ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani state has sought capital punishment for Zahir Jaffer who raped and beheaded a 27-year-old woman Noor Mukadam at his Islamabad residence in July last year while demanding enhancement of sentences for others involved in the case in an appeal filed in a local court.
The office of Advocate General Islamabad on Wednesday filed the appeal in Islamabad High Court against the verdict announced in the case by a district court in February this year. The 30-year-old Pakistani-American, Jaffer was given death sentence for killing Mukadam along with 25-year imprisonment for rape, 10-year jail term for abduction and one-year prison time for keeping the victim in illegal confinement.
Others charged in the case included Jaffer’s parents, Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamjee, three members of their household staff, Iftikhar, Jan Muhammad and Jameel, and six employees of Therapy Works, a counseling center from where Jaffer had received certification as a therapist, and where he had been receiving treatment in the weeks leading up to the murder. The court also announced 10-year prison sentence for both Iftikhar and Jan Mohammad while all others were acquitted due to lack of evidence.
The state has now appealed the high court to enhance Jaffer’s punishment from 25 years imprisonment in rape to capital punishment, increase sentences of Iftikhar and Jan Mohammad and reverse the acquittal of Jaffer’s parents and Therapy Works employees.
“Jaffer was proven guilty of raping Noor Mukadam through forensic reports and he himself admitted it too in the court. Therefore, we are appealing the high court to award him death sentence on this charge too,” advocate Zohaib Gondal, a law officer at the Advocate General Islamabad office, told Arab News on Thursday.
He said the state had also appealed the court to enhance sentences of Iftikhar and Mohammad since they were also found guilty of involvement in the murder.
“We have challenged acquittal of Jaffer’s parents and Therapy Works employees on the basis of substantial evidence,” he added.
Gondal said the state would produce mobile phone and call record data in the high court to prove the involvement of Jaffer’s parents in the murder.
“The CCTV footage showing the presence of Therapy Works employees on the crime scene is a crucial piece of evidence that proves their involvement in the case,” he continued.
The prosecution proved during the court proceedings that Jaffer had raped Mukadam, the daughter of a former Pakistani diplomat, and tortured her with a knuckle duster before beheading her.
He was arrested at his residence on the day of the murder and indicted last October.
The victim’s father, Shaukat Mukadam, has already filed an appeal in the Islamabad High Court against the acquittal of nine people accused in the case.
The court will start hearing the case on April 27.
Pakistani state seeks stricter sentence for Zahir Jaffer, others in Noor Mukadam murder case
https://arab.news/bdh5v
Pakistani state seeks stricter sentence for Zahir Jaffer, others in Noor Mukadam murder case
- Mukadam was raped and beheaded by Zahir Jaffer at his Islamabad residence in July last year
- The state has challenged the acquittal of Jaffer’s parents on the basis of ‘substantial evidence’
Multi-party summit pushes for talks between Pakistan government, opposition to ease tensions
- National Dialogue Committee group organizes summit attended by prominent lawyers, politicians and journalists in Islamabad
- Participants urge government to lift alleged ban on political activities, end politically motivated cases and release women prisoners
ISLAMABAD: Participants of a meeting featuring prominent politicians, lawyers and civil society members on Wednesday urged the government to initiate talks with former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, lift alleged bans on political activities and release jailed leaders of the PTI to foster reconciliation and pave the way for economic prosperity.
The summit was organized by the National Dialogue Committee (NDC), a political group formed last month by former PTI members Chaudhry Fawad Husain, ex-Sindh governor Imran Ismail and Mehmood Moulvi. The NDC has called for efforts to ease political tensions in the country and facilitate dialogue between the government and Khan’s party.
The development takes place amid rising tensions between the PTI and Pakistan’s military and government. Khan, who remains in jail on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated, blames the military and the government for colluding to keep him away from power by rigging the 2024 general election and implicating him in false cases. Both deny his allegations.
Since Khan was ousted in a parliamentary vote in April 2022, the PTI has complained of a widespread state crackdown, while Khan and his senior party colleagues have been embroiled in dozens of legal cases. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last month reiterated his openness to talks with the PTI.
“The prime objective of the dialogue is that we want to bring the political temperatures down,” Ismail told Arab News after the conference concluded.
“At the moment, the heat is so much that people— especially in politics— they do not want to sit across the table and discuss the pertaining issues of Pakistan which is blocking the way for investment.”
Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who heads the Awaam Pakistan political party, attended the summit along with Jamaat-e-Islami senior leader Liaquat Baloch, Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan’s Waseem Akhtar and Haroon
Rasheed, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association. Journalists Asma Shirazi and Fahd Husain also attended the meeting.
Members of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PTI did not attend the gathering.
Muhammad Ali Saif, a former adviser to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, told participants of the meeting that Pakistan was currently in a “dysfunctional state” due to extreme political polarization.
“The tension between the PTI and the institutions, particularly the army, at the moment is the most fundamental, the most prominent and the most crucial issue,” Saif noted.
‘CHANGED FACES’
The summit issued a joint communiqué after the meeting, proposing six specific confidence-building measures. These included lifting an alleged ban on political activities and the appointment of the leaders of opposition in Pakistan’s Senate and National Assembly.
It also called for the immediate release of women political prisoners, such as Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi and PTI leader Yasmin Rashid, and the withdrawal of cases against supporters of political parties.
The communiqué also called for an end to media censorship and proposed that the government and opposition should “neither use the Pakistan Armed Forces for their politics nor engage in negative propaganda against them.”
Amir Khan, an overseas Pakistani businessperson, complained that frequent political changes in the country had undermined investors’ confidence.
“I came here with investment ideas, I came to know that faces have changed after a year,” Amir Khan said, referring to the frequent change in government personnel.
The NDC plans to consult senior opposition leaders currently in prison to finalize a representative committee for talks once the government announces its own team.
“Let us create some environment. Let us bring some temperatures down and then we will do it,” Ismail said regarding a potential meeting with the jailed Khan.
Khan’s party, on the other hand, has been calling for a “meaningful” political dialogue with the government.
However, it has accused the government of denying PTI members meetings with Khan in the Rawalpindi prison where he remains incarcerated.
“For dialogue to be meaningful, it is essential that these authorized representatives are allowed regular and unhindered access to Imran Khan so that any engagement accurately reflects his views and PTI’s collective position,” PTI leader Azhar Leghari told Arab News last week.
