The Supreme Court on Friday converted the capital punishment awarded to major convict Shahid Zafar of Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, into life imprisonment during the hearing of the appeal against the conviction in the Sarfaraz Shah murder case and rejected appeals of other convicts, maintaining the order of punishment awarded in the case.
The three-member SC bench comprising Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Athar Saeed passed this order during the hearing of the review petition filed by the Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, for relaxation in punishments. The hearing was conducted at the SC Karachi Registry on Friday. The bench passed this order after thoroughly watching the footages of the incident shoot by the crew of a private television channel during the gory incident in a Clifton park of Karachi.
The bench maintained order of punishments awarded to Pakistan Rangers Sindh personnel Bahauddin, Muhammad Afzal Khan, Minthar Ali and Tariq while the punishment awarded to the Benazir Bhutto Park watchman Afsar Khan was declared void after necessary amendments in the sections of law and ordered for his release. Salik Shah, the plaintiff, during the hearing apprised the apex court that with the will of father of the slain Sarfaraz Shah, all convicts in the Sarfaraz Shah murder case were pardoned and hence their punishments should also be declared as void.