Independent witnesses not available in murder cases in Mianwali district; is no reason to disbelieve and old lady of 71 when the medical evidence and the abscondence of the accused lend support to the prosecution case. (SC) 1976 SCMR 128 Mst. Hayat Bibi v. Muhammad Khan etc.
General reluctance to appear as witnesses and to tell the truth is a lamentable situation in this country. (SC) 291 Muhammad Iqbal.
Reluctance to appear as eye-witnesses is very common. These "independent" on-lookers are not prepared to depose in court about what they had seen so as not to risk the animosity of the assassin or his partisans. (SC) PLD 1976 SC 53 Yaqoob Shah.
Non-availability of independent witnesses in murder cases is due to the fact that; (1) Such witnesses do not want to earn enmity of relatives of the accused, (2) they do not want to waste their time in courts. (DB) NLR 1983 Cr. 411. Shakar Khan.
No public witness from bazar. People now have no interest to come forward for evidence. Values have changed. Therefore, notwithstanding relationship of the witness with the deceased, if there is nothing in the statement unworthy of credence the statement is to be relied upon. (DB) NLR 1989 Cr. 536 Sher Zaman etc.
Eye-witnesses from different village and related to the deceased but had no enmity to falsely depose against the accused. Leave to appeal from conviction refused. 1990 SCMR 276 Falak Sher.
No residents of locality sitting near the place of occurrence and having no interest in or against any party assisting in catching hold of the accused and disarming him. F.I.R. prompt mentioning names of the witnesses. Held, witnesses natural and reliable. (DB) 1975 P.Cr.LJ 929 Muhammad Aslam.
Witness not resident of locality, where occurrence took place and had no business to be there such evidence is not to be accepted in absence of circumstantial guarantee of their presence at the spot at the time of occurrence. (DB) NLR 1985 Cr. 276 Mehdi.
Witnesses living 30 miles away from place of occurrence. No explanation for their presence. Nature of injuries on deceased contradicting prosecution evidence. Conviction set aside. 1984 SCMR 1238. Siraj.
Natural witnesses are way-farers and not the residents of nearby abodes when crime is committed on the public path. (SC) PLD 1970 SC 491 The State v. Fateh Sher and others. 1978 SCMR 114 Javed Ahmed. (DB) PLD 1971 Kar. 239 Abdul Hakim.
Inmates of the complainant's house held to be natural witnesses of the occurrence. 1996 SCMR 1023. Ghulam Nabi.
Inmates of a house are natural witnesses, no question put to suggest absence from the house, held, contention regarding absence at the time of incident fallacious. 1977 SCMR 347 Allah Rakhio.
Witness living 1¬ miles away from the spot unable to explain his presence, in evidence not relied upon. PLJ 1987 Cr.C. (Lah.) 488. Muhammad Munir.