ISLAMABAD: The Additional District and Sessions Court in Islamabad on Thursday sentenced primary suspect Zahir Jaffer to death for the murder of Noor Mukadam.

The court sentenced Zahir’s household staff Iftikhar and Jameel to 10 years in jail, while all others, including Zahir’s parents and TherapyWorks employees, were acquitted.

Additional Sessions Judge Ata Rabbani announced the verdict, which was reserved on Tuesday following months of hearings.

Zahir, his father Zakir Jaffer, mother Asmat Adamjee and other suspects were present in the court when the verdict was announced.

It is worthy to bementioned here that Noor, 27, was found murdered at Jaffar’s residence in the capital’s upscale Sector F-7/4 on July 20 last year. A first information report (FIR) was registered the same day against Zahir Jaffer — the primary accused who was arrested from the site of the murder — under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the complaint of the victim’s father, Shaukat Mukadam, who is a retired diplomat.

Ahead of the verdict today, Zahir was brought to the court along with the other co-accused — Zakir Jaffer (Zahir’s father), Iftikhar (watchman) and Jan Mohammad (gardener).

The lawyers, plaintiff Shaukat and other co-accused who are out on bail, including Therapy Works employees and Zahir’s mother Asmat Adamjee, also arrived at the court.

After the court marked the attendance of Therapy Works employees, the judge ordered for the courtroom to be emptied, saying he needed to speak to the defendants. The quartet of detained accused, including Zahir, were later sent back from the court once the judge was done with them.

After the FIR was registered in the case and Zahir was arrested, his parents and household staff were also taken into custody by police on July 24 over allegations of “hiding evidence and being complicit in the crime”. They were made a part of the investigation based on Noor’s father’s statement.

In his complaint, Shaukat had stated that he had gone to Rawalpindi on July 19 to buy a goat for Eidul Azha, while his wife had gone out to pick up clothes from her tailor. When he had returned home in the evening, the couple found their daughter Noor absent from their house in Islamabad.

They had found her cellphone number switched off and started a search for her. Sometime later, Noor had called her parents to inform them that she was travelling to Lahore with some friends and would return in a day or two, according to the FIR.

The complainant said he had later received a call from Zahir, whose family were their acquaintances. The suspect had informed Shaukat that Noor was not with him, the FIR said.

At around 10pm on July 20, the victim’s father had received a call from Kohsar police station, informing him that Noor had been murdered.

Police had subsequently taken the complainant to Zahir’s house in Sector F-7/4 where he discovered that his “daughter has been brutally murdered with a sharp-edged weapon and beheaded”, according to the FIR.

Shaukat, who identified his daughter’s body, has sought the maximum punishment under the law against Zahir for allegedly murdering his daughter.

Police later said that Zahir had confessed to killing Noor while his DNA test and fingerprints also showed his involvement in the murder.

Six officials of Therapy Works, whose employees had visited the site of the murder before police, were also nominated in the case and were indicted with six others, including Zahir Jaffer’s parents, in October.

Talking to the media after the last hearing, Noor’s father, Shaukat Mukadam, had said that he sought “maximum punishment” for the accused and reposed his confidence in Judge Ata Rabbani.

“He has conducted a fair and transparent trial,” Shaukat had said of the judge’s handling of the case, adding that he was “completely satisfied” with the investigation despite “some ups and downs” as he also commended the police for operating “under pressure”.

“It was a difficult time but I had full faith in my daughter. Noor Mukadam was a good girl and she was not involved in anything wrong,” Shaukat said.

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