Noor Muqaddam case: SC hints at verdict today

Islamabad: In the Supreme Court hearing of the appeal for pardon of Zahir Jafar, convicted in the Noor Muqaddam murder case, the medical history of the accused from 2013 to date was presented in the court. The court indicated that the verdict will be announced today.

The accused’s lawyer Salman Safdar said that the accused was sentenced to death for murder, life imprisonment for rape, and 10 years for kidnapping. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) increased the sentence for rape from life imprisonment to death. The High Court ruled that the trial court did not give the reasons for giving life imprisonment, i.e., the lesser sentence.

According to Salman Safdar, the initial FIR was only for murder, other crimes were added later, the provisions of kidnapping and rape were added 22 days after the incident, the crime scene was the accused’s house, and evidence of this was not presented.

The defense lawyer further stated that according to the record, the incident took place at 10:00pm and the murder case was registered at 11:30pm. The postmortem was conducted next day at 9:30 am, according to which Noor died at 12:10am. The police made Amjad, an injured person in the incident, an accused instead of a witness.

He also said that the police depended on CCTV footage, a photogrammetric test of the accused was also conducted, which was mentioned in another case a few days ago. On this Justice Hashim Kakar said that the decision was made in your favor.

Salman Safdar said in his position that the murder weapon is a small knife on which the fingerprints of the accused are not present. Except for the plaintiff, Shaukat Muqaddam, all the witnesses were official. Justice Hashim Kakar remarked that there is no eyewitness to the incident, and all the evidence is circumstantial.

Justice Hashim stated that relief will be given if justified. Otherwise, the decision will be made. There is a hearing of the reserved seats case at 11:30am. If the bench is dissolved, then Noor Muqaddam's case will be heard at around 12:00pm. If the reserved seat bench is not dissolved, then another hearing will be held at 1:00pm.

Justice Hashim Kakar remarked that the judges should take a little pain; this should not happen. The appeal was approved for initial hearing and then the case is not heard. People live in death cells for 10 years, this will not happen now.

During the hearing, Salman Safdar referred to the decision of Judge Arshad Malik in the video scandal case, on which Justice Hashim said that they are relying on Justice Asif Khosa's decision regarding the verification of video and audio. Now, if they rely on the parameters, it will be difficult to prove something by standing in the Kaaba.

After this, the hearing was adjourned.