Pakistan, June 6 -- The Supreme Court's Thursday dismissal of Zahir Jaffer's review plea marks a rare moment of legal closure in a case that has haunted Pakistan's conscience since the blood-curdling murder of Noor Mukadam in 2021. The court maintained its earlier verdict upholding the death sentence first handed down by an Islamabad sessions court in February 2022. The appellate court had then noted that the murderer must pay for the crime with his life.

The brutality of the crime (Noor was tortured, raped, murdered and finally beheaded in the two days she was held hostage at Jaffer's residence), which shook the country out of its reverie to take note of the "gender terrorism epidemic," made this case particularly exceptional. It moved ...