ISLAMABAD - In Noor Mukadam murder case, parents of main accused Zahir Jaffar – Zakir Jaffar and Asmat Jaffar – on Wednesday challenged the Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict to dismiss their bail applications.
Advocate Khawaja Haris filed separate appeals before the Supreme Court on behalf of Zakir and Asmat for their post-arrest bails. The IHC last week had turned down the bail applications of Zahir’s parents. The high court judgment said that the parents knew that Zahir Jaffar had taken Noor hostage but they did not inform the police. The family’s watchman made it clear that he had alerted Zakir Jaffar about the situation, the court’s decision had stated. The IHC judgment stated that Zahir Jaffar in his statement maintained that he had informed his father before the murder, whether his statement is acceptable or not is for the trial court to decide. In their present appeals, they contend that the decision to dismiss the bail of the parents of the prime accused was “arbitrary, capricious, based on unsubstantiated conjectures and surmises and it is submitted with the utmost respect, perverse and liable to be set aside as such.” Khawaja submitted that the high court committed a “grave jurisdictional error in denying bail” to the petitioners merely because they did not inform the police of the “commission of an offence in terms of Section 44 CrPC, when the law in this respect is that an omission to report an offence attracts punishment under Section 176 CrPC which is a bailable offence.” He stated that the “investigation in the case has been completed” and the petitioners were no longer required for purposes of investigation. The appeals further said that the refusal to grant bail may result in irreparable loss to the petitioners as there were no reparations promised if the petitioners are acquitted in the case. It said that the petitioners have a “strong case” and there was a high probability that they would get bail by the court in the light of the grounds mentioned in the plea. He also said that there were no chances of evidence tampering if Zakir and Asmat were released on bail.