Noor Mukadam murder: Zahir Jaffer moves SC against death penalty

ISLAMABAD: Zahir Jaffer, who was convicted for the murder of Noor Mukadam, has moved Supreme Court (SC) against Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) verdict, upholding his death sentence, ARY News reported on Sunday.

The convict has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court (SC) against his death sentence, contending that the trial and high court could not identify the flaws in the First Information Report (FIR) and that their verdicts were based on “erroneous appreciation of evidence”.

The appeal stated that the petitioner was named in the First Information Report without revealing the basis or source of information. “The evidence admitted is not admissible under the law of evidence”, it stated, terming it “vague, sketchy and scanty”.

Jaffer, in his plea, mentioned that complainant and Noor’s father Shaukat Ali Mukadam provided insufficient evidence and exercised his influence as a former ambassador to create hype around the case in the media.

The plea also raised questions over the execution of Noor’s post-mortem. The petition also stated that the “post-mortem report shows no apparent signs of sexual abuse”.

The appeal further said that Zahir’s mental and psychological issues were not properly regarded and no thorough investigation was carried out to rule out his mental fitness.

The petition added that the case was prejudiced against Zahir because he could not effectively defend himself or join the criminal investigation.

In the petition, Zahir Jaffar pleaded that the death penalty verdict of the Islamabad High Court should be annulled and the petitioner should be acquitted.

Jaffer has been sentenced to a total of 11 years of imprisonment with Rs0.5 million fine.

The murder

It is pertinent to mention here that the gruesome murder, in which Noor Mukadam was beheaded, took place on July 20 in Islamabad’s F-7 area. Noor is the daughter of Shaukat Mukadam, who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to South Korea and Kazakhstan.

The Islamabad police arrested suspect Zahir Zakir Jaffer on the night of July 20 from his house where, according to Noor’s parents, he killed her with a sharp instrument and severed her head.

Last year in Feb, an Islamabad sessions court sentenced Zahir to death and awarded 10-year imprisonment to two co-accused Mohammad Iftikhar and Jan Mohammad.

Zahir’s parents as well as TherapyWorks personnel, had been indicted by an Islamabad district and sessions court in October 2021 but were later acquitted by the sessions court.

Later, Zahir Jaffer approached the IHC in March 2022 challenging his death sentence. However, the IHC upheld the death sentence last month and converted Zahir Jaffer’s 25-year jail term into another death penalty.