Comments from judges part of the Supreme Court’s bench that upheld Zahir Jaffer’s death sentence in the Noor Mukadam murder case once again stirred strong reactions on Wednesday.

Noor, aged 27 years, was found murdered at Zahir’s Islamabad residence in July 2021, with the probe revealing she was brutally tortured before being beheaded.

Not only had Zahir’s death sentence been upheld by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in 2023, but by a three-member bench of the SC as well on May 20 this year.

In an additional note released today, one of those judges, Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, stood by the SC judgment but remarked that the “case is a direct result of a vice spreading in the upper society” known as a live-in relationship.

He went on to say that such ties “defy not only the law of the land but also the personal law” under Sharia, and termed them a “direct revolt” against God. The judge even cautioned the younger generation about “horrible consequences”, specifically noting that the case was a “topic for the social reformist to discuss in their circles”.

Back in May, Justice Hashim Kakar, who headed the SC bench, opined that a man and woman living together out of wedlock was against religion and morals. This happens in Europe, not here, he reportedly said.

The judge’s observations, which surfaced just a day after the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, triggered criticism from many on social media, including lawyers and journalists.

Journalist Benazir Shah said blaming the relationship dynamics “in a case where a woman was brutally murdered reflects a troubling mindset”.

“Women deserve justice, not judgment.”

“So death is ordained in a ‘living relationship’? Under which law?” asked senior journalist Mariana Baabar on X. “Does Islam allow beheading of na mahram?” she rhetorically wondered.

Gender policy analyst Fauzia Yazdani said the judge “drills on ‘vices’ in socio-religious context but fails to drill that ‘murder’ irrespective of any vice is CRIME”.

“The case was of brutal murder of Noor Muqaddam, not an application for character certification,” the researcher pointed out.

Journalist Zoya Anwer said: “Really wanna ask Justice Najafi about those countless ‘legally’ married women who are treated brutally by their [very very very] legal husbands if ‘live-in’ and deen se doori (distance from religion) is the root cause of Zahir Jaffer and Noor Mukadam’s case.”

“I literally grew up reading those afternoon Urdu newspapers plastered with headlines about ‘Cruel man beheaded his wife’ along with the photo of the bloodied, dead woman in question. But cool, cool, cool that ‘live-in’ that too in Pakistan is the REAL problem,” she said sarcastically.

According to the United Nations, some 50,000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members in 2024, breaking down to around one woman every 10 minutes.

Lawyer Rida Hosain slammed the judge’s note as “appalling”, sharing her comment piece from May about Justice Kakar’s similar remarks.

“He suggests the murder stemmed from the ‘vice’ of ‘living relationship’,” Hosain said, stressing that a judge “must uphold the law, not deliver moral lectures in a case where a woman was brutally murdered”.

Journalist and digital rights activist Farieha Aziz referred to the judge, who was among those appointed by the president, as “oh-so-progressive PPP’s pick for the FCC”.