SC dismisses Zahir Jaffer’s review petition in Noor Mukadam Murder case

ISLAMABAD – The Supreme Court has dismissed a review petition filed by Zahir Zakir Jaffer, convicted of raping and murdering Noor Mukadam in 2021, rejecting his plea to have the death sentence commuted to life imprisonment on grounds of mental illness.

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Meanwhile, the court dismissed this too, noting Jaffer had been given the opportunity to engage private counsel but did not do so, and that the state-appointed lawyer had actively participated in the trial alongside another senior counsel, cross-examining all prosecution witnesses.

In practice, a further objection was raised over the admissibility of DNA and video forensic reports, on the grounds that the forensic experts who prepared them were never produced as witnesses. The court observed this objection had not been raised at trial or during the earlier appeal, and that in any case, a 2022 amendment to Section 510 Cr.P.C. Had since produced forensic scientists' reports admissible without requiring their authors to testify, a procedural change the court held applies retrospectively to pending proceedings. Gilani calls for strategic leadership, innovation in universities.

Concluding that no mitigating circumstances existed to justify reducing the sentence, the court held that the aggravating features of the case "overwhelmingly outweigh any circumstance urged in mitigation" and dismissed the petition.

In practice, the judgment additionally included extended remarks on femicide, citing United Nations data showing that around 50, 000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members in 2024 worldwide. According to The bench, the private sphere, rather than being a place of safety for women, is statistically where they face the greatest risk of violence, and pressed society to uphold the protection and dignity accorded to women under Islamic and constitutional principles. CDA orders private housing schemes to publicly display approved layout intends.

In short, SC dismisses Zahir Jaffer's review petition in Noor Mukadam Murder case is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.