Noor Mukadam case: SC upholds death sentence of Zahir Jaffer

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a review petition filed by Zahir Jaffer against its verdict, upholding the death sentence awarded to him in the Noor Mukadam murder case.

A three-member bench, headed by Justice Hashim Khan Kakar and comprising Justice Salahuddin Pahnwar and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, upheld the death sentence of Zahir Jaffer in the murder case.

Noor, daughter of a former diplomat named Shaukat Mukadam, 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 Islamabad High Court (IHC), which had also turned his jail term for rape charges into a second death penalty. The Islamabad police had charged Jaffer, a US national, with murder.

In May last year, the Supreme Court commuted a death sentence for a rape charge to life imprisonment, and 10 years sentence for an abduction charge was reduced to one year. However, it maintained the order to pay Rs 0.5 million to Noor’s legal heir. The Court had also reduced the sentences of gardener Jan Muhammad and watchman Iftikhar, saying that the time the accused had already served in jail is sufficient.

In the review petition, advocate Khawaja Haris appeared on behalf of Zahir, while Shah Khawar represented the respondents’ side. Both presented their arguments during the hearing, following which the bench announced its verdict.

After SC’s ruling, a presidential pardon under Article 45 of the Constitution could provide Zahir pardon, reprieve, remit, suspend, or commute his sentence.

Khawaja Haris, in review, contended that the judgment dated May 20, 2025, heavily relied 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 was proved during the course of the trial.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026