The Supreme Court (SC) has scheduled the hearing of Zahir Jaffer’s review plea in the Noor Mukadam murder case for Wednesday, April 8.

According to the Supreme Court’s cause list published online on Saturday, the review hearing is set for April 8. The 47-page petition, submitted by Advocate Khawaja Haris under Article 188 of the Constitution, requested a review of the court’s judgment. The state and Noor’s father, Shaukat Ali Mukadam, are listed as respondents.

The petition stated that the question of Jaffer’s alleged “unsoundness of mind or mental capacity,” previously raised before the Supreme Court, was not adequately addressed and had been “given short shrift.” It also challenged the rape charges, claiming, “it is apparent from the record that there is no evidence on the record in proof of this allegation.”

In its earlier ruling, the SC had commuted Jaffer’s death sentence for the rape charge to life imprisonment but did not acquit him. While he was acquitted of a 10-year sentence for kidnapping, the court imposed a one-year term for wrongful confinement under Section 342 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The review plea argued that video recordings, which played a key role in the SC’s decision, were not presented during the trial and had not been provided to any of the accused. The petition noted that the apex court’s verdict relied heavily on recordings stored in a digital video recorder (DVR) and on clips allegedly transferred from the DVR to a hard disk, described as “the most essential link in the chain of circumstances” leading to the judgment.

The SC had underlined the importance of digital evidence, stating that footage can be admitted as primary evidence under the “silent witness theory,” which allows photographic or recorded material to serve as substantive proof without testimony from a witness.

Noor Mukadam, 27, was found murdered at Jaffer’s residence in Islamabad in July 2021. Investigations indicated she was tortured before being beheaded. A First Information Report (FIR) was filed the same day, while Jaffer was arrested at the scene.

In February 2022, a District and Sessions court sentenced Jaffer to death for murder and 25 years for rape. His household staff, Mohammad Iftikhar and Jan Mohammad, were each given 10-year sentences. Zahir’s parents, Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamji, were indicted in October 2021 but later acquitted.