By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: The Sindh government has extended the term of a judicial commission investigating the death of Mir Raza Ali, a 25-year-old Karachi entrepreneur whose killing police initially treated as a possible suicide.
The provincial cabinet, chaired by chief minister Murad Ali Shah, approved the extension till October 15 on Thursday. It also allowed the commission’s head, Justice Omar Sial, to continue the proceedings if more time was required. A statement from the chief minister’s office said the cabinet had decided he “may continue the inquiry if more time is required”.
The one-member commission had adjourned its hearings after its 30-day mandate lapsed at the weekend. Its written order said that if the cabinet refused an extension, no further witnesses would be summoned and a report would be prepared “shortly thereafter” from the statements already recorded. If the term was extended, fresh notices would go out to witnesses. Javed Ahmed Abro, the provincial government’s focal person, told the commission that the chief minister had approved a summary seeking more time and passed it to the cabinet.
The cabinet was briefed that the commission had held extensive proceedings and recorded statements from dozens of witnesses. It needed more time, the meeting was told, to finish its inquiry and compile its findings and recommendations.
The commission is due to resume on Friday. Its registrar, Abdul Majid, has summoned Siraj Lashari, the investigating officer on the case, and Kashif Iftikhar, an official of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, for Monday 5 October. Both appeared earlier, but their statements were not recorded because the commission’s term had expired.
Ali, who owned the dessert brand Wafflix, went missing from Karachi’s PECHS area on 28 July. His body was found the next day in bushes near a wedding hall in Gulistan-e-Johar. Police initially pursued the possibility of suicide, and the family accused officers of trying to bury the facts.
A second post-mortem, carried out after his body was exhumed on 8 August, found a firearm entry wound, multiple ante-mortem injuries and signs of internal bleeding. Its final report said death was caused by “cardiac rupture consequent to perforating firearm injury of the chest”, with the entry wound in the back. “The findings are inconsistent with suicide as the manner of death,” it said.
The first post-mortem had drawn sharp objections. Karachi’s police surgeon, Dr Summaiya Syed, identified 14 deficiencies, including the absence of an X-ray, a failure to collect hand swabs for gunshot residue and no chemical examination of gunpowder marks around the wound.
The commission was notified by the Sindh Home Department on 24 August. Its terms of reference require it to examine the facts and circumstances surrounding Ali’s death and decide whether the investigation is being conducted impartially and in accordance with the law. It must also establish whether any police officer, medico-legal officer or other official was guilty of negligence, dereliction of duty, professional misconduct, suppression or manipulation of evidence, or a cover-up. It may recommend further investigation, forensic analysis or legal or departmental action, and it can compel witnesses to attend and testify on oath.
Among those who have given evidence are Ali’s business partner, Muhammad Ahmed Bhardey; Adeel Afzal, the station house officer at Ferozabad police station, where the case was first registered; the first investigating officer, Inspector Shabbir Ahmed Laghari; the director general of health services, Dr Pervez Ahmed Shaikh; and a cab driver. The medico-legal officer who carried out the first autopsy, Dr Osama Sheikh, has also been heard. Justice Sial has said his “motives and intentions appear tainted” and that his conduct “attempted to damage the honour of this commission”. Dr Syed, who disputed the first findings, has said she faced “threats” and accused Dr Sheikh of instigating a “malicious campaign” against her.
Recent hearings have been critical of the police. The commission reportedly noted that the first investigating team obtained footage from only one of 52 cameras, and that bushes at the crime scene were burned. It said it was not satisfied with the handling of the matter by SSP Samiullah Soomro, though it credited him for acknowledging shortcomings and answering questions directly. It also expressed displeasure with the health secretary and the director general of health, observing that they had unlawfully interfered in forming the medical board.
Last week the commission rejected a request from Ali’s family to summon Additional Inspector General Azad Khan and deputy inspectors general Amir Farooqi and Farrukh Lanjar in person. It said it had made clear on 17 September that senior officers would not be called, and that reversing its orders without reason would undermine public confidence. The family was told to submit written questions, which the commission would forward if it found them relevant. Three senior officers are to receive questionnaires.
The family has been at odds with the authorities for much of the past two months. A Karachi court allowed the exhumation on 6 August, but the health department’s medical board was reconstituted within hours, and the family rejected the new panel. The government later restored the original board. On 9 August the police chief’s office reconstituted the investigating team and moved the case to Zaman Town police station, with a murder charge added to the first information report.
Ali’s parents, Mir Hussain and Mariam Hussain, wrote to the chief minister on 19 August asking for “direct supervision of the murder investigation” and for the earlier investigators to be suspended. The government announced the commission four days later. The family’s lawyers went to the Sindh High Court seeking an independent, multi-agency joint investigation team instead. The court dismissed the petition on 2 September, saying forming such a body was the “prerogative of the government”.
The family’s lawyer, Jibran Nasir, had said the decision on extending the commission’s mandate should have been taken sooner so the panel had enough time. On 25 September he alleged that police had failed to investigate properly and were instead trying to establish the death as a suicide.
Police told a Senate committee in September that they had recorded statements from 78 people but had found no evidence linking anyone to the killing. Investigators say they are still treating the case as murder and reviewing medical, chemical, forensic and digital evidence.
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