ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday upheld Zahir Jaffer’s death sentence in Noor Muqaddam murder case.
A two-member bench comprising IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Sardar Ijaz Ishaq Khan pronounced the verdict which they had reserved on December 21.
Earlier, a sessions court in Islamabad had sentenced Zahir to death under Section 302(b) (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). The death sentence, however, was subject to confirmation by the IHC.
The court also sentenced Zahir to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs200,000 under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the PPC. The convict was also ordered to pay Rs0.5 million to Noor’s legal heir.
The sessions court had also sentenced co-accused Jameel and Jan Muhammad to 10 years each in jail.
Case History
On July 2021, Noor Muqaddam, 27, was found murdered at Zahir’s residence in Islamabad’s Sector F-7/4. A first information report (FIR) was lodged against Zahir Jaffer under Section 302 of the PPC on the complaint of the girl’s father, Shaukat Muqaddam – a former diplomat.
Zahir was arrested after the FIR and later, on July 24, 2021, his parents and household staff were also taken into custody over allegations of hiding the evidence.
Later, Zahir confessed to killing Noor and a DNA report confirmed that he also raped her. The accused told that Noor was betraying him, adding, “I stopped her after knowing about her betrayal but she denied which made me angry.”
In a CCTV video footage, Noor could be seen running from the balcony of the house towards the security guard’s cabin and locking herself in at 4:30 pm.
Zahir Jaffer followed Noor and took her out of the cabin while the guards kept watching and did nothing to stop him from assaulting the girl.
