Mir Raza Ali murder case: Judicial commission issues notices to parties for Friday

KARACHI: The judicial commission formed to investigate the murder of Mir Raza Ali issued notices to the parties for Friday, the commission’s spokesperson said on Thursday.

Ali, a 25-year-old Karachi-based businessman, was found dead with a gunshot wound in Gulistan-i-Jauhar last month, a day after he was reported missing. The provincial government decided on Sunday to form a judicial commission for a review of the probe into the case, despite objections from the victim’s family.

The head of the commission, Justice Omar Sial, issued notices to the parties for tomorrow (Friday), according to the commission’s spokesperson.

Notices have been issued to the family of the slain business owner and the focal person of the Sindh government, as well as to the family’s lawyer, Advocate Jibran Nasir.

Ali had gone missing from his home in PECHS, Block-2, on July 28, and his body — bearing gunshot wounds — was found in bushes in a hilly area opposite the University of Karachi in Gulistan-i-Jauhar the next day. Ferozabad police registered a case on the complaint of the victim’s father, Mir Husain Ali, under sections 365, 302 and 201 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The Sindh government said on Sunday it would ask the chief justice of the provincial high court to establish a judicial commission to determine whether the investigation in the case was being conducted impartially and in accordance with the law.

However, soon after the announcement, the family filed a petition in the Sindh High Court (SHC) through Advocate Nasir, requesting it to set aside the decision to form the commission and constitute a joint investigation team (JIT) instead.

The petition, a copy of which is available with Dawn, named 19 respondents, including the Sindh government, Sindh Home Department, the provincial inspector general of police, Karachi’s additional inspector general of police, the Federation of Pakistan and the defence ministry.

The petitioners requested the court to set aside the Sindh government’s decision to form a judicial commission, including “any subsequent proceedings arising from it”.

Instead, they sought the court’s directives for the formation of an “independent, impartial and multi-agency JIT, including members from Sindh police, Rangers, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and military intelligence, with a senior officer of unimpeachable integrity who has had no previous involvement” in the case appointed as its head.

The plea contended that the head must conduct a “fresh and comprehensive investigation into the abduction, torture and murder” of Ali.

The case

Ali, a 25-year-old businessman and a graduate of the Institute of Business Administration, was found dead with a gunshot wound on July 29 in bushes in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar a day after he was reported missing.

While his family was convinced that he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered, police were initially building the case around the possibility that he died by suicide.

A murder charge was eventually added to the first information report (FIR) after the exhumation and a second post-mortem of Ali’s body revealed that he had suffered multiple injuries and was shot in the back, ruling out the possibility of suicide.

The second autopsy was conducted after a controversy between the Karachi police surgeon and investigators over alleged loopholes in the medico-legal report regarding Ali’s first post-mortem examination.

On August 6, a judicial magistrate had allowed the exhumation of the body on an application filed by Ali’s father, directing the police surgeon and the Sindh health secretary to constitute a medical board for the exhumation.

The Sindh health department then constituted an eight-member board, with police surgeon Dr Sumaiyya Syed as the convener. However, in the early hours of August 7, the board was reconstituted through an order issued by the director general of the Sindh health department.

While Dr Syed remained the convener of the new five-member board, its members were changed.

However, Ali’s family rejected the new board, which also resulted in the deferment of the planned exhumation on Friday. Meanwhile, Advocate Nasir accused the authorities of trying to bury the facts.

The Sindh government then restored the original medical board, following which Ali’s body was exhumed on August 8.

A day later, the Sindh inspector general of police’s (IG) office notified the reconstitution of the investigating team probing Ali’s death. Meanwhile, Karachi’s Additional IG Azad Khan transferred the investigation into Ali’s murder to Zaman Town police station from Ferozabad Police Station, where the case was registered.

The same day, the Sindh government decided to seek a judicial commission for the case’s investigation, only to defer the plan a day later after Ali’s family said they had made no such demand and had faith in the new investigation team.

On Aug 19, Ali’s parents, Mir Hussain and Mariam Hussain, wrote to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, seeking his “direct supervision of the murder investigation” into the slain business owner’s death.

They also urged the chief minister to order an investigation and departmental inquiry into the previous investigation team and immediately suspend the officers involved.

On Sunday, the provincial government acknowledged the letter and announced its decision to form a judicial commission to determine whether the investigation in the case was being conducted impartially and in accordance with the law.

However, soon after the announcement, the counsel for Ali’s family raised objections and said they would approach the SHC in the matter.

The family’s counsel held that the family was not informed of the commission, its terms of reference were not disclosed and that the police were yet to submit an investigation report before the magistrate.