Fear of the dark

On 21^st July 2021, Noor Mukadam, daughter of a former diplomat Shaukat Mukadam, was found murdered by way of decapitation in Islamabad. The primary accused in the case, Zahir Jaffer, is now facing trial before the Islamabad district court upon charges of murder.

Being a practising lawyer, I am aware of the fact that the matter is sub judice and as a result, I will refrain from commenting upon the merits of the case and from implying guilt of the accused. However, what should be ruminated upon is the mental state of the primary accused and the entire dynamic of the unfortunate situation.

All around the world grisly crimes are committed every now and then. Beheadings, sacrificial killings, cult slayings and similar acts of violence are carried out which make people question their most profound beliefs. But a handful of countries, through the aid of criminal research techniques, have attempted to understand these inhumane and violent behaviours. Ranging from techniques like criminal profiling and investigative psychology, the aim of security agencies and bureaus is to understand the criminal mind in order to curb similar events from reoccurring in the future.

In the present case Noor Mukadam case, the public’s demand regarding hanging the primary accused is ubiquitous. Inasmuch, various factions have gone as far as contending that the trial be wrapped up without any cross-examinations, labelling the entire due process as ‘a waste of time’ and a mere formality.

Now, I respect the public sentiment, considering the horrific and barbaric way Noor’s body was found. But, is the only solution to hang those who murder or is there more? Zahir Jaffer, the primary accused, either seems to be playing smart by acting delirious or he might be actually deranged. Whichever the case, I think he has more to offer. Notorious convicts like Charlie Manson, Edmund Kemper or Richard Ramirez, all guys had one thing in common. Abusive childhoods. They killed not because they wanted to, but because they needed to. What makes a man take another person’s life? Is it nature or nurture? What makes killers, kill? Can such people be rehabilitated?

All these questions can only be answered by those who commit these heinous acts. In our case, Zahir Jaffer seems to be that subject who may be capable of answering these questions (assuming he did what he is accused of doing). It should be understood that by no stretch of imagination am I condoning his actions. He needs to be treated as a subject of a study. He needs to be questioned about his life, his morals and his upbringing. It’s easy to hang someone, but we need more. We need to study people like him to further understand how subjects like him function. Profiling individuals like Zahir Jaffer will assist the Pakistani criminal system into developing a somewhat finger print towards curbing killings like these. Murderers like Ed Kemper, Ted Bundy and Jeffery Dahmer were gruesome killers but they also possessed unusually high IQs. Kemper, possessing an IQ of 145, categorically explained how he managed to evade capture for so long. Maybe our delinquents can teach us things too?

Zahir Jaffer seems to be that delinquent. He might not teach us anything extraordinary but in order to improve our criminal system, we need the criminals to tell us what we’re doing wrong. He needs to be sat down and spoken to. Killing someone will result in nothing more than redemption. What we need is to learn from these outlaws, to identify patterns in their behaviour so that similar behaviours can be identified by authorities and parents at their inception. Prevention is what will help us improve.

The Pakistani criminal system requires ideas like criminal profiling, rehabilitation, investigative psychology and extensive study of criminology in order to understand the reasons behind crime and the motives of criminals. We had Javed Iqbal to learn from but we let our emotions dictate us instead. Let us learn from Zahir now. We don’t want more Noor Mukadams neither do we want more killers.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2022.

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