Daily Times

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday rejected a request seeking to stop the president Pakistan Nursing Council (PNC) from working and sought comments in the petition challenging her selection.

Justice Saman Raffat Imtiaz heard the case filed by a citizen Muzamil Yaseen against the appointment of Dr Shazia Sobia as President PNC. The court rejected the request to grant a stay order and said that it would decide the matter after listening to the respondents.

During the hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer Muhammad Tayyab Advocate, Assistant Attorney General Imran Farooq, Speaker National Assembly’s lawyer Hazrat Younis and Sher Afzal Advocate appeared on behalf of President PNC. The court noted that the answers of all respondents except the election commission had been submitted.

The petitioner’s lawyer said that they had also filed a miscellaneous application seeking to stop the president PNC from working. He said that the president had suspended the registrar PNC and viewing the day-to-day matters of the council. The court said that it couldn’t pass such an order immediately, adding that the matter would be decided after listening to the other respondents as well. The court adjourned further hearing of the case till January 11.

NOOR MUKADAM MURDER CASE: The IHC Tuesday adjourned hearing till today (Wednesday) on various appeals in Noor Mukadam murder case.

The court also served notices to respondents on a petition seeking medical analysis of the main accused Zahir Jaffar.

A two-judge bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan heard the appeals of the plaintiff and accused in the murder case. At the outset of the hearing, defence lawyer Usman Khosa pleaded that the record of the phone talk of the accused with his parents didn’t exist, adding that the forensic analysis of the mobile was also not done. The mobile in possession was different from the one in the record, he said, adding that the IMEI number of the mobile of the victim girl was also different. The lawyer said that the FIR had mentioned the telephonic conversation of Noor Mukadam with her parents but the mobiles were not taken into custody. He said that WhatsApp data could be recovered but no such attempt was made. The defence lawyer said that the mobile of Zahir Jaffar was recovered from his house’s almirah after seven days after the incident and its forensic analysis couldn’t be done due to a broken screen. He said Noor Mukadam had arrived at the house of the accused herself on July 18, 2021, and returned on the 19th. Later, she again came wherein the accused forcibly stopped her from leaving. To a question, the lawyer said that the two bags seen in the CCTV footage couldn’t be recovered, adding that the trial court relied on CCTV only. The advocate said that the identification of the accused on CCTV cameras was also necessary.

The defence counsel said that the father of the victim girl Shaukat Mukadam had given a statement after watching the video but at that time he didn’t talk about the abduction of his daughter. The victim didn’t call her parents or police to tell the threats to her life, he said, adding that the girl had been in contact with her mother but she was not included in the investigation. He further said that the witnesses in the abduction case were different from the witnesses in the murder. The defence lawyer said that only S-1 was matched with his client.

BHARA KAHU BYPASS CASE: The IHC extended stay order against the Bhara Kahu Bypass Project till December 9, to the extent of Quaid-i-Azam University.

During hearing, Capital Development Authority (CDA)’s lawyer Hafiz Arafat said that not a single structure was required to be demolished for Bara Kahu Bypass project. The university did not sign any lease agreement with CDA in last forty years while other all universities in Islamabad had lease agreements with the civic body. The lawyer said that the CDA could initiate any project of public interest under the lease agreement. The Quaid-i-Azam University had not agreement but still it was trying to get benefits of it.