LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has granted post-arrest bail to Waqar Afzal, the accused nominated in a case concerning the alleged sexual assault of a 13-year-old boy.
Justice Muhammad Waheed Khan issued a four-page decision on the bail petition, ordering the release of the accused against the furnishing of surety bonds in the sum of Rs200,000.
The case against the accused was registered at Police Station Chuhng, in which he was alleged to have committed sexual assault against the 13-year-old.
The court expressed reservations over a delay of more than six hours in the registration of the case. The judgment recorded that the police were unable to advance any plausible reason for the delay in lodging the FIR.
According to the court, unexplained delay in the registration of the case rendered the prosecution case doubtful.
The judgment noted that no prior criminal record exists against the accused and that the investigation in the case has been completed, meaning there is no requirement to keep the accused in further custody.
The Lahore High Court declared the case to be one calling for further inquiry under Section 497(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure and granted post-arrest bail on that basis.
The accused had been in jail since April 27, 2026.
Advocate Chaudhry Muhammad Nauman Naeem Noor Bhatta appeared for the accused, while the state was represented by Deputy Prosecutor General Nausheen Malik.
The accused had approached the Lahore High Court after an Additional Sessions Judge in Lahore dismissed his bail application.
The legal basis of the order lies in the structure of Section 497 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Sub-section (1) governs bail in offences punishable with death, life imprisonment or imprisonment exceeding ten years, in which bail is ordinarily refused where reasonable grounds exist to believe the accused is guilty. Sub-section (2), which the court invoked here, permits release where there are no such reasonable grounds but sufficient grounds exist for further inquiry into the accused’s guilt.
Delay in the registration of an FIR has long been treated by Pakistani courts as a factor relevant at the bail stage. The reasoning is that an unexplained gap between the reporting of an incident and its formal recording creates the possibility of consultation and deliberation before the complaint is finalised. Courts have consistently held that such delay does not by itself establish falsity, but that where the prosecution offers no explanation, it introduces an element of doubt that may weigh in favour of the accused at the pre-trial stage.
The judgment’s closing position is standard practice: the grant of bail is not an acquittal, the observations are confined to the bail record, and the trial court remains free to reach its own conclusions on the evidence when the case proceeds to trial.
The identity of the complainant and the minor concerned has not been disclosed. Under Pakistani law and established editorial practice, victims in cases of this nature are not named, and reporting is confined to the proceedings on record.
–Reported by Malik Ashraf
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