ISLAMABAD: A district court in Islamabad has appointed a counsel at state expense for Zahir Jaffer, the prime suspect in the gruesome July murder of Noor Mukadam, saying in an order this week that the accused should not try to create delays in the trial.

Mukadam, the 27-year-old daughter of a former Pakistani diplomat, was found beheaded at a residence in Islamabad’s upscale F-7/4 neighborhood on July 20 in a case that has sparked public outrage and grabbed media attention unlike any other recent crime against women.

Jaffer was arrested from the crime scene on the day of the murder. He was initially on police remand but was moved to Adiala Jail in the city of Rawalpindi on judicial remand in early August. His parents, Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamjee, and three members of household staff, are also under arrest for a range of charges, including abetment and concealment of evidence.

In a court order seen by Arab News on Sunday, advocate Shehryar Nawaz Khan was appointed by a district court as state counsel to provide legal assistance and represent Jaffer at the trial. The suspect has failed for weeks to produce a lawyer.

“The accused Zahir Zakir has not produced his counsel till today [Friday], therefore to proceed with the matter further the state counsel is provided to him at state expenses,” additional sessions judge Muhammad Atta Rabbani, who was hearing the case, said in the order.

“It is expected that no delay in commencement of trial will be caused on the part of accused [after provision of the state counsel],” the court said.

The Islamabad High Court has already directed the district court to decide the matter within eight weeks.

Separately, the court also allowed the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) to get the screen of Jaffer’s mobile phone replaced so forensic analysis could be completed. The police said when they recovered the principal suspect’s phone from the crime scene its screen was smashed.

The FIA informed the court through police that it could not conduct forensics on the phone unless the screen was either replaced or repaired.

The investigators also seized a laptop and Mukadam’s mobile phone from the crime scene which were sent to the FIA for a forensic analysis. Police said they had not yet received a report to submit to the court.

Earlier, the court delayed the indictment in the case from October 6 to October 14 after Jaffer’s parents submitted separate applications that digital evidence, including CCTV footage of the crime scene, be released to them.

Jaffer’s mother Asmat Adamjee asked the court for four weeks to consider the digital evidence and prepare the defense in her case.

The court dismissed the petitions, saying the CCTV footage could be displayed in the court at the evidence stage if the defense side desired for cross-examination purposes but could not “be supplied to the accused because it may go viral.”

The court also termed the provision of video evidence to the accused at this stage as “inexpedient to the public interest.”