A court in Islamabad on Monday reserved its verdict on three applications filed by Zahir Jafar, main accused in the murder case of former Pakistan’s envoy’s daughter Noor Mukaddam, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Counsel for the petitioner, on the other hand, prayed to the Additional Sessions Judge Ata Rabbani to throw out the applications, one of which was against the Islamabad Inspector General of Police (IGP), the other against the investigation officer (IO) in the case while the third one was filed with the objective of seeking court orders to determine in whose name the mobile phone number was registered.

Terming Zahir’s applications in an attempt to delay the decision in the case, the petitioner’s counsel said the mobile phone number was registered in the name of Noor’s mother. “Therefore, at this stage of the case, these applications are inadmissible for the hearing,” he opined.

Commenting on the main accused’s application against the IGP, the public prosecutor said no such press conference had taken place as was claimed in the application, and that the Islamabad Police boss had made no attempt to influence the case. “Capital police, on the other hand, issued a clarification on Twitter in which they had rejected the allegation of taking sides with the aggrieved party,” he said, and added, “The Force cannot even think of interfering in the case. Therefore, I pray to the court to throw out Zahir’s application.”  

State Counsel Shehryar, representing the main accused in the case in the absence of his lawyer, said that legally the court could ask for the mobile phone number’s record. “Shaukat Mukadam, Noor’s father, had told the court that the number was registered in his wife’s name. However, our information says that is not true. The number is registered in somebody else’s name. The court can even ask for the record for its satisfaction,” he contended.     

Referring to the clarification given by the IGP on Twitter on January 25, Shehryar went on to add whether the official was authorized to do so.

Over six months ago, Noor Mukadam had been brutally murdered by Zahir Jafar, her boyfriend in Islamabad because the former had reportedly refused to marry him.   

Reporter: Ihtesham Kiani