Psychiatric board to reassess mental state of Noor Mukadam's killer today

ISLAMABAD: In a move that has triggered outrage and suspicion, a psychiatric board has been constituted to reassess the mental health of Zahir Zakir Jaffer, the convicted killer of Noor Mukadam.

The decision comes three years after Jaffer brutally beheaded Noor in his Islamabad home -- a case that horrified the nation.

According to an official notification dated July 11, 2025, issued by the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), a two-member medical board comprising senior psychiatrists and neurologists will examine the condemned prisoner inside Rawalpindi’s Central Jail on July 21 (today) at 10:00 am.

The board includes Dr. Shafqat Nawaz from the Psychiatry Department and Dr. Amir Naveed from the Neurology Department of PIMS. The board has been formed on the request of the Superintendent of Central Jail, Rawalpindi, citing the need for a psychiatric evaluation of the death-row inmate.

Critics and women’s rights activists, however, see the timing and circumstances of the move as deeply troubling — coming after multiple failed appeals by Jaffer’s legal team, many of which have invoked mental instability as a defence tactic.

Zahir Jaffer was sentenced to death in February 2022 for the premeditated murder of 27-year-old Noor Mukadam, the daughter of former diplomat Shaukat Mukadam.

Noor was held hostage, tortured, and brutally murdered on July 20, 2021, in the Jaffer family residence in Sector F-7, Islamabad. Forensic evidence, eyewitness accounts and CCTV footage left no doubt about Jaffer’s guilt.

Throughout the trial, the convict displayed erratic courtroom behaviour—refusing to cooperate, staging outbursts and claiming mental illness in what many believed were desperate attempts to dodge justice.

The trial court dismissed those claims, citing overwhelming evidence, and delivered a landmark death sentence that was hailed as a rare moment of accountability for the privileged.

The formation of the new psychiatric board has now reignited public fears that the system may once again be manipulated to benefit an influential convict. Legal experts warn that such tactics are often used to buy time or seek commutation of sentences in high-profile cases.

Now, with a fresh medical assessment scheduled behind jail walls, many fear that efforts are underway to portray the killer as mentally unfit -- despite previous findings that rejected such claims.

Rights advocates and Noor’s supporters are demanding full transparency from the authorities and have warned against any backdoor deal or manipulation that could undermine the justice Noor fought for with her life.

As the psychiatric board prepares to convene, the public is once again watching closely -- fearful that the scales of justice may tilt, not in favour of the victim, but the man who brutally took her life.