ISLAMABAD: Zahir Jafar, the main convict convicted in the Noor Mukadam murder case, on Sunday approached the Supreme Court against the Islamabad High Court (IHC) verdict which upheld the trial court’s death sentence for the crime.
The convict filed a petition against the IHC, asking the country’s top court to quash the death sentence. He has also requested the Supreme Court to acquit him in this case.
The IHC, on March 13, upheld the death sentence awarded to Jafar by the trial court, commuting his life imprisonment to death. The verdict was reserved on December 21 following appeals against the conviction of the perpetrators of the gruesome murder of the 27-year-old woman and the acquittal of the co-accused.
The court’s decision to impose a double death sentence came after Jafar was convicted of the rape and murder of Noor. Earlier, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison with hard labor and a fine of Rs 0.2 million for rape.
In his petition, Jafar said that the trial court and the High Court did not properly assess the evidence. The plea also said that it is against the principles of justice to convict on the basis of a false first information report.
“Purely, on the basis of suspicion, the applicant’s name was recorded in the first information report without revealing the basis or source of the information. For all practical purposes all the statements in the FIR are clearly hearsay evidence and Information coming from unknown sources can be said,” the petition said.
The evidence admitted is not admissible under the Evidence Act, the petition said, terming it “vague, sketchy and meager”.
Jafar mentioned in his petition that the complainant and Noor’s father, Shaukat Ali Mukadam, provided insufficient evidence and used his influence as a former ambassador to spread the case in the media.
“With the massive acquittal in this case his reputation and credibility have been significantly affected. The complainant only raised suspicions through the FIR which was not later replaced by solid and concrete evidence,” he said. The petition said.
The petition also raised questions on Noor’s post-mortem.
“In short, the medical evidence is dubious and does not support the prosecution’s case in any way. This overwhelming doubt and lack of possession to conduct a post-mortem also unfairly skews the case in favor of the prosecution. Gone,” Jafar’s plea read.
The petition also stated that “the post-mortem report did not show any obvious signs of sexual abuse”.
It was further pointed out that the trial court proceeded with the recording of evidence in the absence of the petitioner due to the distress caused by the petitioner’s mental disorder on several hearings. Jafar has been sentenced to a total of 11 years in prison and a fine of Rs 50 lakh.
