Zahir Jaffer moves Islamabad High Court against death sentence for Noor Mukadam murder

ISLAMABAD: Zahir Jaffer, convicted for last year's murder of Noor Mukadam and awarded the death penalty, on Tuesday filed an appeal in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against his conviction.
Last month, a Pakistani court sentenced to death Pakistani-American Jaffer, a childhood friend of Mukadam, for beheading her in July 2021 in a murder that sparked public outrage and grabbed media attention unlike any other recent crime against women in Pakistan.
Zahir Jaffer’s parents, Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamjee, a cook at the family's home, and six employees of Therapy Works, a counseling center from where Jaffer had received certification as a therapist and where he was being treated at the time of. the murder, were acquitted by the court. The counseling centre employees were present at the scene of the crime, Jaffer's house, when police arrived, having been called there by his parents reportedly to restrain him.
The trial court also gave Jaffer 25 years imprisonment with a fine of Rs200,000 for rape, ten years in jail with a Rs100,000 fine for abduction and a one-year jail term for keeping Mukadam in illegal confinement. Two members of his household staff, Iftikhar and Jan Mohammad, got ten years in jail each.
IHC bench members Justice Amir Farooq and Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq heard Jaffer’s appeal on Tuesday, during which Advocate Shah Khawar appeared in the court on behalf of Shaukat Muqadam, the father of Noor Mukadam, who last week filed appeals in the high court against the acquittal of nine people accused in the case.
The high court sought the trial court’s records on the appeal against the acquittal of the nine accused.
“Now that an appeal against the conviction of the main accused has been filed, the court seeks all documents of the trial court in the murder case,” Justice Farooq said.
Hundreds of women are killed in Pakistan every year, with thousands more suffering brutal violence across the country. But few cases receive sustained media attention, and only a small fraction of perpetrators are ever punished.
But Mukadam’s shocking murder, involving members of the privileged elite of Pakistani society, triggered an explosive reaction from women’s rights activists reckoning with pervasive violence. It also increased pressure for a swift conclusion of the trial, in a country known to have a sluggish justice system, where cases typically drag on for years.
The lengthy trial in the Mukadam murder case also saw many twists and turns, as Jaffer’s lawyers used difference legal arguments to fight his case.
They initially argued that he was not mentally fit to stand trial and asked the court to form a commission to ascertain if he was mentally stable. Jail doctors filed a detailed report in the court, declaring Jaffer physically and mentally fit to stand trial. He never challenged the report.
The court rejected the mental health plea, which was filed after Jaffer was expelled from the court at least twice for disrupting trial hearings in which witnesses were being cross-examined.
On one occasion, police officers had to forcefully carry Jaffer out of the courtroom building after he used indecent language and misbehaved with the judge. Islamabad police later also registered a criminal case against Jaffer for using “abusive language” and attempting suicide on the court premises.
At another hearing, police officials carried Jaffer into the courtroom on a wheelchair and once on a stretcher.