May 20, 2025
By Rana Malhi
ISLAMABAD
After four years of court proceedings at various tiers, the Supreme Court finally announced the verdict in the Noor Muqaddam murder case, upholding convict Zahir Jaffer’s death sentence, and dismissing his appeal. However the death sentence given to Jaffer for rape charges were reduced from death to life imprisonment. Justice Ali Baqir Najafi remarked that the government should educate the youth more about live-in relationships and drug abuse, remarks which are being seen as controversial by a number of women activists and journalists.
The Noor murder case was heard in the Supreme Court in two segments in the morning and then in the afternoon, in which a three-member bench headed by Justice Hashim Kakar heard the case.
During his arguments, Salman Safdar, the lawyer of the accused Zahir Jaffer said that the entire prosecution case was only based on CCTV video and DVR, and this evidence could not be fully trusted. The lawyer took the position that there was room for doubt in the evidence.
The court responded that the video being objected to had already been admitted, adding that according to the forensic report, no alteration was made in the footage, and since it was made from a CCTV camera, there is no possibility of human interference.
After Safdar’s arguments were completed, the lawyers for the other accused, the watchman and the gardener made their arguments. The two had been sentenced to 10 years in prison each, for not allowing the victim to leave the house. The lawyers took the stand saying that they were only employees, and had no direct connection with the murder.
On this the court remarked that if they had not stopped the victim, the situation might have been different. “Why do they (employees) need to fulfill their duties beyond what they were being paid?”
Later, Shah Khawar, the lawyer of the victim Noor Muqaddam made his arguments. During this, the court clarified that several facts of the case have already been accepted, including that Noor Muqaddam had gone to Zahir Jaffer’s house of her own free will and that the two knew each other beforehand. The court also criticized such relationships referring to them as ‘living together without marriage’ and saying that they are against ‘our social and moral principles’.
The court said that even if there was no video, finding of the victim’s body at Zahir Jaffer’s house is itself important evidence. The court also asked whether Noor’s mobile phone had been recovered. The lawyer replied that call records had been made available, but the mobile phone was not seized by the police.
The court adjourned the hearing of the case until 1 pm.
After the adjournment, Noor’s lawyer Shah Khawar said that all the evidence against the culprit was on record, and that the victim had been kidnapped and kept for 40 hours. Justice Hashim Kakar asked how the kidnapping could be proven? To which it was said that it can be called ‘unjustified detention’. Shah Khawar said that all the reports including DNA and blood samples went against the culprit. They requested that the appeals be dismissed.
The public prosecutor argued that this was a serious crime that should be given exemplary punishment, so that such crimes are prevented. Justice Ali Baqir Najafi remarked that this incident also shows the dark sides of live-in relationships. Justice Hashim Kakar said that the negative effects of drug abuse have also come to light, and raised a question asking who supplies drugs to youth, adding that drug sale was not possible without the consent of the SP and SHO.
In the short order, the court upheld Zahir Jaffer’s death sentence, while commuting the death sentence in the rape case to life imprisonment, and reducing the sentence in the kidnapping case to one year, while the order to pay compensation to the family of Noor Muqaddam was also upheld. The sentences of the gardner Jan Muhammad and watchman Iftikhar were reduced and their current imprisonment was declared sufficient.
Speaking to the media outside the Supreme Court after the hearing, Shah Khawar said that Zahir Jaffer’s murder sentence had stayed the same from the initial District and Sessions’ court, to the Supreme Court which was a positive thing. Human rights activist Farzana Bari said that the verdict had come after a long wait of four years, and a national emergency should be imposed on gender-based violence in the country.
Speaking to Voicepk, human rights activist Tahira Abdullah said that today’s verdict spoke of truth and justice.
Noor Muqaddam’s close friend also gave comments saying that justice had been served after four years of hard work.