Additional District and Sessions Judge Chaudhry Muhammad Tariq Javed on Friday awarded death sentence on two counts to two men for killing a man during robbery.
Judge Javed also ordered them to pay Rs200,000 each to the deceased’s heirs.
Before announcing the verdict, the judge asked complainant Mian Hanif, a brother of the deceased, if he would forgive the convicts “in the name of Allah and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)”. Hanif said that his late brother had six children who still asked where their father was. “We tell them he has left the country for work,” said Hanif. “The children these men orphaned deserve justice. These men should not be given another opportunity to deprive other children of their fathers.”
Judge Javed awarded Nazar Abbas and Yaseen death sentence on two counts under Sections 302 and 460 of the Pakistan Penal Code [murder, breaking into a house].
The convicts were also sentenced to 10 years imprisonment under Section 397 [robbery] and a year’s imprisonment under Section 411 of PPC [receiving stolen property].
According to prosecution, Nazar Abbas and Yaseen had shot Shaukat Shehzad dead during a robbery in January 2009. Mian Hanif had registered a complaint at the Hanjarwal police station.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 8th, 2014.