder case: SHC rejects appeals of convicted Rangers men

Bench upholds sentences, maintains offences under ATA’s Section 7 cannot be pardoned.

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) upheld sentences on Tuesday awarded earlier to five Rangers personnel and a civilian in the Sarfaraz Shah murder case, observing that the offence committed cannot be compromised on. However, the court acquitted one Rangers officer facing life imprisonment due to lack of evidence.

Shah was shot by the Rangers personnel inside Karachi’s Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park on June 8, 2011.

Initially, the paramilitary force claimed that he was a dacoit and was killed during an encounter. Later, a video footage televised nationwide showed the Rangers men beating and dragging the unarmed 19-year-old boy, who in turn begged for his life. It also showed the men shooting him and leaving him there to die, crying for help, lying in a pool of blood.



The footage of the cold-blooded murder, which was repeatedly broadcast on television, haunted many for time to come.

Taking a suo motu notice of the brutal act, the then Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had ordered registration of the murder case against the personnel visible in the video.  In addition, the then DG Rangers and IG Sindh police were removed from their posts over the outright violation of human and civil rights.

In a rare judgment against law enforcement personnel, the anti-terrorism court convicted and sentenced the accused under Section 7(a) of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997 read with Sections 302 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on August 12, 2011.

Rangers operative Shahid Zafar was handed down the death sentence, while life imprisonment was given to Sub-Inspector Bahur Rehman, Lance Naik Liaquat Ali, constable Mohammad Tariq, constable Minthar Ali, constable Mohammad Afzal and private contractor Afsar Khan.

Moreover, all were ordered to pay a fine of Rs200,000 each or undergo an additional six months of jail. They were also ordered to pay Rs100,000 each in compensation to the legal heirs.

However, like other recent high-profile cases, Shah’s family had pardoned the convicts “in the name of God” without accepting blood money. The Sindh High Court reserved its judgment on the convicts’ appeals and the compromise plea on May 30, 2013.



On Tuesday, the bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, noted that the prosecution has proven its case against the appellants beyond any shadow of doubt. Announcing the verdict, it said the trial court rightly awarded the death sentence to Shahid Zafar — who shot the deceased — and the remaining appellants who were also rightly sentenced to life imprisonment based on evidence.

The court reaffirmed the death and life imprisonment awarded by the trial court earlier, but acquitted Liaquat Ali, noting that there is absolutely no evidence to show that he shared a common intention with Shahid Zafar, the main accused. He was given the benefit of the doubt and ordered to be released, if not required in other case.

Compoundable offences

The bench observed that the offence under Section 302 (intentional murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code is compoundable by the legal heirs of the victim, whereas offences under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 is not.

Compoundable offences are those which can be compromised by the parties to the dispute and the court’s permission is not needed.

However, offences punishable under Section 7(a) of the ATA 1997 are non-compoundable and “it is against public policy to compound a non-compoundable offence,” according to the judges.

The bench remarked that the manner in which the brutal murder was committed had caused uproar in society.

Dismissing the appeals, the judges noted: “Such an offence was against society and it cannot be permitted to be compounded by an individual/legal heirs of the deceased on any score whatsoever.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd, 2014.