ISLAMABAD: Shaukat Ali Mukadam, the father of slain Noor Mukadam, recorded his statement before Islamabad court on Saturday in the murder case of his daughter and demanded capital punishment for Zahir Jaffer — the primary accused.
Additional Sessions Judge Ata Rabbani presided over the hearing today during which Shaukat said that he did not have a “personal enmity” with anyone, adding that “my daughter was unjustly killed”. “Zahir Jaffer should be given a death sentence,” he demanded.
At the hearing’s outset, Shaukat requested the judge to overlook any lapses in protocol since it was his first time appearing in a courtroom. The court was told in the testimony that Noor had still not returned when Shaukat’s wife came back, which worried the two and prompted them to call her but Noor’s mobile was turned off.
Shaukat said he reached the police station and was taken to a house that belonged to Zahir, adding that when he went inside he saw that Noor “was brutally murdered and decapitated”.
He said he identified Noor’s body and gave his signed statement to Assistant Sub-Inspector Zubair Mazhar and later signed off on a report on the cause of death. Shaukat added he had handed over Noor’s body for a postmortem on July 21.
Basharatullah Khan, the counsel for Zahir’s father and co-accused Zakir Jaffer, then conducted his cross-examination of Shaukat’s account.
He asked Shaukat to confirm if it was usual for Noor to leave their house without informing them. He also questioned Shaukat about the placed he had searched Noor at and whether he had provided the names of her friends in the investigation.
Therapyworks owner Tahir Zahoor’s lawyer Akram Qureshi conducted his cross-examination during which Shaukat mentioned a number of details that he had not mentioned before, including the contact numbers of Noor’s friends and the timing of her call and the timing of Zahir’s call.
Meanwhile, a junior lawyer for Sikandar Zulqarnain, Zahir’s lawyer, presented a medical report in court. “Sikandar Zulqarnain is afflicted by Covid-19,” he said. Meanwhile, the court was informed that Zahir’s lawyer was afflicted with Covid-19.
At this, the judge adjourned the hearing till January 17 after no objection from other lawyers following a short discussion on how a hearing with a Covid-positive lawyer would be possible.
Noor, 27, was found murdered at a residence in the capital’s upscale Sector F-7/4 on July 20, 2021. A first information report was registered the same day against Zahir — who was arrested from the site of the murder — under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the complaint of the victim’s father.
