The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights on Thursday condemned Justice Ali Baqar Najafi’s remarks in the Noor Mukadam case that surfaced a day earlier, deeming them “ridiculous”.
Justice Najafi, who is now part of the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), observed that the Noor Mukadam case was the direct result of a “vice” spreading in society known as “living relationship”. It appeared the judge was referring to a live-in relationship, where two unmarried individuals in a romantic relationship cohabitate.
In a meeting today, the committee questioned what “would happen to the conviction rate in cases against women, which is already shameful, if a judge himself has made such remarks.”
The committee summoned advocate generals, prosecutor generals, police officials and all relevant authorities due to the low conviction rate.
Conviction rate in cases of gender-based violence (GBV) is reportedly as low as 1.2 per cent due to weak prosecution and judicial delays.
Women’s rights advocates say there is also no centralised GBV database, hindering data analysis. Furthermore, due to resource constraints, shelters and crisis centres, GBV courts, police protection cells, and the like are underfunded.
Noor, aged 27 years, was found murdered at the Islamabad residence of Zahir Zakir Jaffer in July 2021. In May, a three-judge Supreme Court bench, led by Justice Hashim Kakar and including Justices Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Najafi, had upheld the death sentence awarded to Zahir, who was convicted by an Islamabad trial court in 2022.
Last month, the apex court had taken up Zakir’s review petition challenging the capital punishment awarded to him. During the hearing, Justice Najafi told senior counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed, representing the convict, that it would be more appropriate for him to start arguments after going through the additional note he had not yet issued at the time.
Later, Justice Najafi was sworn in as a judge of the FCC, established earlier this month after the 27th Constitutional Amendment.
In an additional note on the Noor murder case, which was uploaded on the SC website on Wednesday, Justice Najafi upheld the sentence handed to Zahir and observed that “the present case is a direct result of a vice spreading in the upper society which we know as ‘living relationship’ [sic]”.
He stressed that such relationships ignored “societal compulsions” and “defy not only the law of the land but also the personal law” under Sharia.
The judge’s observations, which surfaced just a day after the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, also triggered criticism from many on social media, including lawyers and journalists.
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