Zahir Jaffer seeks legal assistance from US authorities

ISLAMABAD: Zahir Zakir Jaffer, the alleged killer of Noor Mukaddam, is said to be seeking legal assistance from the US authorities to plead his case in a better way at different legal forums.

The development came days after the US Embassy in Pakistan got consular access to Zahir, who is an American citizen. “Zahir talked to an American official on the phone for some 20 minutes on Monday. He sought legal aid from the US authorities. Being a US national, I need an attorney to plead my case at multiple forums to get justice,” revealed a senior jail official while quoting Zahir as telling the official.

The senior official, who is familiar with the content of communique between Zahir and the American Embassy officials, further said the alleged killer requested for shifting him from a high security barrack to some well cleaned barrack. The alleged killer also requested the American official to take up his case with the government of Pakistan on humanitarian grounds as his health condition was not good, added the official.

Before this happened, the Home Department Punjab on the request of the Ministry of Interior wrote to the Superintendent Central Jail Rawalpindi to give consular access via a telephone call to Zahir Jaffer.

“I am directed to refer to the subject noted above and to state that it has been decided by the government of Pakistan, the Ministry of Interior, Islamabad conveyed vide its letter no......dated 24.08.2021, to allow telephonic consular access to the officials/representatives of the US Embassy, Islamabad,” read the official letter written to the jail authorities.

Meanwhile, parents of Zahir Jaffer, wrote to the jail authorities to shift them to “B class” seeking permission to have access to better food. Former Ambassador Shaukat Mukadam, father of murdered victim Noor Mukadam, has said that both he and his wife have the firm belief that the killer of their daughter will be given the death sentence.

“I have the firm conviction that the murderer of my daughter, Zahir Zakir Jaffer, will be awarded the death sentence,” he told Geo News. Noor’s father said they remain optimistic about the speedy delivery of justice in the case, having firm belief in the police and the judicial system.

He said he was satisfied with the ongoing investigation, brushing aside all rumours and the impression that he was in a state of hopelessness concerning the probe into his daughter’s murder. “Reading words such as hopelessness gives the wrong impression to the public, implying not only that I have lost hope but that the police are not helping me. This is wrong. The police are doing their duty and the whole Pakistani nation is with me,” Mukadam said, resolutely.

Geo News sent a questionnaire to Heather Eaton, Spokesman for US Embassy, for knowing the US authorities’ point of view on this development. He said: “we requested normal consular access to a detained American citizen. Beyond that, I cannot comment on individual cases due to privacy concerns.”

In addition to it, the Islamabad High Court served notices to Therapy Works’ employees seeking their comments in the Noor Mukadam murder case after the deceased woman’s father appealed for cancellation of their bail pleas. Petitioner’s lawyer Barrister Qasim Nawaz Abbasi told the IHC that the suspect had hidden facts from the lower court, as he mentioned his client had also named Therapy Works’ chief executive Tahir Zahoor and other employees as suspects in his supplementary statement.

The CEO of Therapy Works also filed a plea in an Islamabad local court against Zahir’s parents, seeking action against them for allegedly destroying evidences and trying to hide facts in this murder case.