Noor Mukadam’s murder case: SC urged to review judgement upholding death sentence of Zahir Jaffer

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has been asked to review its judgment upholding the death sentence of Zahir Jaffer for the gruesome murder of Noor Mukadam.

Zahir Zakir Jaffer on Wednesday, through senior lawyer Khawaja Haris Ahmed, filed a review petition against the Supreme Court’s judgment dated May 20, 2025.

The petitioner contended that the judgment dated 20-05-2025 relies heavily upon the video recordings, and on that basis the capital punishment of the petitioner has been upheld, without taking into account that neither the DVR nor the hard disk stand proved during the course of the trial.

“On the contrary, the portions of these so-called recordings, on the basis whereof the inference of ‘last seen’ has been drawn against the petitioner, were never played during the trial,” it added.

He maintained that during the proceedings in the appeal before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) when the hard disk was required to be played it was empty, while DVR was never played, rather portion of video clip in USB, provided by one of the appellant’s counsel was played and made the basis of the judgment in the appeal. The USB is neither primary evidence, nor its authenticity is vouchsafed by any forensic report.

He submitted that DVR and hard disk is not proved by PFSA’s forensic report as per the law prevalent at the relevant date and time, as neither the scribe nor the executant (concerned forensic expert) entered into witness box to authenticate the same on oath, therefore, the PFSA’s forensic report has no credibility.

Khawaja Haris, who has drafted the review petition, stated that the judgment also suffers from an error apparent on the face of the record as it has not addressed the issue of unsoundness of mind or mental capacity of the petitioner that was raised before the apex court during the course of arguments by the petitioner’s counsel.

The petitioner’s plea of unsoundness of mind or mental incapacity, though evident from his conduct and demeanour throughout the trial, was never given due weight or serious thought by the trial judgment, and even the IHC judges.

He maintained that the record of trial court shows that the question of the mental capacity of the petitioner to stand trial was never taken or addressed seriously as mandated by the Supreme Court in inter alia Safia Bano’s case.

A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Hashim Kakar, and comprising Justices Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Ali Baqar Najafi on May 20, 2025, upheld the death sentence of Zahir Jaffer for the gruesome murder of Noor Mukadam. It dismissed Zahir appeal against the IHC verdict.

The death sentence in rape charge has been commuted to life imprisonment, and 10 years sentence in abduction charge has been reduced to one year. However, it maintained the earlier orders to Zahir to pay Rs0.5 million to Noor’s legal heir.

The bench also reduced the sentences of gardener Jan Muhammad and watchman Iftikhar, saying that the time the accused already served in jail is sufficient.

Noor, aged 27 years, was found murdered at Zahir’s Islamabad residence in July 2021, with the probe revealing she was tortured before being beheaded. Zahir’s death sentence by the trial court was upheld by the IHC, which had also turned his jail term over rape charges into a second death penalty.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025