Pakistan has seen numerous cases of harassment and violence against women in 2021,each equally horrifying. One however, stood-out for its sheer brutality and shook the nation.
On Thursday ,24th February 2022, In Pakistan one of the sessions court sentenced Zahir Jaffer to death in Noor Muqadam murder case.
The murder of Noor Muqadam has upset not only the youth’s parents but also the entire country. Not the ordinary people but the members of educated literate, elite families were involved in this bloody incident.
On July 18th,2021, Noor Muqadam disappeared from her home. She called her parents and informed them that she was going to Lahore with her friends.
On 20th July 2021, Noor Muqadam made the last call to her mother. Later, Zahir Jaffer snatched her phone and fight between them started from there.
This time Zahir Jaffer started with physical violence. Noor Muqadam hit him in response, Zahir Jaffer became furious and started hitting Noor with his knife. In response, Noor Muqadam jumped down from the attic floor to save her life. She ran toward the main gate and asked the guards to open but they did not help her. Zahir Jaffer came and took her from there, and forcibly stuck her in his room and beaten her very harshly with his knife. Noor Muqadam fell on the ground due to excessive bleeding from the body but, Zahir Jaffar did not fell sorry for her and cut her throat so that her had became detached from her body.
He called her mother which meant he told her about the situation. Zahir’s mother called the therapy centre and told them that her son’s condition is not good. When workers went there the situation was totally different. One of them shouted and said, “Call the Police.”
When police arrived at the crime scene they found the accused, the dead body, the victim severed head, a Swiss knife, an iron fist, bottle of alcohol and a loaded gun. Everything was still there and it was cleared that Zahir was the one who killed Noor Muqadam. The police arrested and took him away. The place was searched by the forensic agency and all the important evidences were collected from there.The evidences in this case were CCTV footage, cell phones of both the victims, DNA report of Noor Muqadam and the statement of Zahir Jaffer employees.
Noor Muqadam’s father had filed a murder case against the murder of her daughter. In FIR, Zahir employees, Gardner and security guard, 6 employees of therapy centre and his parents were nominated. Later, phone records of accused Zahir Jaffar testified that he had made 49 calls before and after Noor’s murder. Mostly, he was in touch with his father and mother.
The case went to the trial court and their were many hearings on it. He charged with the offences of Rape, Kidnapping in order to murder, Wrong-full confinement and pre-meditated murder.
This incident took place on 20th July, 2021 and at last, the final decision was taken on 24th February,2022. According to the Judgement, the culprit Zahir Jaffar has sentenced to death under the Section 302 of PPC and find Rupees 500,000 for the murder of Noor Muqadam. He has also been charged for 25 years imprisonment for Rape under the section 376 of PPC and fined Rupees 200,000. Zahir Jaffar has also been convicted of abducting Noor Muqadam and has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and fined Rupees 100,000.In total, Zahir Jaffar has been sentenced to death, 36 years of imprisonment and a fine of Rupees 800,000.
According to the court Judgement, Zahir’s house helps Mohammad Iftihar and Mohammad Jan facilitated the accuse and did not inform the police and concealed the facts. The court sentence both of them to 10 years imprisonment and fined Rupees 100,000 under the section 109 and 364 of Pakistan Penal Code 1860.
The individuals of therapy centre acquitted in the trail on the basis of irrelevancy with the incident and they not intentionally hide the incident as well as any information regarding the incident.
The parents of Zahir Jaffer were not present at the place of occurrence and merely on the basis of call data no one can be prosecuted in offence of abatement.
The defence lawyer taken the defence of insanity under section 84 of Pakistan penal code 1860 (PPC). Defence tried to prove, he was unsound-mind at time of committing the offence. Responsibility to prove by experts evidence that he was suffering from mental disorder but, In this case defence failed to establish section 84’s exception.
The result of the case is that the prosecution has succeeded to establish the case against the accuse Zahir Jaffer the Watchmen and the Gardner.
The Appeal is filed against the conviction by Zahir Jaffer, Watchmen and Gardner. And state filed appeal against the acquital of Zahir’s parents in Islamabad High Court.
*student of L.L.B (part 2) from Pakistan College of Law. I dedicate my work to my father for his constant support And Thank you Zeeshan Aziz Durrani for assistance.
Author: MAHRUKH AWAN*