Supreme Court upholds death sentence in Noor Mukadam murder case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld murder convict Zahir Jaffer’s death sentence in its verdict over an appeal of the convict in Noor Mukadam’s murder case.

Noor, 27, was found murdered at a residence in Islamabad’s upscale Sector F-7/4 on July 20, 2021. A first information report (FIR) was registered later the same day against Zahir Jaffer, who was arrested from the site of the murder.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Hashim Kakar, also comprising Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, announced verdict today.

The court kept Zahir Jaffer’s death sentence unchanged in the murder case, while commuted his death penalty into life sentence in the rape case and acquitted him from the charge of kidnapping.

The supreme court bench also ordered acquittal of Zahir Jaffer’s watchman and gardener. “The prison term they have gone through, has been their punishment”, the bench observed.

“Detailed verdict of the case will be released later”, three-member bench said in its brief decision.

In February 2022, a district and sessions judge convicted Zahir Jaffer of murdering Noor Mukadam, awarding him the death penalty along with 25 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs200,000. His household staff, Iftikhar and Jameel, co-accused in the case, were each sentenced to 10 years in prison, while all other suspects, including Jaffer’s parents and TherapyWorks employees, were acquitted.