Admissibility of Circumstantial Evidence in Shariah and Pakistani Legal System
Keywords:
Circumstantial Evidence, Islamic Law, Shariah, Admissibility, of evidenceAbstract
Evidence plays a significant role for conviction of accused in both criminal and civil proceedings. In most of the cases direct evidence is normally unavailable, hence, circumstantial evidence is being given a vital importance by the courts globally. In the era of the Holy Prophet (ﷺ) this kind of evidence was also being relied upon to punish the criminals in certain cases. The classical Muslim jurists (Fuqha) has discussed almost all the aspects of this subject matter. In short, the jurisprudence of Islamic criminal law links the admissibility and inadmissibility of circumstantial evidence with the rights infringed. Hence, the said type of evidence is admission in certain crimes and inadmissible in others. The present paper analyses the use of circumstantial evidence for conviction in the light of Shariah and its application in the judgements of superior courts in Pakistan.
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. Hashim Qasim v. the State, 2017 SCMR 986.
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