ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court is expected to announce its verdict in the high-profile murder case of a 37-year-old economist, whose husband has been accused of killing her with dumbbells, on December 14 after reserving the judgment on Saturday.
Sara Inam, a Canadian national employed in Abu Dhabi, was murdered, according to police, by her husband Shahnawaz Amir at a suburban Islamabad residence last year on September 23.
Her father interacted with the media at the National Press Club in Islamabad on the first anniversary of her death, seeking expedited justice in the case.
“It has been a year,” Engineer Inam Rahim, her father, told journalists. “We were hoping this was going to take about six months since it was an open-and-shut case.”
Pakistan’s Geo News reported earlier today that a district and sessions court in the federal capital had reserved its verdict in the matter “which will be announced on December 14.”
According to Inam’s family, she got married to Amir of her own choice on July 18 in his hometown of Chakwal, with neither couple’s parents present.
Inam, who had only met Amir three times before their marriage, informed her parents of the relationship post-wedding.
Last year, her father said before the funeral that his daughter had been “trapped” into marriage by Amir who wanted to fleece her for money.
However, Amir pleaded innocent during the trial, claiming he had found Inam dead in the bathtub.
Inam’s case spotlighted thousands of incidents of violence against women every year in Pakistan, from rape and acid attacks to sexual assault, kidnappings and so-called honor killings.
Her murder was reminiscent of a similar case in July 2021 wherein 27-year-old Noor Mukadam was beheaded by a childhood friend in an upscale Islamabad neighborhood, drawing an outpouring of anger over femicides in the South Asian nation.