SC upholds death sentence for man who killed ex-wife after dissolution of marriage

ISLAMABAD, Aug 17 (APP):The Supreme Court has ruled that a woman’s decision to dissolve her marriage through lawful judicial procedure is her legal right and that violence against her for exercising this right is contrary to the spirit of the constitutional order.

The court upheld the death sentence of a man who killed his former wife just two days after she obtained a judicial decree dissolving their marriage, and dismissed his jail petition.

A three-member bench headed by Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar, comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, announced its judgment in Jail Petition No. 617/2025.

In its detailed judgment, the court observed that convict Waseem Abbas had murdered his former wife, Shehnaz Bibi, in an extremely brutal and premeditated manner. She had filed a suit for dissolution of marriage against him, and the Family Court passed an ex-parte decree in her favour on October 9, 2020. Two days later, on October 11, the convict, along with his accomplices, entered her parents’ house and shot her dead.

The court noted that the incident took place during the daytime and eyewitnesses had clearly seen the convict, who was readily identifiable as the deceased’s former husband. It said the testimony of eyewitnesses could not be discarded merely because they were close relatives of the deceased, as family members are often natural witnesses to crimes committed within domestic settings.

The court observed that the murder weapon was recovered on the convict’s identification, while forensic examination of the spent cartridges recovered from the crime scene matched the recovered pistol. Medical evidence and the judicial decree obtained by the deceased shortly before the incident also corroborated the prosecution’s case.

The Supreme Court held that the deceased had exercised her lawful right under the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act, 1939, and the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961.

Citing an earlier judgment, the court observed that a woman seeking dissolution of marriage through proper judicial procedure was exercising a legal and fundamental right, and violence against her for exercising that right was contrary to the spirit of the constitutional order.

The court found no mitigating circumstance warranting commutation of the death sentence, observing that the convict had murdered his former wife after she had obtained a judicial decree dissolving the marriage, making the offence particularly grave.

It held that the judgments of the lower courts were based on a proper appreciation of the evidence and contained no legal or evidentiary defect. The Supreme Court consequently dismissed the jail petition and upheld the death sentence awarded by the lower courts.