WE are just a couple of months shy of what will be the third anniversary of the death of Noor Mukadam, the young woman who was cunningly trapped, raped, tortured and slaughtered on July 20, 2021, by Zahir Jaffer, a scion of a known business family.

The man was found guilty of all the charges against him and was handed the death penalty in February 2022 by a sessions court in Islamabad. Subsequently, in March 2023, a two-member division bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) not only upheld the death sentence, but also converted his 25-year jail term into another death penalty. Since then, an appeal has been filed against the death sentence, and the case has been lying with the Supreme Court for more than a year now.

The case deserves priority over other issues consuming the time of the apex court. Noor’s family deserves a closure, and that can come only when her parents, siblings and friends get justice.

If the case, like many others related to torture and murder of women, keeps gathering dust in the court registry, it will continue to agitate minds. Indeed, society needs a closure.

The Supreme Court will do well to take up the case and bring the perpetrator of this monstrous crime to justice at the earliest. Only then will Noor find peace in the hereafter, and only then will her grieving relatives bid her a final farewell. Indeed, only then will society be ale to really move on.

Nikhat Sattar
Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2024