SC puts off hearing of Zahir Jaffer’s plea

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday postponed the hearing of the review petition filed by Zahir Jaffer, the main convict in the Noor Muqadam murder case, till the additional note is issued by another member of the bench.

A three-member bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar, heard the review petition filed by Zahir Jaffer.

Khwaja Haris, a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court, appeared before the court representing convict Zahir Jaffer. Justice Kakar questioned the change of counsel, noting that Salman Safdar had previously represented Zahir Jaffer. He asked the counsel as to whether it was permissible to change lawyers during the review stage of a case.

Khawaja Haris responded that recent amendments in the law now allow a change of counsel even at the review stage.

Justice Kakar observed that he had authored the original verdict in the case, while Justice Ali Baqar Najafi’s additional note was still pending. He suggested that the additional note might potentially benefit one or both parties.

The court then adjourned the hearing until the additional note is issued by another judge in the matter.

On July 23, Zahir Zakir Jaffer, who was convicted twice with a death sentence in the Noor Muqadam murder case, had filed a review petition in the Supreme Court.

Jaffer had filed a petition under Article 188 of the Constitution read with Order XXVI Rule 1 of the Supreme Court Rules 1980 for review of the order passed by the Supreme Court on May 20, 2025 in the appeal filed by him.

On May 20, a three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Kakar had dismissed the appeal of Zahir Jaffer, upholding the Islamabad High Court decision to award death sentence to Zahir Jaffer, but the apex court commuted the death penalty on one count under the rape charges to life imprisonment.

Noor Muqadam, 27, daughter of former Pakistani diplomat Shaukat Muqadam, was brutally murdered in a posh area of the federal capital in July 2021. The police had charged Jaffer, a US national, with murder.