On 09.05.2016, Muhammad Imran arrived armed with a .30 bore pistol at a baithak in Dera Ghazi Khan and shot dead Muhammad Khan — the complainant's brother — when told that Muhammad Riaz was not present. The trial court awarded the death sentence; the Lahore High Court's Multan Bench commuted it to life imprisonment on the ground that the deceased was not the intended target. Both sides came to the Supreme Court: the convict (Crl.P.1381/2018) seeking acquittal, the complainant Muhammad Fayyaz (Crl.P.1395/2018) seeking restoration of the death sentence.
On 24.09.2026 (hearing 05.08.2026), the Supreme Court — Mr. Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim authoring, with Mr. Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar and Mr. Justice Shakeel Ahmad — dismissed both petitions as devoid of merit and refused leave. The conviction under Section 302(b) PPC was maintained; the High Court's commutation stood; the plea for enhancement to death was rejected.
The commutation principle is settled but worth restating: where the person killed was not the intended target, the murder — though fully proved — lacks the premeditation against that victim that typically sustains a death sentence. The Court found no infirmity in the High Court's exercise of that sentencing discretion.
Ghalat nishana, sahi saza ka usool — the trigger was pulled with intent to kill, but the law still distinguishes whom the killer meant to kill. The conviction stands, the life term stands, and the gallows recede: proportionality, applied to both sides' appeals at once.