1. ANWARUL HAQ, J.-This order is to be read in continuation of the order passed by us in this petition on the 25th of January 1974. By that order we held that the conviction of the appellants for the murder of Bashir Ahmad deceased was amply justified on the record, but the question of the propriety of the death sentences imposed upon them by the trial Court, and confirmed by the High Court, needed examination. Notice was accordingly issued to the State on this limited question only. We have now heard counsel for both sides and consider that the petition should be converted into an appeal and disposed of accordingly.
2. The motive for the crime, as alleged by the prosecution, and accepted by both the Courts below, was that the petitioners suspected that the deceased Bashir Ahmad was carrying on an illicit liaison with Mst. Budhi, a married sister of the appellant Khudadad. The husband of this woman was described as a vagabond and wanderer, with the result that the duty of avenging the insult to the family honour fell upon the male relations of Mst. Budhi. As will be seen from the facts already narrated by us in our previous order Mst. Budhi was also murdered on the same day, and in that connection her father-in-law, Bhooro, as well as her brother Khudadad (who is one of the appellants before us), were tried but acquitted. All these facts leave no doubt whatsoever that the crime was indeed committed by the appellants in order to vindicate the honour of the family involving a female.
3. The question of the proper sentence to be awarded in such cases came up for consideration before the Court in Umar Hayat v. State (PLD1966SC602). Relying upon two earlier decisions, namely, Fazal Khan v. State (PLD1964SC54) and Ghulam Rasul v. AU Akbar (PLD 1965 SC 363) it was observed that among the agricultural tribes of West Pakistan questions of family honour, touching the females of the family, are of almost overpowering importance, and to vindicate that honour they feel bound to go to very great lengths. It was also observed that general13 the facts and circumstances emerging in these cases are such that if the convict had found the offending female and her paramour in a compromising position on the spot, and had killed one or both of them, he would have been entitled to the benefit of the exception relating to grave and sudden provocation. It was, therefore, concluded that death was not the proper penalty in such cases, and the ends of justice would be met by awarding the lesser punishment of transportation for life.
4. We are of the view that the observations made in the cases just mentioned apply with full force to the facts before us. The male relation s of Mst. Budhi, the erring female, must have found the conduct of the deceased intolerable, especially when Mst. Budhi's husbar d was absent from the village. We would accept this appeal, set aside the sentences of death awarded to the appellants and instead sentence each of them to transportation for life.