ISLAMABAD:  The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a review petition submitted by Zahir Jaffer, maintaining its previous judgment that upheld his death penalty for the murder of Noor Mukadam.

In July 2021, 27-year-old Noor Mukadam was discovered murdered at Zahir’s home in Islamabad. Investigations revealed she endured torture before being decapitated. A trial court initially sentenced Zahir to death in February 2022. This capital punishment has now been sustained by the apex court for a second time, following a prior dismissal of the convict’s appeal by the Islamabad High Court .

The review petition was reviewed on Thursday by a three-member SC bench consisting of Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar, Justice Salahuddin Panhwar, and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim. Advocate Khawaja Haris represented Zahir Jaffer, while Shah Khawar represented the respondents. Following the presentation of arguments from both sides, the bench announced its decision.

With this latest judicial dismissal, Zahir’s remaining legal recourse is a potential presidential pardon under Article 45 of the Constitution, which grants the president power to issue a pardon, reprieve, remit, suspend, or commute a sentence. Last year, jail authorities had initiated correspondence to establish a medical board to include an official opinion in a contemplated mercy petition directed to President Asif Ali Zardari.

Background of the Review Petition:

The top court had previously ruled in May 2025 to uphold Zahir’s death penalty for murder. However, that same verdict commuted a separate death sentence for rape into life imprisonment. Furthermore, while the court acquitted him of a 10-year kidnapping charge, it handed down a one-year sentence for wrongful confinement under Section 342 of the Pakistan Penal Code.Zahir challenged this ruling by filing a 47-page review petition under Article 188 of the Constitution in July 2025 through Advocate Haris, naming the state and the victim’s father, Shaukat Ali Mukadam, as respondents.

The review plea brought forward multiple arguments:

• It contended that the application regarding Zahir’s “unsoundness of mind or mental capacity” was overlooked and given short shrift by the court.
• It claimed there was an absence of record evidence to substantiate the rape allegation.
• It argued that the video recordings utilized by the SC to uphold the conviction were neither officially proven during the initial trial nor shared with the accused individuals.

Conversely, the Supreme Court’s detailed judgment emphasized the validity of digital evidence via the “silent witness theory.” This legal principle treats recorded video or photographic material as substantive proof of the depicted events without requiring direct eyewitness testimony. Justice Kakar noted that this authentication theory has advanced globally over the past 25 years, allowing photographic evidence to speak for itself. The apex court also highlighted that Zahir failed to account for the victim’s presence at his house and the subsequent discovery of her body on the property.

Case Timeline and History:

The murder took place on July 20, 2021, in Sector F-7/4, an upscale area of Islamabad. Following the discovery of the body, a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged, and Zahir was apprehended at the crime scene.The victim’s father, Shaukat Ali Mukadam, was notified of the murder by the Kohsar police station around 10:00 PM that evening. Upon arriving at the residence, he found his daughter brutally killed and beheaded with a sharp-edged weapon. Law enforcement later confirmed that Zahir confessed to the crime, with forensic DNA and fingerprint data confirming his direct involvement.

Subsequently, on July 24, 2021, police detained Zahir’s parents,prominent businessman Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamji,alongside domestic staff members on charges of complicity and destroying evidence. Although the parents were indicted by an Islamabad district and sessions court in October 2021, they were ultimately acquitted.

In February 2022, the trial court judge awarded the death penalty to Zahir for murder, alongside a 25-year rigorous imprisonment term for rape. Two household employees, Jan Mohammad and Mohammad Iftikhar, received 10-year prison sentences for co-accused involvement. Six employees of Therapy Works, who had arrived at the crime scene prior to the police, were also indicted but later acquitted alongside the parents.

The legal trajectory continued as follows:

March 2023: The Islamabad High Court rejected Zahir’s appeal, maintaining the death penalty for murder and upgrading his 25-year rape sentence into a second death penalty. The appeals of his staff members were also dismissed.

April 2023: Zahir approached the Supreme Court, arguing that lower courts failed to spot fundamental flaws in the FIR and misevaluated the evidence.

May 2025: The Supreme Court rejected the appeal and upheld the death sentence.

July 2025: Zahir filed the review petition against the May ruling, which has now been officially dismissed.

The Supreme Court’s latest decision marks the conclusion of the regular judicial appeal process for the high-profile case. With the review petition officially dismissed, the focus now shifts entirely to whether the convict will proceed with his planned mercy petition before the head of state. Ultimately, after years of intense legal battles spanning multiple court tiers, any final intervention or modification of Zahir Jaffer’s death sentence rests exclusively on a potential presidential pardon under Article 45 of the Constitution.