In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court has reduced the life imprisonment of a murder convict to 15 years and laid down comprehensive guidelines governing the use of personal information in police records.
A three-member bench comprising Justice Hashim Kakar, Justice Salahuddin Panhwar, and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim announced the verdict in the murder case. The judgment was authored by Justice Hashim Kakar. In its detailed judgment, the apex court held that under Islam, a person’s status or dignity does not change upon conversion to the faith.
The court declared it unlawful to describe any individual as “new” or “separate” on the basis of religious conversion, emphasizing that human dignity is not a privilege but a fundamental right inherent to every individual. The bench observed that derogatory terms such as “Bhangi,” “Choora,” and “Masali” are not identifiers of caste but expressions used to demean individuals.