Noor murder, couple harassment cases on hold

Trial court judge busy in connection with mandatory training

ISLAMABAD:

The hearing in the Noor Muqaddam murder and the couple harassment cases will not take place for one week as the trial court has left for Lahore in connection with a mandatory judicial course.

The trial court was supposed to take up the couple harassment case on Tuesday (today) and the Noor Muqqadam murder case on Wednesday. However, Additional Sessions Judge Atta Rabbani, who is hearing both the cases, has gone to Lahore to participate in a mandatory judicial course from December 13 to December 18.

Sources said that the judicial course is a must for judges once a year.

Hearing of all cases in the trial court will be postponed in the absence of Judge Atta Rabbani.

A total of 14 witnesses have testified in the couple harassment case.

They are Assistant Commissioner Secretariat Anil Saeed, Assistant Commissioner President Circle Dr Sania Saeed, plaintiff case (then) SHO Golra Police Station Asim Ghaffar, FIA Deputy Director who prepared three forensic reports, Franz Masood Ali, FIA Anis-ur-Rehman (Anis-ur-Rehman compiled a report on Usman Mirza's trends on Twitter), Noor Elahi, Muharram Mall Khana Inayat Khan, Rabb Nawaz, Sajjad Afzal, Shop owner Usman Shah, Syed Wali Khan, Operator Mazhar and Sher Ali. The court has summoned more witnesses to record their statements for the next hearing.

In the Noor Muqaddam murder case, the court has summoned plaintiff Shaukat Muqaddam to record his statement at the next hearing.

In addition, Akram Qureshi, counsel for Tahir Zahoor, owner of Therapy Work, has verbally requested the court to run the CCTV footage of the murder in the courtroom during the cross-examination of the prosecution witness, Mudassar. The counsel had requested the court for the in-camera hearing of the case if the court allowed to play the CCTV footage.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2021.