No forgiveness: Diyat doesn't mean freedom for terrorists, says SC

Apex court says crimes against state are unpardonable.

ISLAMABAD: Rejecting a plea to stay a convicted terrorist’s execution scheduled for Tuesday (today), the Supreme Court said on Monday that terrorism is an act against the state and, therefore, unpardonable.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa said the heirs of a victim may forgive the killer, but a terrorist cannot be acquitted after paying diyya (compensation; plural: diyat) because he has committed a crime against the state.

The bench said that despite being pardoned by the heirs of a terror victim, the court is bound to go ahead with the death penalty in terrorism cases.

Justice Khosa said more than 8,000 prisoners on death row were approaching the apex court to stay their execution, but the judges cannot do so. He said terrorism and murder are different crimes.

Execution today

The top court dismissed Muhammad Riaz’s plea after the payment of diyya to the heirs of the victim. He will be hanged today at the Sargodha jail. His conviction has already been confirmed by the top court and his mercy petition was also dismissed.

MPA’s disqualification

Hearing a review petition against the disqualification of MPA Abdul Karim Nosharwani, a two-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk referred the matter to a larger bench to decide whether disqualification of a parliamentarian under Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution would be permanent or temporary. During the hearing earlier, the applicant’s counsel Babar Awan told the bench that a parliamentarian’s disqualification was not permanent. He requested the bench to determine the duration of disqualification.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2015.