Man awarded death penalty for honour killings.

KHYBER -- A court here on Thursday convicted a resident of killing his sister and another person in the name of family honour and sentenced him to death.

District and sessions judge Hidayatullah Khan pronounced that the prosecution had proved the charge against the accused, Mohammad Farooq, without any shadow of doubt and therefore, he had been declared guilty of the offence.

The court awarded the punishment of death to the accused on two counts under the Pakistan Penal Code's sections 302 and 311 and directed him to pay the compensation of Rs500,000 each to the legal heirs of both the deceased.

It declared, 'Right to life is an inviolable fundamental constitutional right and the law of the land altogether discredited murders on the pretext of honour.'

The law has banned out-of-court settlement in honour killing cases to eliminate the practice.

Khyber court also orders him to pay Rs0.5m each to families of deceased

The court observed that customs, how strong and how old they might be, couldn't override and replace the statutory law or much so the Quranic commandments.

It added that honour killings had been left as the 'choice of family' but the custom was no less than ignorance and a serious violation of human rights.

The court ruled that there was no ill will of mala fide of the police to falsely charge the accused or substitute him in place of a real culprit.

The FIR of honour killings was registered at the Milward police station on Nov 13, 2021.

ASI Saleem Khan, who was the complainant in the case, said he had received information that a case of double murder had taken place in a residence at Mirikhel area and both the deceased had been buried without postmortem.

The complainant said he reached the crime scene and learned from the residents and relatives...