Court gets six weeks to wrap up Noor case
Police officials remove Zahir Jaffer, prime accused in Noor Mukadam murder case, from the courtroom on judge's orders on Nov 10, 2021. PHOTO: EXPRESS
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has granted six more weeks to the trial court to complete the proceedings in the Noor Muqqadam murder case.
Earlier, the IHC had directed the trial court to wrap up the proceedings in the Noor Muqaddam murder case within two months after the indictment of the suspects. However, Additional Sessions Judge Atta Rabbani had written a letter to the IHC, seeking two more months to complete the trial, stating that the process of recording statements of witnesses could not be completed during the time stipulated time.
IHC judge Amir Farooq granted six more weeks on the trial court to complete the proceedings.
In the Noor murder Muqaddam case, statements of 17 witnesses have been recorded while cross-examination of 16 has been completed. The accused were indicted by the trial court on October 14 and the two-month time expired on December 14.
In the letter, judge Atta Rabbani had stated that since all lawyers representing the accused hail from outside Islamabad, the dates for the hearings have to be fixed according to their availability and convenience.
The letter said that except for one or two witnesses in the case, the defence counsel have cross-examined them, while statements of 17 witnesses have been recorded in the case.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 17th, 2021.