Pakistan's High Court Affirms Death for Girlfriend's Killer

In a landmark decision bringing a sense of closure to a nation gripped by outrage, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has upheld the death penalty for Zahir Jaffer, the American citizen convicted of the horrific murder of his girlfriend, Noor Mukaddam. The scion of one of Pakistan's wealthiest families, Jaffer was found guilty of beheading Mukaddam at his Islamabad home on July 20, 2021, after she refused to marry him.

The chilling details of the murder investigation revealed that Mukaddam, the 27-year-old daughter of Pakistan’s former ambassador to South Korea and Kazakhstan, Shaukat Mukaddam, endured captivity, torture, and rape before being brutally beheaded with a “sharp-edged weapon.” Tragic accounts emerged of Mukaddam's desperate attempts to escape on the night of her death, all thwarted by Jaffer's house staff.

Jaffer was initially sentenced to death in 2022, while a guard and a gardener at his residence received 10-year prison sentences for their complicity in the murder. A three-member Supreme Court bench, led by Justice Hashim Kakar, affirmed Jaffer's death sentence on Tuesday, with Justice Kakar poignantly observing that "a daughter was mercilessly murdered." While the death penalty for murder was upheld, the court commuted Jaffer’s death penalty for rape to life imprisonment. Previous appeals by Jaffer's legal team had argued for the absence of a medical board to assess his mental state.

This high-profile case ignited widespread public condemnation over the disturbingly low conviction rates for violence against women in Pakistan, despite its pervasive nature. Violence against women in the country has been described as "endemic," with less than 3 percent of perpetrators facing conviction, according to AGHS Legal Aid Cell.

The Supreme Court's verdict has been hailed as a significant victory for women's rights in Pakistan. Shafaq Zaidi, a childhood friend of Noor Mukaddam, expressed profound relief, telling news agency AFP, “This is a victory for all the women of Pakistan. It shows that our justice system can deliver justice and should give women more confidence in the legal process.” She added, “This was our last resort, and it is hard to put into words what this outcome means to us.”

Lawyer Zainab Shahid echoed these sentiments, stating that Jaffer's death sentence provides a crucial sense of justice and closure. "It marks a departure from high-profile cases of violent crime in the past where perpetrators were acquitted by the highest appellate forum due to errors or failures by law enforcement agencies and state prosecutors in the investigative, evidentiary and trial stages of the case,” she explained to Dawn. Shahid concluded, “This verdict is a rare victory for the women of Pakistan and the protection of their lives against gender-based violence.”

A collective of Mukaddam's friends, who actively campaigned for justice through their "Justice for Noor" page on X (formerly Twitter), emphasized that the verdict serves as a powerful reminder that "women’s lives matter and their voices will be heard." They asserted, "This is not just for Noor, it’s for all women of Pakistan.”