Daily Times

LAHORE: The seven-year sentence of convicted law student Shah Hussain in stabbing case of fellow student Khadija Siddiqi has been reduced by a session’s court to five years. During the hearing last week, Additional District and Session Judge Ghulam Murtaza reduced Hussain’s prison term on grounds that he did not have ‘prior criminal history’.

In July last year, Hussain, who is the son of lawyer Tanveer Hashmi, was convicted by a trial court for repeatedly stabbing 23-year-old Siddiqui with the intention of killing her. Both Khadija and the convict had moved the appellant court following the verdict. Hussain had challenged the trial court’s decision, while Khadija’s counsel sought an increase in the punishment.

Meanwhile, the convict’s father along with some members of the local legal fraternity have allegedly been using their influence to manipulate the proceedings and pressurise the victim into reaching a compromise. Unlike most female victims of violence in Pakistan, Khadija had kept pursuing the case despite character assassination attacks by the accused party, during the course of the hearings. Hussain’s lawyers brought up pictures from Khadija’s personal life as evidence in the convict’s favour.

The trial court verdict that sentenced Hussain for seven years followed months of efforts by Khadija’s lawyers as well as civil society activists and media who brought the issue in the national spotlight. But as soon as the media shifted focus away from the case, Hussain’s lawyers once again started efforts to force Khadija for a compromise. According to Khadija, the appellant court’s judge was biased in favour of the convict because prominent lawyers were defending him in the case. “The judge called me to his chamber and asked why I was not ready for a compromise. He said that even murderers are pardoned by victims in bigger cases and that I should settle the matter by forgiving Shah Hussain,” she told Daily Times.

The session court judge also examined Khadija’s wounds at his chamber despite the fact that nature of the injuries was established earlier. “I removed my head scarf to show him the injuries and after looking at them, he asked what the fight between me and Shah Hussain was all about.”

Khadija further stated that the judge’s non-neutrality can be determined from the fact that he let two different lawyers present the same arguments in defence of the convict. “Senior lawyer Akram Qureshi took two months to complete his arguments after which my counsel Salman Safdar began his arguments. The convict then brought another lawyer, who instead of giving a rebuttal to Salman Safdar as he was supposed to be doing, started fresh arguments.”

Khadija also told Daily Times that an influential personality (who had previously been providing the victim with moral and financial support in the case), approached her with Governor Rafiq Rijwana’s message and said that the governor wanted her to pardon Shah Hussain and ‘let him go’ because the initial trial has already destroyed his future and he has gotten his lesson.

Meanwhile, Khadija’s counsel Hassan Niazi said sessions court in Pakistan were known to maintain status quo and give relief to lawyers with ‘face value’, which is why the judge has a soft corner for the convict. He added that the judge adopted a lenient tone towards Shah Hussain’s lawyers despite them not having any substantive arguments. “The convict’s counsel once again tried to show Khadija’s personal life pictures as evidence. The presence of these pictures and the convict’s side using them for validation of their argument prove the convict’s side harassed and intimidated the victim.”

“The practice of renowned lawyers protecting criminals in their ranks exists across the country, and Chief Justice Saqib Nisar should take notice of this abuse of power”, said activist Jibran Nasir, while talking to Daily Times. He said that it was a dilemma that the institutions acted only when the entire media and civil society focused their attention on a case, adding that media should have paid heed to the concerns raised by Khadija’s counsel during the hearing of the appellant court.

Khadija’s counsel say they would challenge the curtailment of the convict’s punishment in Lahore High Court (LHC) next week.

Published in Daily Times, April 8^th 2018.