Suleman Lashari’s family pardons SSP’s son, guards

In what highlights the troubling trend of how individuals with wealth and influence often seem to get away with heinous offences, the family of a teenage student who was tragically killed by the son of a senior police officer and his four guards in Defence Housing Authority in 2014, has pardoned all the culprits responsible for the incident, The News has learnt.

A compromise whereby the legal heirs of the victim, Suleman Lashari, have forgiven his killers -- Salman Abro and four police gaurds of his father, SSP Ghulam Sarwar Abro -- comes nearly a year after an anti-terrorism court (ATC) sentenced them to life imprisonment for the murder in May last year.

Currently, the convicts’ appeals against the trial court’s judgment are pending disposal before the Sindh High Court. The high-profile case took a twist when the family of the deceased and the convicts filed miscellaneous applications with the high court under Section 345 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) seeking acquittals of the convicts on the basis of the compromise reached between the two parties.

The SHC then referred the matter to the trial court through an order dated May 15, 2023 to verify the geneuiness of the settlement. Subsequently, the ATC summoned all the legal heirs of Suleman Lashari, including the complainant, to record their statements. It also called reports from the Darakhshan SHO, Nadra and the relevant mukhtiarkar to ascertain the legal heirs of the victim. A public notice in this regard was also published in a local newspaper.

Lately, the victim’s father Ghulam Mustafa Lashari, mother Iram Naz, brother Zeeshan Mustafa, who is also complainant of the case, sisters Ume Laila, Komal Mustafa, Sidra Zahid and Ume Farwa and private guard Ali Ghulam, who was shot and injured in the incident, along with their counsel Barrister Mustafa Mahesar appeared before the ATC-VII judge and recorded their statements.

“That from the statements of above mentioned legal heirs of deceased person namely Suleman Mustafa, it appears that they have pardoned the convict accused persons in the name of Almighty Allah without receiving any compensation,” the judge noted, adding that neither any other person claiming to be a legal heir of the deceased came forward in response to the publication of the notice in a local newspaper nor the name of any person other than those mentioned above came on record in the reports furnished by the mukhtiarkar concerned, Darakhshan SHO and Nadra.

He said the statements of the legal heirs of the deceased appeared to be “voluntary, without any duress and coercion as enquired from them”. The judge forwarded his report along with the record of the proceedings to the SHC for perusal.

Advocate Pervaiz Ahmed Memon confirmed to The News that the family of the deceased had forgiven all the accused without any compensation. “It [the matter] was under process and would be decided by the SHC bench hearing the appeals,” he said.

Barrister Mahesar, when contacted, clarified that although Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 was initially invoked in the case, the conviction in the present case was based on the Pakistan Penal Code rather than the ATA section. Consequently, he pointed out that a compromise could potentially be reached in a case where the conviction did not fall under a terrorism charge.

On May 17, 2022, the ATC-VII judge had found Abro, the prime accused, and police guards of his father guilty of shooting to death Lashari and injuring his private guard Ali Ghulam after barging into the deceased’s house on the night of May 8, 2014, and awarded them life term.

The four convicted former police guards were constables Maqbool Ahmed, Imran Ali, Yaseen Jamali and Muhammad Rashid Gujjar.

The court ruled that Salman could not be awarded the death penalty for being a juvenile offender as per the scheme of Section 12 of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000, and handed him life imprisonment.

According to the prosecution, Suleman, O Level student, was busy with his studies on the night of May 8, 2014 when Salman and his guards stormed his house to settle a dispute and fired shots at him. Salman was also injured and his guard constable Zaheer Rind died when the guards deployed at Suleman’s residence returned fire.

An FIR was filed at the Darakhshan police station under sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempt to murder), 427 (mischief causing damage), and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.