This is a petition filed by Ghulam Mustafa and Muhammad Hussain, petitioners, against the order of a learned Additional Sessions Judge of Okara, dated 17-3-1987, rejecting their application for summoning Dr. Sarfraz Hussain, Medical Officer, Okara, as a defence witness.
2. The brief facts leading upto this revision petition are that Ghulam Mustafa and Muhammad Hussain, petitioners, and one other are accused in a case under section 302/34, P.P.C., which is being tried by an Additional Sessions Judge of Okara. After the close of the prosecution case, the accused were asked to state whether they intended to call any defence witness, which question they replied in the negative. Later, when the case was fixed for arguments, the present two petitioners filed an application for summoning Dr. Sarfraz Hussain, Medical Officer, Okara, as defence witness which application was disallowed by the trial Judge on 17-3-198 with the remarks that as the accused themselves had chosen not to produce any defence, the application merited rejection. Being aggrieved by the said order, the petitioners have now come up in revision, which is now before me for disposal.
3. I have heard the arguments of the learned counsel for the petitioners and the State. Mr. Muhammad Akhtar A.A.-G., who appears on behalf of the State, submits that the petition should be allowed, as it was mere because of an inadvertent mistake that the petitioners happened to make statement that no defence witness was required to be produced on the behalf. I agree with the view of the learned Assistant Advocate-General The mistake being inadvertent, the trial Judge should have allowed the application and permitted the petitioners to produce Dr. Sarfraz Hussain, Medical Officer, Okara, as a defence witness. This was necessary in the interest of justice, as Ghulam Mustafa, petitioner, had suffered injuries in the occurrence and the said doctor had medically examined him in that behalf, and he had also been cited as a witness by the prosecution.
4. For the foregoing reasons, this petition is accepted and the order of the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Okara, dated 17-3-1987 is set aside. The learned trial Judge shall now examine Dr. Sarfraz Hussain, Medical Officer, Okara, as a defence witness in the case.