Justice Ali Baqar Najafi — now serving on the newly established Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) — has stated in an additional note that the Noor Mukadam murder case is the “direct result” of what he termed a growing social “vice” known as the “living relationship”, referring to live-in arrangements between unmarried couples. The observations surfaced on Wednesday as part of the Supreme Court record.
Judge Calls Live-In Relationships a Violation of Social and Religious Norms
Noor Mukadam, 27, was brutally murdered in July 2021 at the Islamabad home of Zahir Zakir Jaffer. Earlier this year, a three-judge Supreme Court bench — including Justice Hashim Kakar, Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Najafi — upheld the death sentence awarded to Zahir by an Islamabad trial court in 2022.
Last month, when Zahir’s review petition against the verdict came before the apex court, Justice Najafi advised defence counsel Khawaja Haris that arguments would be better addressed after reviewing his additional note, which had not yet been issued at the time. Soon after, he was sworn in as a judge of the FCC.
In his additional note, Justice Najafi stated that the case stemmed from what he described as a “vice spreading in upper society”. He wrote that relationships outside marriage ignored “societal compulsions” and violated both state law and personal law under Sharia. He further labelled such conduct as a “direct revolt against Almighty Allah”, urging the youth to recognise the “horrible consequences” of such choices.
No Mitigating Circumstances in the Case, Says Judge
Justice Najafi also concluded that no mitigating circumstances existed in Zahir’s case. He stressed that minor discrepancies — such as delays in the postmortem, the absence of fingerprints on the murder weapon, and slight delays in filing the FIR — did not undermine the prosecution’s case, which he said was backed by strong circumstantial evidence.
He highlighted a key detail: “One end of the rope is found tied with the dead body of Noor Mukadam, and the other end tied with the neck of the petitioner.”
Noor’s murder on July 20, 2021, triggered widespread outrage. Zahir was arrested from the crime scene the same day. In February 2022, he was sentenced to death for murder and handed 25 years’ imprisonment for rape. Two household staff members were sentenced to 10 years each, while Zahir’s parents and several Therapy Works employees were initially indicted but later acquitted.
In March 2023, the Islamabad High Court upheld Zahir’s death sentence and converted his rape sentence into an additional death penalty. Zahir then approached the Supreme Court, claiming misinterpretation of evidence. However, in May 2024, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence, maintaining the earlier verdicts.
