ISLAMABAD: An application by Zahir Jaffer’s legal team to set up a medical board to assess his mental health was rejected by an Islamabad session court. After hearing the case from both parties, the court reserved its decision, which was read by the Additional Sessions Judge Ata Rabbani.
Attorney Shah Khawar, representing Noor’s family, presented his formal response to the prosecutor’s petition and requested that the court to deny the motion. Khawar observed that during remand and trial, Zahir Jaffer continued to appear before the court numerous times. At the conclusion of the trial, the primary accused is now presenting this application.
His opposition to the formation of the medical board included an assertion that Zahir had worked as a counsellor at a local school and that “all these things are on record.”
Public prosecutor Hassan Abbas recalled that Zahir asked during one of the hearings why Section 201 (causing the disappearance or giving false information to a screen offender) had been applied to him.
Attorney Sikandar Zulqarnain also made his case on behalf of Zahir. He explained that he had recently requested a medical board after observing his client’s conduct during the trial.
During the trial, Zahir was often escorted from the courtroom for yelling profanities at the judge and generally disrupting proceedings. Later, the court held its decision on the medical board’s creation and deferred the matter to January 15.
Earlier Hearings
An initial trial court indicted Zahir along with 11 others on October 14, including his parents, their three housekeepers, Jan Muhammad and Jameel; Therapy Works CEO Tahir Zahoor; and staffers Amjad, Dilip Kumar, Abdul Haq, and Samar Abbas—all of whom have since been acquitted. On October 20, the murder trial began.
Cross-examination of witnesses and video evidence of the events leading up to the murder of Noor Mukadam were part of the proceedings as the court resumed hearings in the case.
On December 8, Tahir Zahoor’s lawyer requested that the court schedule an in-camera hearing for the CCTV footage. Zahoor is the owner of Therapy Works, a counselling and psychotherapy service, and an accused murderer.
Several months after the incident, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) decided to ban all satellite television broadcasters from showing the video that had been leaked in November.
Today, the courtroom unsealed the DVD containing the surveillance footage. The media and lawyers who were not involved in the case were requested to leave the courtroom prior to the footage being aired in the hearing. The courtroom was reopened to onlookers once the video had finished playing.
In the meantime, Zahir’s lawyer today cross-examined computer operator Mudassir, asking him questions about the length of the CCTV footage and the memory capacity of the DVR on which the tape was stored. Mudassir was questioned.
On December 1st, Zahir’s lawyer applied for the formation of a medical board to determine his mental state.
Case Background
On July 20th, the body of Noor, a 27-year-old woman from Delhi’s affluent Sector F-7/4, was discovered. Under Pakistan Penal Code Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the PPC, Shaukat Ali Mukadam’s father filed a first information report against Zahir, the man who was arrested from the murder scene.
As soon as the murder case was filed, Zahir’s parents and domestic workers were detained on July 24 on suspicion of “hiding evidence and being complicit in the crime,” according to the police report. Based on Noor’s father’s account, they were included in the inquiry.
For Eid ul Azha, Shaukat reported that he went to Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on July 19 to purchase a goat from a local slaughterhouse while his wife was out shopping. After he arrived home late at night, his wife discovered that their daughter Noor was missing from their Islamabad home.
They began looking for her after discovering that her cell phone had been turned off. Following this, Noor called her parents and said she was leaving for Lahore with a group of friends and would be back in a day or two, according to the FIR.
He claimed that a friend of the former diplomat’s family, Zahir, called the complainant later, but the complainant never returned his call. The FIR stated that Shaukat had been assured by the suspect that Noor was not with him.
The victim’s father received a phone call from the Kohsar police station at about 10 p.m. on July 20, informing him that his daughter, Noor, had been murdered.
Zahir’s house in Sector F-7/4 was searched by police, and the complainant found his “daughter brutally murdered with a sharp-edged weapon and beheaded,” according to the FIR.
Shaukat has requested the severest penalty allowed by law for the brutal murder of his daughter. Among those indicted in October were six members of Therapy Works, including Zahoor, who was also nominated in the case.
