CJP forms bench to decide time period of life term sentence

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa on Monday formed a larger bench to fix the period of life term sentence, ARY News reported.

Justice Khosa took notice of the matter while hearing a case, Haroon-ur-Rasheed vs State, in which the convict had sought relief in his life term sentence.

Haroon-ur-Rasheed was awarded 12-time life term sentence by a court  in 12 offences in year 1997.

The counsel of the convict pleaded to the apex court that his client has been in jail since 1997 and has completed 22 years of his jail term so far. He sought the court’s ruling to declare all the jail terms awarded to the convict, be counted simultaneously.

Chief Justice Khosa said that the court was waiting such a case for a long time to decide the time of the life term sentence.

The CJP also observed that the day and night counted separately in jail sentence of, which helps a convict to get released from the prison within five years. “The time has ripe to correct all these anomalies,” chief justice remarked.

The chief justice said that determination of the period of life sentence is a matter of public interest.

The court directed Registrar Office of the apex court to fix the hearing of case in first week of October.