ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has condemned Israel’s deliberate targeting of hospitals in Gaza and described its announcement of taking control of the entire territory as a “grave threat” to regional peace, the Pakistani Foreign Office said on Tuesday.

Israeli airstrikes last week hit Gaza’s European and Nasser hospitals, causing casualties and crippling medical services. Days later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel would take full control of the Gaza Strip.

Israel began pounding Gaza after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking over 200 others as hostages. In response, Israel’s military campaign has so far killed around 53,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly all of Gaza’s two million residents.

“The expansion of Israeli ground operations in Gaza as well as its announcement to ‘take control of all’ of Gaza poses a grave threat to efforts aimed toward achieving peace and stability in the region,” Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said. 

“Pakistan condemns in the strongest possible terms the continued Israeli aggression in Gaza as well as deliberate targeting of hospitals and other critical infrastructure along with mass evacuation orders.”

The statement said Israel continued to obstruct humanitarian aid from reaching millions, amounting to an “imposition of collective punishment” on the Palestinian people.

It highlighted UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ statement in which he voiced alarm over the situation in Gaza, where one in every five people faces starvation and the rest of the population is at risk of famine.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office urged the world to call for an immediate end to Israeli atrocities and take steps for the provision of humanitarian supplies to Palestinians.

“Furthermore, Pakistan reiterates its unequivocal opposition to any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their ancestral lands, expand illegal Israeli settlements or to annex any part of the territory,” it said.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday upheld the death penalty of Zahir Zakir Jaffer, a Pakistani-American, who was convicted of murdering 27-year-old Noor Mukadam, daughter of a former diplomat, a lawyer of Mukadam’s father said.

Jaffer, son of a wealthy industrialist, was sentenced to death in 2022 for the brutal killing of Mukadam, whose beheaded body was found in July 2021 at a residence in Islamabad’s upscale F-7/4 sector.

Last year, the Islamabad High Court upheld Jaffer’s death sentence, originally handed down by a sessions court. Subsequently, he filed an appeal in the Supreme Court in April 2023, seeking to overturn the punishment.

On Tuesday, Justice Hashim Kakar upheld the death penalty in the case that sparked nationwide outrage and became one of Pakistan’s most widely followed trials involving violence against women.

“We are quite satisfied with the Supreme Court’s decision as his death sentence in the murder case remained intact. It is a sense of relief for Noor’s parents, relatives, and civil society,” Shah Khawar, who represented Mukadam’s father, told Arab News.

“It was a very important case, as it involved the brutal murder of a young girl who was killed in an extremely violent manner. The family of the accused was financially very strong, so people believed they would be able to influence the court— but that was proven wrong today.”

Khawar said the trial court had given the accused a death sentence for murder, 25-year imprisonment for rape, and 10-year imprisonment for abduction.

“When we appealed the decision in the High Court, his 25-year imprisonment for the rape case was also converted to a death sentence. The High Court also upheld his death sentence for murder,” he said.

“In today’s decision, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for murder, commuted the death sentence for rape to 25 years of imprisonment, and acquitted him in the abduction case. Two of his servants, who had each been sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, were released with the order that the time they had already served would count as their sentence.”

‘Justice for Noor,’ an advocacy page on Instagram run by Mukadam’s friends, hailed Tuesday’s verdict and said it was a “powerful reminder” that women’s lives matter.

“This is not just for Noor. This is for every woman in Pakistan,” it said.

Khawar, who represented Mukadam’s father Shaukat Mukadam, said the convict now has “very limited” legal options left.

“One is to file a review petition, which will be heard by the same bench, offering very limited scope for any relief,” he said.

“The final step would be to file a mercy appeal before the President of Pakistan under Article 45. If they choose to pursue this option, the sentence will remain suspended until the mercy petition is decided.”