The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday dismissed a review petition filed by Zahir Jaffer and maintained its earlier verdict upholding his death sentence in the Noor Mukadam murder case.
Noor, aged 27, was found murdered at Zahir’s Islamabad residence in July 2021, with the probe revealing she was tortured by him before being beheaded. Zahir was sentenced to death by a trial in February 2022 and his sentence has already been upheld by the SC once.
Prior to that, the Islamabad High Court had also dismissed his plea challenging the trial court’s verdict.
A three-member bench comprising Justices Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar, Salahuddin Panhwar and Ishtiaq Ibrahim heard Zahir’s review plea on Thursday.
Advocate Khawaja Haris appeared as Zahir’s counsel, while Shah Khawar was present from the respondents’ side. Both presented their arguments during today’s hearing, following which the bench announced its verdict.
After today’s ruling by the SC, a presidential pardon under Article 45 of the Constitution could possibly provide Zahir pardon, or reprieve, or remit, suspend or commute his sentence.
Zahir was last year contemplating filing a mercy petition before President Asif Ali Zardari, with a letter by jail authorities seeking the formation of a medical board so its opinion could be included in the plea.
The SC’s May 2025 ruling, which upheld Zahir’s death sentence, was issued by a three-member bench led by Justice Kakar and including Justices Ibrahim and Ali Baqar Najafi.
The verdict had commuted Zahir’s death sentence on the rape charge to life imprisonment, as decided by the trial court, but did not acquit him of it.
