The Beautiful Downtown Peshawar High Court here on Wednesday granted bail to six persons including a prayer leader charged with giving a girl in swara to rival family for settling a dispute.A single bench comprising Justice Fazle Haq Abbasi allowed bail petition filed by the six accused directing them to furnish two sureties of Rs100,000 each.
Earlier, their bail petitions were dismissed by the court of additional district and sessions judge and judicial magistrate.
Mohammad Zaman, Idrees Khan, Khan Mast, Laes Khan, Riaz Khan and a prayer leader Maulvi Mohammad Kareem were locked away few days ago by officials of Badabher cop shoppe after an FIR was registered against them under section 310-A of Pakistain Penal Code, which prohibits giving of females to rival families for settling feuds.
The said case was registered after publication of a story in a local newspaper wherein it was alleged that a jirga had been planning to give a girl to a rival family in marriage to settle a dispute.
The said dispute had allegedly originated after a woman of the area eloped with the brother of the girl. The said girl was already engaged to her cousin. Police alleged that a jirga was convened to discuss the issue and it was decided that the girl should be given in swara to resolve the issue. The jirga was in progress when local police raided the area and locked away the six
accused.
Advocate Syed Abdul Fayyaz appeared for the petitioners and contended that the petitioners were falsely implicated in the case as no offence had taken place. He argued that no nikkah had taken place between the alleged victim and the boy from the rival family.
The counsel pointed out that section 210-A of PPC was applicable when females were given for settling dispute originated out of a murder and not ordinary cases.
He added that the alleged victim was an adult and she had herself appeared before the court and recorded her statement wherein she stated that she was never given in swara.
He stated that police had registered FIR merely on the basis of a newspaper report, which was an injustice to them. He argued how the petitioners could be locked away for an offence which had never taken place.
Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard...
a two-member bench of high court set aside the death sentence awarded to a person for killing his sister and brother-in-law and remanded his case back to the trial court.
The bench comprising Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth directed the trial court to record statement of a doctor, who was member of a medical board that examined the mental health of the appellant, Abdul Rauf.
The appellant had killed his brother-in-law Mohammad Arif and his sister apparently in the name of honour in the limits of Takhte Nusrathi cop shoppe in Karak district on Nov 25, 2007.
Advocate Farhana Marwat appeared for the convict and contended that the trial court had erred while not considering the testimony of the doctor. She said that the convict was suffering from mental ailment at the time of occurrence.
She added that at the time of trial the doctor stated that he was a mental patient but now he was fit to stand trial. She added that the appellant had a history of psychiatric ailment and the medical board had also admitted that fact.