ZIA vs STATE, etc.
This criminal miscellaneous petition was filed by the petitioner Zia seeking the suspension of his sentence of life imprisonment awarded by the Additional Sessions Judge, Chichawatni, District Sahiwal on 26.05.2016 in a private complaint under Sections 302 and 148/149 of the Pakistan Penal Code 1860. The core legal question was whether the petitioner made out a case for the suspension of his sentence pending appeal given the specific fatal injury attributed to him. The Lahore High Court held that since the petitioner was attributed a specific injury on the head of the deceased which the medical evidence termed as contributing to the cause of death, and as deeper appreciation of evidence is impermissible at the stage of suspension of sentence, the petitioner was not entitled to relief. The petition was accordingly dismissed, establishing that suspension of sentence will be refused where a convict is attributed a specific fatal injury supported by medical evidence and trial court evaluation.
- Is a convict entitled to suspension of sentence when attributed a specific fatal injury supported by medical evidence?
- Can a deeper appreciation of evidence be undertaken at the stage of deciding an application for suspension of sentence?
- Does the attribution of a fatal injury disentitle a petitioner from seeking suspension of life imprisonment?
- Section 302, Pakistan Penal Code 1860
- Section 148, Pakistan Penal Code 1860
- Section 149, Pakistan Penal Code 1860
ORDER
Crl. M. No, 1/2016 Through this Criminal Miscellaneous, petitioner Zia has sought suspension of his sentence i,e, life imprisonment awarded by the learned Addl. Sessions Judge, Chichawatni, Disct Sahiwal vide judgment dated 26.05.2016 in a private complaint instituted by the complainant Shah Muhammad in respect of offences under Sections 302,148/149, PPC.
2. After hearing the learned counsel for the parties and going through the impugned judgment dated 26.05.2016, it has been noticed by us that allegation levelled by the prosecution against the petitioner is that he has inflicted a "rabble" blow on the backside of head of the deceased Atta Muhammad alias Nawaz. Post-mortem report of the, deceased shows that during occurrence, he has sustained as many as eight injuries on his person out of which Injury No, 3 is attributed to the present petitioner; According to the deposition of doctor, death of the deceased was caused due to cumulative effect of injuries No, 1,3 and 4. Meaning thereby that the injury attributed to the petitioner is also termed by the doctor to be the cause of death. The co-convict of the petitioner namely Asif has already been awarded death penalty by the learned trial Court vide impugned judgment who at the time of pronouncement of the judgment did not appear before the learned trial Court and is still fugitive from law. As the petitioner has been attributed specific injury to the deceased which is fatal, therefore, he is not entitled for suspension of sentence at this stage because after assessing and evaluating the evidence available on record, the learned trial Court convicted and sentenced him in this case. Rest of the arguments advanced by learned counsel for the petitioner amounts to deeper appreciation of evidence which exercise cannot be carried out at the stage of suspension of sentence.
3. For what has been discussed above, the petitioner has failed to make out his case for suspension of sentence and this petition is, therefore, dismissed.