KHUDAYAR MOHLA

ISLAMABAD: Twenty-four years after he was charged with shooting dead Nisar Ahmed, 23, the Supreme Court acquitted Mazhar Farooq on Friday on the grounds that conviction was based on unsustainable evidence of the prosecution.

The incident goes back to 1992 when Mazhar Farooq, the accused acquitted of the crime, exchanged hot words with Nisar who warned him to avoid grazing of animal in his (Nisar) agriculture land.

Mazhar Farooq nursed a grudge and after four days of the brawl he came to Nisar’s place with three other accused including Azhar, Nazim and Nadeem murdering Nisar and making indiscriminate firing and fled away.

Police arrested Azhar, Nazim and Nadeem soon after the incident but fugitive Mazhar Farooq had been at large and was arrested in 1996. The police story convinced the District & Session Judge Kasur, which awarded death sentence to all the accused persons whereas Lahore High Court (LHC) on March 01, 2009, confirmed the capital punishment to Mazhar Farooq but exonerated his three accomplices in the case.

Mazhar Farooq challenged the LHC verdict before the apex court which took up the appeal after seven years on Friday. During the course of hearing, a three-judge bench led by Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa ruled there was a clear contrast in medical report and witness statements saying autopsy was carried out after 24 hours. The bench also said that three other accused persons had been acquitted in the same case.

Later, disposing of the jail appeal, the bench acquitted Mazhar Farooq in the case.