Noor Mukadam case: SC fixes hearing of Zahir Jaffer’s review plea for April 8

The Supreme Court has set the hearing of Zahir Jaffer’s appeal for review in the Noor Mukadam murder case for Wednesday, April 8.

Noor, a 27-year-old woman, was murdered at Zahir’s Islamabad house in July 2021. She was tortured and beheaded by Zahir, according to the investigation findings. Death penalty was awarded to the murderer by the trial court; however, Zahir challenged the court decision and won. His death sentence was upheld by the Islamabad High Court (IHC); however, Zahir asked for the review of the judgment in July 2021.

The accused, Zahir, wants a review of his conviction in the murder case of 2021.

According to an online cause list of the SC published on Saturday, the hearing of Zahir’s review plea was set for April 8.

Article 188 of the Constitution (review of judgments or orders by SC). Respondents include the state as well as the deceased father, Shaukat Ali Muqadam.

The plea stated that “the matter relating to Zahir’s alleged unsoundness of mind or mental capacity was never considered and was simply given short shrift” in an earlier SC order.

As regards the rape charges, the review plea claimed that there was “no evidence on the record” in proof of this allegation.

SC had converted the death penalty passed in respect of rape charge against Zahir into life imprisonment, while retaining the conviction for rape as per the trial court decision, but not acquitted him of rape charge. The 10 years imprisonment in respect of kidnapping charge was acquitted, however, the one year imprisonment was awarded for wrongful confinement charge under Section 342 of PPC as per SC judgment.

The review petition of Zahir alleged that the videos recorded, on the basis of which death sentence was upheld by SC, could not be proven in the trial court and no copies of those videos were supplied to any of the accused.

It further alleged that the judgment of the Supreme Court relied heavily upon video clips recorded through a digital video recorder (DVR) and video clips, claimed by prosecution as transferred from the DVR to the hard disc, which served as “the most essential link in the chain of circumstances” for passing judgment of the Apex Court.”

The SC, while delivering its judgment in great detail, emphasized the importance of digital evidence when it stated that digital evidence such as footage may be accepted as primary evidence on the basis of the "silent witness theory." The silent witness theory is an evidence rule, where photographic video or any other video evidence is accepted as concrete evidence of what it shows, regardless of any eyewitness evidence.

Noor's body was found in a house in Islamabad's posh F-7/4 sector on July 20, 2021. An FIR was filed against Jaffer, and he was arrested on the spot where Noor was found killed.

In February 2022, a district and session judge awarded death penalty to Jaffer for murder and gave him 25 years rigorous imprisonment for raping Zahir. His domestic staff, Mohammad Iftikhar and Jan Mohammad, were charged along with him. They were sentenced to spend ten years in prison.

It may be noted here that the parents of Zahir, namely, businessman Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamji, were accused of rape by an Islamabad district and session court in October 2021 but were exonerated by the same court.