Noor Mukadam case: Defense requests full CCTV footage

Defendants' attorneys also requested to investigate video leak on social media

ISLAMABAD:

The defense in the Noor Mukadam murder case on Wednesday requested the Islamabad trial court to provide them with the full record of the CCTV footage of the incident. 

Additional Sessions Judge Ata Rabbani heard the case wherein the counsel of the accused submitted an affidavit in the court, which also prayed to investigate the leak of the said footage on social media. 

During the hearing, Advocate Basharatullah representing prime accused Zahir Jaffer's father Zakir Jaffer, Asad Jamal representing Zahir's mother Asmat Adamjee, Sajjad Ahmed Bhatti the legal representative of Zahir's domestic staff and Akram Qureshi the legal counsel of Therapyworks employees appeared before the court.

The accused released on bail were also present, along with four witnesses.

Earlier, the trial court had ordered the investigation officer to unseal the CCTV footage and give copies to the lawyers representing Zahir and his parents.

Judge Rabbani had said that the decision to hand over the video footage, wherein Noor could be seen entering the house where she was murdered, was taken on directives of the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

During the proceedings today, the court directed the counsel Malik Amjad to get the power of attorney signed by the prime accused.

However, Zahir refused to sign the attorney that would have given him legal representation and said that “this is not my lawyer, I will not sign. My lawyer is Babar and he is coming."

Throwing another tantrum in the court, Zahir asked the judge for water. "There is no arrangement for drinking water inside the courtroom. Can you look into that first?" said Zahir. 

On the directions of the court, the police gave Zahir water to drink.

Witness Dr Shazia, who was part of the team that conducted Noor’s post-mortem, said that Dr Saira Ali Khan had written the autopsy report on her instructions.

Read ‘Noor was kept in captivity for 3 days’

The defendant’s counsel prayed to the court that due to this supplementary evidence Dr Shazia cannot be a witness to the case.

On November 14, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) prohibited all satellite TV channels from airing the leaked CCTV footage showing Noor's unsuccessful attempt to escape Zahir’s house, where she was eventually murdered.

A notification issued by Pemra stated that “telecast of CCTV footage” of Noor and Zahir has been prohibited under Section 27 of the Pemra Ordinance, 2002.

The authority directed all “TV channels to stop airing [the] CCTV footage” immediately and warned of “strict action… against violators”.