Haji FAZAL DIN vs AKHLAQ AHMED and others
This petition is directed against the judgment of the Lahore High Court whereby the sentence of imprisonment for life awarded to respondent Laique Ahmed in a murder case was maintained and respondent Akhlaq Ahmed was acquitted. The core legal question concerns the propriety of enhancing the sentence to death and setting aside the acquittal of the co-accused. The Supreme Court of Pakistan dismissed the petition as not pressed, noting that the first respondent had already served out his sentence and could not be convicted and sentenced twice for the same offence, and that the grounds for the acquittal of the second respondent were not perverse, fanciful, or speculative. The holding establishes that a petition seeking enhancement of sentence and setting aside of acquittal is liable to be dismissed when not pressed and where the foundational grounds of acquittal are legally sound and the sentence has already been fully served.
- Can a criminal petition for enhancement of sentence be maintained when the accused has already served out the sentence awarded?
- Under what circumstances will the Supreme Court interfere with the acquittal of an accused person?
- Is a petition against acquittal maintainable if the grounds of acquittal are not perverse, fanciful or speculative?
ORDER
' QAZI MUHAMMAD FAROOQ, J.---This petition is directed against the judgment dated 16-4-2001 of a learned Judge in Chambers of the Lahore High Court passed in Criminal Appeal No,1022 of 1996 whereby the sentence of imprisonment for life awarded to respondent Laique Ahmed by the learned trial Judge in a murder case was maintained and the respondent Akhlaq Ahmed was acquitted.
2. The prayer made in the petition is to the effect that the sentence awarded to Laique Ahmed may be enhanced to death and the acquittal of Akhlaq Ahmed be set aside.
3. The learned counsel for the petitioner did not press the petition qua Laique Ahmed on the ground that he had already served out the sentence awarded to him and cannot be legally convicted and sentenced twice for the same offence. He also did not press the petition in respect of respondent Akhlaq Ahmed and rightly so because the grounds of his acquittal do not appear to be perverse, fanciful and speculative. Consequently, the petition is dismissed having been not pressed.