ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday dismissed a review petition filed by Zahir Jaffer and maintained its earlier verdict upholding his death sentence in the Noor Mukadam murder case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Noor, aged 27, was found murdered at Zahir\u2019s Islamabad residence in July 2021, with the probe revealing she was tortured<\/u><\/a> by him before being beheaded. Zahir was sentenced to death<\/a> by a trial in February 2022 and his sentence has already been upheld by the SC<\/a> once. Prior to that, the Islamabad High Court had also dismissed his plea<\/a> challenging the trial court\u2019s verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A three-member bench comprising Justices Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar, Salahuddin Panhwar and Ishtiaq Ibrahim heard Zahir\u2019s review plea on the SC verdict on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Advocate Khawaja Haris appeared as Zahir\u2019s counsel, while Shah Khawar was present from the respondents\u2019 side. Both presented their arguments, following which the bench announced its verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After today\u2019s ruling, a presidential pardon under Article 45<\/u><\/a> of the Constitution could possibly provide Zahir pardon, or reprieve, or remit, suspend or commute his sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zahir was last year contemplating<\/a> filing a mercy petition before President Asif Ali Zardari, with a letter by jail authorities seeking the formation of a medical board so its opinion could be included in the plea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SC\u2019s May 2025 ruling<\/a>, which upheld Zahir\u2019s death sentence for murder, also commuted his second death sentence for rape to life imprisonment. While he was acquitted of the 10-year sentence for kidnapping, a one-year term was handed down for wrongful confinement under Section 342<\/u><\/a> of the Pakistan Penal Code, according to the SC verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Subsequently, in July 2025, Zahir had sought a review<\/a> of that SC ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 47-page review petition was filed by Advocate Haris on behalf of Zahir under Article 188 of the Constitution (review of judgements or orders by SC). The state and Noor\u2019s father, Shaukat Ali Mukadam, were made the respondents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The petition contended that the issue of Zahir\u2019s alleged \u201cunsoundness of mind or mental capacity\u201d that was raised before the SC in an application had not been addressed and was \u201cgiven short shrift\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the the matter of rape, the review plea argued that it was \u201capparent from the record that there is no evidence on the record in proof of this allegation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plea argued that the video recordings, based on which the SC upheld the death sentence, had not been proved during the trial and were not provided to any of the accused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, in its detailed verdict<\/u><\/a>, the SC had stressed the significance of digital evidence by declaring that footage can be admissible as primary evidence under the \u201csilent witness theory\u201d \u2014 a rule of evidence that allows for photog\u00adr\u00ada\u00ad\u00adphic video or other recorded evidence to be admitted as substantive proof of what it depicts, without the need for an eyewitness\u2019s testimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Justice Kakar had observed that the silent witness theory of authentication had developed in almost all jurisdictions over the last 25 years to allow photos to substantively \u201cspeak for themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SC had also noted that Zahir neglected to provide any explanation for the victim\u2019s presence at his residence and the ensuing recovery of her body from the premises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Noor was found murdered<\/u><\/a> at a residence in Islamabad\u2019s upscale Sector F-7\/4 on July 20, 2021. An first information report (FIR) was registered later the same day against Zahir, who was arrested at the site of the murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At around 10pm on July 20, the victim\u2019s father had received a call from Kohsar police station, informing him that Noor had been murdered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Police had subsequently taken the complainant to Zahir\u2019s house in Sector F-7\/4 where he discovered that his \u201cdaughter has been brutally murdered with a sharp-edged weapon and beheaded\u201d, the FIR said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Police later said that Zahir had confessed to killing Noor, while his DNA test and fingerprints also showed his involvement<\/u><\/a> in the murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zahir\u2019s parents and household staff were also taken into custody by police on July 24, 2021, over allegations of \u201chiding evidence and being complicit<\/a> in the crime\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zahir\u2019s parents, leading businessman Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamji, had been indicted<\/u><\/a> by an Islamabad district and sessions court in October 2021 but were later acquitted<\/u><\/a> by the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In February 2022, a district and sessions judge sentenced Jaffer to death<\/u><\/a> for the murder and handed him 25 years of rigorous imprisonment, finding him guilty of rape. His household staff, Mohammad Iftikhar and Jan Mohammad \u2014 co-accused in the case \u2014 were each sentenced<\/a> to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Six officials<\/u><\/a> of Therapy Works, whose employees had visited the site of the murder before the police, were also among those indicted by the lower court but were later freed of the charges along with the parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In March 2023, the IHC, dismissing Zahir\u2019s appeal<\/u><\/a>, not only upheld the death sentence<\/u><\/a> but also converted his 25-year jail term into another death penalty. The IHC had also rejected the pleas of the main suspect\u2019s staff challenging their conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next month, Zahir approached the SC<\/u><\/a> against the IHC verdict, insisting that his conviction resulted from \u201cerroneous appreciation\u201d of the case evidence and that the high court and trial court could not identify the \u201cfundamental flaws\u201d in the FIR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a ruling that was widely seen<\/a> as justice being served<\/a>, the SC in May 2025 upheld<\/a> the convict\u2019s death sentence by rejecting his appeal against the IHC verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two months later, while also preparing<\/a> to file a mercy petition, Zahir approached<\/a> the SC seeking review of its verdict, which was dismissed today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday dismissed a review petition filed by Zahir Jaffer and maintained its earlier verdict upholding his death sentence in the Noor Mukadam murder case. Noor, aged 27, was found murdered at Zahir\u2019s Islamabad residence in July 2021, with the probe revealing she was tortured by him before being beheaded. Zahir […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>Review plea<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Case history<\/h2>\n\n\n\n