PESHAWAR: NWFP’s veteran lawyers expressed concern over a trial court’s limb amputation verdict against an Afghan under the Hadood Law, and said the punishment required either the accused to plead guilty or two adult male witnesses who qualify for ‘tazkiya al-shuhood’ to testify against him.


Pakistan Jurists Association President Mian Muhibullah Kakakhel said the two witnesses should ‘be truthful and abstain from major sins’. He said in the case of Jalabad’s Ajab Khan, son of Awal Khan, the judge had ignored the Islamic principals of testimony, which was not allowed under the Hadood Law. He called the verdict ‘un-Islamic, unconstitutional and unlawful’.


Advocate Abdul Latif Afridi said that although the Hudood Law was applicable, under the current circumstances it was impossible for a judge to fulfil the required procedures to order amputation of limbs. He said Peshawar High Court had ordered amputation of limbs of two British Muslims in a robbery case in the 1980s but the apex court suspended the order and acquitted them. He said a sessions judge had ordered the amputation of a hand and a leg of an accused in a robbery case in Dir and a woman was sentenced to stoning to death in Kohat, but the Federal Shariat Court did not confirm the verdicts as the witnesses did not qualify for tazkiya al-shuhood. He said such decisions, which the international community considered violation of human rights, brought a bad name to Pakistan and portrayed an extremist image of Islam. The veteran lawyer said the verdict did not fulfil the legal requirements and would allow the international community to criticise Pakistan’s judiciary.


Khawaja Mohammad Khan Gara, a lawyer who deals with criminal cases, said everyone was bound to divine law but the witnesses should fulfil the Islamic requirements and should abstain from major sins. He said the same conditions were applicable to cases under section 17 (3). Barrister Masood Kauser said such decisions could be imposed in an Islamic society wherein every person was provided the basic facilities of life by the government. He said the Pakistani society was not Islamic according to the Islamic law, and in such a situation, these verdicts would only damage Islam’s image.


On January 25, an acting district and sessions judge in Peshawar, Muhammad Jamal Khan, ordered the amputation of an accused Afghan’s right hand from his wrist and his left foot from the ankle in a robbery case, under section 17 (3) of the Offence of Hadood Ordinance, 1979.





http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\01\30\story_30-1-2006_pg7_21