A judicial magistrate in Lahore on Saturday sentenced the primary suspect in Khadija Siddiqui stabbing case to seven years in prison.
Magistrate Mubashir Awan at Cantonment Courts announced the verdict after finding Shah Husain guilty of attempted murder. The court ordered police to immediately arrest Husain.
Khadija, a law student, was attacked by her class fellow, Shah Husain, on May 3, 2016, near Shimla Hill where she along with her driver had gone to pick her younger sister from school.
Both sisters were about to get into their car when the helmet-wearing suspect attacked Khadija with a knife and stabbed her 23 times leaving her critically injured.
Civil Lines police had registered a case against Husain on charges of attempted murder. Police had also recovered the motorcycle and knife he used in the attack.
The convict happens to be son of a lawyer, Tanvir Hashmi.
Talking to reporters after the verdict was announced, Khadija thanked TV anchors and lawyers for supporting her throughout the case proceedings.
Khadija's fight for justice
Khadija, who attends a private law college, has been fighting a legal battle to seek justice in her case for over a year.
After a sessions court granted Husain bail after he had spent two months behind the bars, Khadija's had suspected that the attacker was released because he belonged to an influential family.
"The judges get scared, the lawyers have so much influence the judges are forced to give an incorrect verdict," she had said on Geo TV's 'Aaj Shahzaib Khanzada Kay Saath'.
In May this year, Khadija sat an examination under the police protection as Husain also was in the same centre.
“Sitting the examination in such circumstances was nothing short of an ordeal and I kept praying and trying to remember the course material,” she said at the time.
Lahore High Court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah had on May 23 taken an administrative notice of the delay in the trial and directed the court to conclude it within 30 days by holding a day-to-day hearing.
Magistrate Awan seized with the trial took over two months to wind up the proceedings.
During the trial proceedings, the prosecution presented 11 witnesses to establish the accused guilty of having attempted murder. The defence had requested the court to delete the offence of attempted murder from the FIR, however, its plea was turned down by the judge.
