The Supreme Court on Monday indicated it may soon announce its verdict on the petition filed by Zahir Jaffer, the convict in the high-profile Noor Mukadam murder case, challenging the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision upholding his death sentence.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Hashim Kakar and comprising Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Ali Baqar Najafi resumed hearing the appeal, during which Jaffer’s medical records from 2013 to the present were submitted.
Zahir Jaffer’s counsel, Salman Safdar, argued that the trial court had handed his client the death penalty for murder, life imprisonment for rape, and a 10-year sentence for abduction. He contended that the IHC, in its ruling, had increased the rape sentence to a death sentence, arguing that the trial court failed to adequately justify the lesser punishment.
Safdar claimed that the original FIR registered only mentioned murder, while charges of rape and abduction were added 22 days later. He also pointed out inconsistencies in the timeline of the case noting that while the crime was said to have occurred at 10:00 PM, the FIR was lodged at 11:30 PM, and the postmortem was conducted at 9:30 AM the next morning. The medical report stated Noor Mukadam died at 12:10 AM.
The lawyer argued that police evidence, including CCTV footage and a photogrammetric test, lacked conclusive links to his client. He noted that the alleged murder weapon a small knife bore no fingerprints of the accused and that apart from Noor’s father, Shaukat Mukadam, all witnesses were officials.
Justice Hashim Kakar observed that the case had no eyewitnesses and was based on circumstantial evidence. He added, “If relief is justified, the court will grant it; otherwise, we will decide the case.”
He also noted that the case may resume later in the day depending on the status of another scheduled hearing regarding reserved seats.
During the proceedings, Safdar cited the judgement in the Arshad Malik video scandal case, to which Justice Kakar responded that the court was relying on the precedent set by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa on the verification of video and audio evidence.
The hearing was adjourned for a break, with the possibility of resumption later in the day.