The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday dismissed Zahir Jaffer’s review petition, upholding the death sentence in the Noor Mukadam murder case.
The ruling comes months after the apex court first fixed the hearing of Jaffer’s review plea in April.
The 47-page review petition, filed by Advocate Khawaja Haris on behalf of Zahir under Article 188 of the Constitution (review of judgments or orders by SC), contended that the issue of Zahir’s alleged “unsoundness of mind or mental capacity” that was raised before the SC in an application had not been addressed and was “given short shrift”.
On the rape charges, the review plea argued that it was “apparent from the record that there is no evidence on the record in proof of this allegation”.
The petition had come after the SC last year dismissed Jaffer’s appeal against his previous conviction under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), maintaining both the death sentence and the fine imposed on him.
The court had, however, commuted his death sentence under Section 376 (rape) to life imprisonment besides overturning his conviction for kidnapping, declaring the charge void.
The court had also reduced the sentences of Jaffer’s household staff and co-accused, the watchman and gardener, ruling that the punishments already served by both would suffice.
The case was heard by a three-member bench led by Justice Hashim Kakar and consisting of Justices Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Ali Baqar Najafi.
The apex court’s ruling had marked a major moment in the trial for the brutal murder that took place in July 2021 when Noor, 27, was discovered dead at a private residence in Sector F-7/4 of Islamabad.
A probe had revealed that she was also tortured before being beheaded. Zahir’s death sentence by the trial court had already been upheld by the Islamabad High Court (IHC), but he had sought a review of the verdict in July of 2024.
In February 2022, a district and sessions judge sentenced Jaffer to death for the murder and handed him 25 years of rigorous imprisonment, finding him guilty of rape.
Zahir’s parents, leading businessman Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamji, had also been indicted by an Islamabad district and sessions court in October 2021 but were later acquitted.
