<\/p>\n
An Islamabad trial court on Thursday sentenced Shahnawaz Amir to death for the murder of Sarah Inam and imposed a fine of Rs1 million on him, which would be paid to the bereaved family.<\/p>\n
The court acquitted Shahnawaz\u2019s mother, Samina Shah, who was co-accused in the case.<\/p>\n
The reserved verdict<\/a> was issued by District and Sessions Judge Nasir Javed Rana, almost a year after the gruesome killing. Sarah\u2019s parents and Shaukhat Mukaddam \u2014 father of another victim of gender-based violence Noor Mukadam \u2014 were among those who were present in the packed courtroom today.<\/p>\n As the verdict was announced, the victim\u2019s father was visibly emotional. Meanwhile, the police swiftly escorted the convict out of the courtroom.<\/p>\n Sarah, a Canadian national, was murdered by Shahnawaz, her husband, the son of journalist Ayaz Amir, in Islamabad a year ago. She was reportedly killed just a day after she arrived in the country from Dubai where she had been working.<\/p>\n Shahnawaz was arrested<\/a> on Sept 23 last year at a farmhouse in Islamabad\u2019s Shahzad Town. He was initially remanded<\/a> to police custody a day after his arrest and the period of his physical remand was extended<\/a> several times.<\/p>\n His father was discharged from the case and his mother Sameena Shah was granted post-arrest bail<\/a> in November last year. On December 5, both Shahnawaz and his mother were indicted<\/a> in the case.<\/p>\n In January, Dr Bushra Ashraf, who conducted Sarah\u2019s post-mortem examination, told<\/a> an Islamabad court that the victim had multiple fractures on her head.<\/p>\n In July, Shahnawaz\u2019s lawyer completed<\/a> the cross-examination of Sarah\u2019s father and her uncle. In October, Investigation Officer (IO) Habibur Rehman testified<\/a> that Shahnawaz had confessed to the crime. Subsequently, the judge had concluded<\/a> recording statements of the IO and the prosecution witnesses in the murder case.<\/p>\n Speaking to media persons after the verdict was announced, Sarah\u2019s father Inaumur Rahim, flanked by Shaukat Mukadam, said he was satisfied with the sentence awarded to Shahnawaz but demanded that Samina Shah should have been punished as well.<\/p>\n \u201cAt least the convict will go to jail and will be hanged,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we suspect Samina also played a part in the murder and she should be punished.\u201d<\/p>\n Rahim asserted that Shahnawaz\u2019s mother would also be punished, adding that he hadn\u2019t withdrawn the challan against Samina Shah under Section 109 (punishment for abatement) of the Pakistan Penal Code.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were three people at the farmhouse on the night of the murder: Sarah, Shahnawaz and his mother. How can we believe what they are saying? We have no idea what happened that day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Rahim noted that the Noor Mukadam case in the Supreme Court was still pending and urged the chief justice to take notice of it.<\/p>\n Talking about the case proceedings, Rahim lamented the several delays in the case. \u201cBut overall, it is not bad. At least, Shahnawaz has been punished,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n In September, the police became a complainant in the case, with a first information report (FIR) registered for the murder on the complaint of Shahzad Town Station House Officer (SHO) Nawazish Ali Khan at the Chak Shahzad police station, initially under Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).<\/p>\n Later, police added Section 109 (punishment for abetment, if the act abetted, is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) of the PPC to the FIR and initiated proceedings against Shahnawaz\u2019s parents, Sameena and senior journalist Ayaz Amir.<\/p>\n The development came after Sarah\u2019s uncle filed an application with the police, alleging that Shahnawaz had murdered Sarah in connivance with his parents.<\/p>\n According to the FIR, the SHO was present on Park Road near Chatha Bakhtawar when he got the information about the murder.<\/p>\n The FIR stated that when the police team reached the farmhouse where the murder had taken place, they were received by the mother of the main suspect who told them that her son had \u201cmurdered his wife during a scuffle\u201d.<\/p>\n As per the FIR, she informed the police that her son was still present in the house. The police managed to enter the house and detained the suspect, it claimed, adding that the suspect\u2019s hands were \u201csoaked in blood\u201d at the time of the arrest.<\/p>\n During the inquiry, the man identified himself as Shahnawaz Amir and told the police that he had murdered his wife with a dumbbell and hid her body in a bathtub in the bathroom, it claimed.<\/p>\n Police recovered the dead body on his information, the FIR said, adding that a wound was found on the head of the deceased. The police team also recovered the murder weapon from the house which was \u201chidden under a bed\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n Subsequently, the body was moved to the Poly Clinic for autopsy and the murder weapon and Shahnawaz\u2019s shirt were sent for a forensic audit.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Islamabad trial court on Thursday sentenced Shahnawaz Amir to death for the murder of Sarah Inam and imposed a fine of Rs1 million on him, which would be paid to the bereaved family. The court acquitted Shahnawaz\u2019s mother, Samina Shah, who was co-accused in the case. The reserved verdict was issued by District and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/12\/141322543849db4.jpg?r=132326","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sarah\u2019s father seeks punishment for convict\u2019s mother<\/h2>\n
Case history<\/h2>\n