Balochistan High Court hands ex-MPA Achakzai 10 years in policeman's death
A division bench set aside the 2020 acquittal of the former provincial lawmaker, ordered diyat for the officer's heirs and issued non-bailable arrest warrants.
The Balochistan High Court on Tuesday sentenced former MPA Abdul Majeed Achakzai to ten years of rigorous imprisonment, setting aside his acquittal in the 2017 death of a traffic police officer in Quetta.
A division bench of Justice Muhammad Amir Nawaz Rana and Justice Abdul Qayyum Lehri convicted Achakzai under Section 320 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which covers causing death by rash or negligent driving. The bench was hearing an appeal against the September 4, 2020 order of an additional sessions judge, who had acquitted him of the charges. Dawn reported that the appeal was filed by the provincial government.
Minute Mirror reported that the court also directed Achakzai to pay diyat, or blood money, to the legal heirs of the officer, named in its report as traffic sub-inspector Ataullah. The bench issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the former lawmaker and ordered the authorities to arrest him immediately and shift him to prison to serve the sentence.
The incident dates to June 2017, when Ataullah was run over by a vehicle allegedly driven by Achakzai in Quetta, according to Minute Mirror. Achakzai was a sitting provincial lawmaker at the time, and a criminal case was registered against him.
Under that order, Achakzai is to be taken into custody after nearly six years out of it. The acquittal had stood since September 4, 2020, and Tuesday's ruling replaces it with the ten-year term and the diyat payment.
Both reports identified the bench as a two-member one and gave the trial court's order as the decision under appeal; neither carried a statement from Achakzai or his lawyers on the verdict.
How the reports differ
Dawn reported that the appeal against the acquittal was filed by the provincial government, a detail Minute Mirror did not carry. Minute Mirror named the dead officer as traffic sub-inspector Ataullah, dated the incident to June 2017 and reported the diyat order and the non-bailable arrest warrants, none of which appeared in Dawn's standfirst. The two reports spell the second judge's name differently, Lehr in Dawn and Lehri in Minute Mirror.
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