Arguments in Noor Mukadam case continue

ISLAMABAD:The defence lawyer on Wednesday continued his arguments in appeals against the conviction of Zahir Jaffar in the Noor Mukadam murder case before the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan heard the appeals. At the outset of hearing, Zahir Jaffar’s lawyer Usman Khosa argued that the police had reached the crime scene at 9 am while the first information report (FIR) was registered at 11:15 am, and Noor’’s postmortem was conducted next morning.

The lawyer said the plaintiff had named the parents of the accused after watching the CCTV footage of the incident. The owner of Therapy Works, 73, was also named in the FIR though he was in the United States, he added. The advocate said the FIR mentioned the murder time as 10 am, while the postmortem report showed that the incident had taken place at 12:10 am. The victim girl had talked to her mother or father and their statement could clear the matter, he added. The lawyer said the girl had a mobile phone when she tried to escape on the evening of July 20. The evidences presented in the case had no correlation, he added. The court then adjourned the case.

Justice Sardar Khan, while commenting about Noor’s call records, said that Call Detail Records (CDR) only show data of calls made via telecom services, not WhatsApp. In response to this, Khosa said that while WhatsApp’s data can get deleted from the phone, it is possible to recover it. The convict’s lawyer added that no attempt was made to recover the WhatsApp data. Khosa said that even though Noor came to Jaffar’s house willingly on July 18, 2021, the trial court also indicted him for abduction. He added that the trial court relied on the CCTV and the offence does not get proven by merely playing a video. “Only one item has matched with the accused, but the trial court did not summon the scientific officer, who conducted the forensic, as a witness.”

Khosa said that only a 2.5-inch blade and a 3.5-inch handle were recovered from the scene.“A pistol was also present in the house, which could have been used for the murder; however, it wasn’t used,” Jaffar’s counsel told the court. The hearing of the petition was adjourned till December 7.

Earlier, the Islamabad High Court had issued notices to the prosecutor and plaintiff while hearing a petition seeking to conduct a medical examination of Zahir Jaffar — the main convict sentenced in the Noor Mukadam murder case. The stance of the two parties will be heard on the matter after which the court will decide whether to approve or reject the request. Earlier this year, convict Jaffar was sentenced to death and fined to pay Rs500,000 as compensation to the heirs of deceased as required under Section 544-A of the Pakistan Penal Code.