In July 2021, the 27-year-old victim was found murdered at Zahir’s Islamabad residence. In 2023, his death sentence by the trial court upheld by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

In May, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence handed by two courts previously over the murder charges under Section 302B (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). After the ruling by the apex court, a presidential pardon under Article 45 of the Constitution could possibly provide Zahir pardon, or reprieve, or remit, suspend or commute his sentence.

The convict requires an opinion from a medical or psychiatric board before submitting a presidential mercy petition, according to the letters addressed to the hospital director at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) from the superintendent at Adiala Jail, according to a media report.

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One of the letters reads, “The appeal of above mentioned Confirmed Condemned Prisoner (Zahir) was pending at [the] Supreme Court of Pakistan and the same has been dismissed.”

It requests that a time and date be chosen for the medical and psychiatric boards to come to Adiala and examine Zahir.

Now the mercy petition of [the] subject cited Confirmed Condemned Prisoner has to be submitted before the Honourable President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. For that, the medical board and psychiatric board opinion is mandatory.