Price of Impunity |
Price of Impunity
April 05, 2026
Newspaper, Opinions, Editorials
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The Supreme Court’s scheduling of Zahir Jaffer’s review plea for April 8 marks another chapter in a case that has horrified the nation. Noor Mukadam, aged 27, was tortured and beheaded at Jaffer’s Islamabad residence in July 2021, a crime so brutal it defies comprehension. The death sentence handed down by the trial court and subsequently upheld by the Islamabad High Court stands as rare accountability for violence against women. Yet the legal machinery grinds on, with the convicted murderer now seeking to overturn his fate through procedural avenues.
Few cases have been as unequivocal in their brutality. The evidence leaves little room for ambiguity. This was not a crime of passion or momentary madness but a calculated extinguishing of a young life. When the facts are so stark, the system must ensure justice is not reduced to a game of technicalities.
War on Terror
The message sent by the courts will resonate far beyond this individual case. If a murderer of such calculated violence is permitted to escape the full weight of his sentence through legal manoeuvring, the signal is unmistakable: brutality against women carries consequences that can be negotiated away. The judiciary’s role is not merely to interpret the law but to deliver justice that reflects the gravity of the offence. Anything less transforms the legal process into a spectacle where victims are forgotten, and perpetrators find refuge in procedural delay.
Noor Mukadam’s family has already endured unimaginable loss. The state owes them and every woman in Pakistan the assurance that justice will not be mocked, that sentences will be served, and that the courts will not become instruments for the privileged to evade accountability. The hearing on April 8 will test whether the system remembers its purpose.
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