Noor Mukadam murder : IHC upholds trial court's verdict, turns Zahir Jaffer's jail term into a second death penalty.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday not only upheld the death sentence of Zahir Jaffer in the Noor Mukadam murder case, but also converted his 25-year jail term into another death penalty.

A two-member division bench comprising IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan announced the verdict today which was earlier reserved on Dec 21.

In its judgement today, the IHC rejected Zahir's plea while also dismissing the pleas of his household staff Mohammad Iftikhar and Mohammad Jan - both co-accused in the case - who had challenged the trial court's verdict.

Noor, 27, was found murdered at Jaffar's residence in the capital's upscale Sector F-7/4 on July 20 last year. A first information report (FIR) was registered the same day against Zahir Jaffer - the primary accused who was arrested from the site of the murder - under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the complaint of the victim's father, Shaukat Mukadam, who is a retired diplomat.

On Feb 24, 2022, an Islamabad sessions court sentenced Zahir to death and awarded 10-year imprisonment to two co-accused Mohammad Iftikhar and Jan Mohammad.

Zahir's parents - father Zakir Jaffer and mother Asmat Adamji - as well as TherapyWorks personnel, had been indicted by an Islamabad district and sessions court in October 2021 but were later acquitted by the sessions court when Jaffer was sentenced.

Following the verdict, Zahir had approached the IHC in March 2022 challenging his death sentence.

Case history

After a first information report was registered in the case and Zahir was arrested, his parents and household staff were also taken into custody by police on July 24 over allegations of 'hiding evidence and being complicit in the crime'. They were made a part of the investigation based on Noor's father's statement.

In his complaint, Shaukat had stated that he had gone to Rawalpindi on July 19 to buy a goat...