ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has scheduled the hearing of Zahir Jaffer’s review petition in the Noor Mukadam murder case for Wednesday, April 8.
The review plea concerns Jaffer’s conviction in the high-profile 2021 murder case of Noor Mukadam, who was brutally killed at his Islamabad residence.
Noor, 27, was found murdered in July 2021 at a house in Islamabad’s Sector F-7/4. Investigations revealed that she had been tortured before being beheaded. Jaffer was arrested from the crime scene the same day, and an FIR was subsequently registered against him.
A cause list published online by the Supreme Court on Saturday confirmed that the case will be taken up on April 8.
The 47-page petition, filed by Advocate Khawaja Haris under Article 188 of the Constitution, seeks a review of the Supreme Court’s earlier verdict. The petition names the state and Noor’s father, Shaukat Ali Muqadam, as respondents.
In the plea, Jaffer’s counsel argued that the issue of his alleged mental condition and “unsoundness of mind” had not been properly addressed by the apex court and was dismissed without adequate consideration.
Regarding the rape charges, the petition claims there is no evidence on record to support the allegation.
Previously, the Supreme Court had reduced Jaffer’s death sentence on the rape charge to life imprisonment, in line with the trial court’s decision, while maintaining his conviction. He was acquitted of the 10-year kidnapping sentence but was awarded one year in prison for wrongful confinement under Section 342 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The review petition also challenges the admissibility of video recordings that played a key role in upholding the murder conviction. According to the plea, the footage was not formally proven during the trial and was not shared with the accused.
It further argued that the apex court’s decision heavily relied on video evidence stored in a digital video recorder (DVR), as well as clips allegedly transferred to a hard disk, which formed a crucial link in the chain of evidence.
In its detailed judgment, however, the Supreme Court had highlighted the importance of digital evidence, ruling that such footage could be accepted as primary evidence under the “silent witness theory.” This legal principle allows video or recorded material to serve as substantive proof without requiring eyewitness testimony.
In February 2022, a district and sessions court sentenced Jaffer to death for Noor’s murder and also awarded him 25 years of rigorous imprisonment after convicting him of rape.
His household staff members, Mohammad Iftikhar and Jan Mohammad, who were co-accused in the case, were each sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Jaffer’s parents, businessman Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamji, were initially indicted by an Islamabad court in October 2021 but were later acquitted.