Noor Mukadam case: Following months of hearings, a local court in the federal capital gave a death sentence to Zahir Jaffer in the Noor Mukadam murder case on Thursday.

Additional Sessions Judge Ata Rabbani gave the verdict, which was earlier reserved on Tuesday after all the parties had made their final arguments, in the presence of the suspects of the case.

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 Jameel 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.

Noor Mukadam, the daughter of Pakistan’s former ambassador to South Korea Shaukat Mukadam, had been brutally murdered by businessman Zahir Jaffar in the F7 Sector of Islamabad. Police said the girl was also stabbed and beheaded with a sharp instrument after being shot.

A leaked audiotape revealed that after the murder, Zahir telephoned his parents. The parents, instead of calling the police, called Therapy Works, a counselling and psychotherapy centre where the suspect was employed.

The staff of the Therapy Works arrived at the crime scene and one of them got injured upon encountering Jaffer. The gruesome murder sparked strong condemnation and public outrage in the country and calls to bring the perpetrator to justice ricocheted.

A first information report (FIR) was registered 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.