Noor Mukadam Murder Case
The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday delivered its detailed written verdict in the highly publicized Noor Mukadam murder case, firmly upholding the death sentence of the convict, Zahir Jaffer.
The court also reaffirmed the admissibility of video evidence under the “silent witness” doctrine, which allows video footage to be used as primary evidence in the absence of eyewitness testimony.
A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Hashim Khan Kakar and including Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Ali Baqar Najafi, ruled that authenticated video recordings are admissible in court as long as their source is reliable and the footage remains unaltered.
This landmark 13-page judgment marks the end of a case that gripped the nation since 2021, highlighting the urgent issue of violence against women and the culture of impunity among the elite in Pakistan.
The bench noted that the principle of the silent witness, widely recognized in American courts, is now being applied in Pakistan. It emphasized that evidence such as CCTV footage, DVR recordings, and hard disk data can qualify as primary evidence if they fulfill prescribed legal criteria. In this case, the court found the video footage of the crime scene authentic and free from any signs of tampering.
The Supreme Court upheld Zahir Jaffer’s death sentence for murder under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code, alongside a life sentence for the rape of Noor Mukadam. However, the court granted limited relief to Jaffer by overturning his previous convictions for kidnapping and extortion—ordering his acquittal on the kidnapping charge and commuting the extortion-related sentence.
Furthermore, the court ordered the release of two co-accused individuals, Muhammad Iftikhar (the watchman) and Muhammad Jan (the gardener), declaring that the jail time they had already served was sufficient. This ruling reversed earlier sentences handed down to them.
Significantly, the verdict formally established the use of digital and video evidence as primary proof in Pakistani courts, highlighting that eyewitnesses are not mandatory when authentic footage exists. The court cited earlier cases, such as those involving bank robberies, where video evidence was accepted independently.
The judgment underscored that the video clearly showed Zahir Jaffer physically assaulting Noor Mukadam, and this was corroborated by forensic evidence, including a DNA report confirming the rape and the presence of the victim’s blood on the murder weapon. The court described Jaffer as a “ruthless killer” undeserving of sympathy, reinforcing the decisions of the lower courts.
Noor Mukadam, aged 27 and the daughter of former diplomat Shaukat Mukadam, was brutally murdered on July 20, 2021, at Jaffer’s residence in Islamabad’s upscale F-7 sector. Her beheaded body was discovered at the scene, and Jaffer was arrested immediately. The case had sparked nationwide outrage, with investigations revealing Noor’s attempts to escape and the complicity of security staff in preventing her from fleeing.
Initially, Islamabad sessions court sentenced Jaffer to death in February 2022, with Muhammad Jan and Muhammad Iftikhar receiving 10-year prison terms for aiding the crime. The Islamabad High Court upheld these verdicts in 2023. However, the Supreme Court’s recent judgment has now freed the two co-accused.
Zahir Jaffer’s parents were also implicated in the case but were acquitted by the trial court, a decision currently under appeal. During the Supreme Court hearings, Jaffer’s lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, claimed that his client was mentally unfit and argued that the prosecution’s case relied solely on camera footage.
The court dismissed these arguments, stating that the digital and forensic evidence presented was sufficiently conclusive for conviction.
