ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has been urged by the father of Noor Mukadam — a 27-year-old woman murdered by Zahir Jaffer in 2021 — to take up the murder case pending for more than one and half years in the top court.

Shaukat Mukadam, a former diplomat, addressed a press conference on Wednesday to mark the birth anniversary of his slain daughter and demanded swift justice from the top court.

Mr Mukadam said the family of Zahir Jaffer had approached him for reconciliation but he rejected their offer.

He said it was crucial to bring such a “beast” — a reference to Zahir Jaffer who decapitated his daughter — to justice so that no girl in the country could be subjected to such cruelty.

He said no matter how powerful anyone was they could not be allowed to kill someone’s daughter.

Shaukat Mukadam says case pending in top court for one and half years

The case has been pending in the top court for the past one and a half years, he said, adding that it was an important case and the lives of many girls were connected to its outcome, he said.

The CJP should hear the case on a priority basis so that Jaffer could be punished and no one would be able to dare to do such an act again, he added.

On the occasion, social workers Tahira Abdullah and Reema Tariq said that birthdays were about happiness, but Noor’s birthday was an excruciating day for her parents.

“It is an open and shut case and all evidence is available against the accused, but due to unknown reasons, it has been pending for one and a half years.”

Noor, 27, was found murdered at a residence in Islamabad’s upscale Sector F-7/4 on July 20. A first information report (FIR) was registered later the same day against Jaffer, who was arrested from the site of the murder.

According to the FIR registered by her father, he discovered that his “daughter has been brutally murdered with a sharp-edged weapon and beheaded”.

Subsequently, a district and sessions judge sentenced Zahir Jaffer to death in February 2022 along with 25 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs200,000. His household staff Iftikhar and Jameel — both co-accused in the case — were sentenced to 10 years in jail, while all other suspects, including Jaffer’s parents and TherapyWorks employees, were acquitted.

In March 2023, the Islamabad High Court upheld the death sentence and also converted his 25-year jail term into another death penalty.

In April 2023, an appeal in the Supreme Court was filed against the IHC decision to uphold the death sentence.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2024