The body of Institute of Business Administration (IBA) graduate and businessman Mir Raza Ali was exhumed on Saturday, his father’s lawyer said after the Sindh government restored the original medical board.
The exhumation had been scheduled for Friday morning but was postponed after Raza’s family objected to the abrupt reconstitution of a medical board and inclusion of members from outside Karachi division.
“The investigation officer was present when the body was exhumed and the examination was carried out. All eight people of the medical team were present; the parents were also nearby. And most importantly, a judicial magistrate … was present,” Advocate Jibran Nasir told the media in Karachi on Saturday.
The lawyer contended that “incomplete CCTV footage and out-of-context messages” have been used to ignite rumours and reach hasty conclusions since the killing.
The body of 25-year-old Ali was found in bushes in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar last month, a day after he went missing on July 28. While his family is convinced that he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered, investigators probing the incident continue to build their case around the possibility that he died by suicide.
Commenting on the medical board controversy, Nasir expressed the concern that the state did not give a reason for why the medical board was changed overnight.
The lawyer said the victim’s family did not need “character certificates” for the doctors on the medical board.
He further said he was surprised to know that the police had shared audio evidence with the media before revealing it to the parents of the victim, who found out about it from TV reports.
Medical board controversy
The exhumation, which was scheduled for Friday morning, was postponed after the deceased’s family objected to the abrupt reconstitution of the medical board and inclusion of members from outside Karachi division.
On Thursday, a judicial magistrate had allowed the exhumation of the body on an application filed by Raza’s father, Mir Hussain Ali, 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 Summaiya Syed as the convener. Prof Dr Naseem Ahmed of Dow University of Health Sciences, Dr Farah Waseem of Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Amir Hassan Khan of Citizens Police Liaison Committee, Additional Police Surgeon Dr Sirichand, Dr Kamran Khan and Dr Daniyal Mirza of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Dr Mohammed Yaseen, the admin in-charge of the police surgeon office, were the other members of the board.
However, in the small hours of Friday morning, 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 to Prof Dr Zakiuddin from DUHS, Prof Dr Kazi Akbar and Prof Dr Abid Hussain Chang from Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences and Hyderabad Police Surgeon Dr Waseem Khan.
On Friday morning, Raza’s family was present at the Tariq Road graveyard for the exhumation. Standing alongside Raza’s father, Nasir had accused the authorities of trying to bury the facts and held the police, health department and the Sindh government responsible for the delay.
More to follow
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