KARACHI(National Times)- The exhumation of 25-year-old businessman and Institute of Business Administration graduate Mir Raza Ali’s body was postponed on Friday after his family objected to the abrupt reconstitution of the medico-legal board.
Ali’s body 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.
His family was present at the cemetery adjacent to Tariq Road’s Rehmania Masjid for the exhumation on Friday. But, the exhumation was deferred, with the counsel for Ali’s family, Jibran Nasir, telling the media that they had informed the investigating officer that the family had rejected the reconstituted board and would not accept an exhumation by it “under any circumstances”.
Standing alongside Ali’s father, Mir Hussain Ali Khan, Nasir accused the authorities of trying to bury the facts and held the police, health ministry and the Sindh government responsible for the delay.
The family could not allow the examination to be performed by members whose “qualifications and intentions were under question”, he added.
He recalled that the previous night, Hyderabad health director general dismissed the original board and reconstituted it, adding four names from Hyderabad.
Nasir claimed that following outcry over the reconstituted board, the DG health then issued a backdated notification at around 10am on Friday. “He says more members may be added [to the board], but the four chosen by him should also remain a part of it,” Nasir alleged.
He added that they still had not been informed why the original board was reconstituted.
Moreover, he continued, now there was another notification that authorised the Hyderabad health director general to form the medico-legal board, a power that previously rested with the Sindh health secretary.
The authorities “needed to be given a lesson on law” as under the Sindh Medicolegal Act 2023, only a police surgeon had the complete authority in matters of exhumation, he said, adding that the act was a special law that prevailed over general laws.
The lawyer said they would not be making any demands to the police. Ali’s father was now directly raising questions to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, he said.
“We will also not turn to the Sindh inspector general of police (IG). What do you ask an IG who claims that the investigation has been completed even before the exhumation and medical examination?”
He reasserted that they only trusted the original eight-member board, adding, “Sindh government, they were hired by you. And if they are not competent enough, then how were they appointed in the first place?”
Nasir alleged that police were presenting the CCTV evidence “selectively” and demanded that all facts of the case be brought to light.
He said CCTV footage shared showed a motorcycle and a trash picker passing by the body. But then, why did it not show the moment when Ali walked up to the place where his body was found, if he died by suicide, Nasir questioned.
“Where did that footage go?”
He added, “Why is it that people at the nearby guesthouse panicked and ran to a nearby property when Ali’s father inquired about him? […] And why were they not tracked?”
Nasir further accused police of not letting Ali’s father see the complete CCTV footage.
Concluding his talk, he said, “If not today, then maybe we will get the exhumation done tomorrow. We will try our best that the originally nominated doctors perform the examination, and I am sure the facts that they are going to such great lengths to bury will surface.”
Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, the family’s counsel said that the Sindh Medicolegal Act 2023 required that if a magistrate issues an order for exhumation, the authority to form a board rested with the division’s police surgeon.
“I believe I am standing in Karachi division where the police surgeon is Dr Summaiya Syed […] who would constitute the board and add forensic experts from the nearest possible public sector university,” Nasir said, questioning whether Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences was closer to Karachi than Dow Medical College or the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).
Nasir alleged that the “illegal and dubious” board had no authority to examine the body. “We cannot allow them to disrespect the deceased and destroy evidence.”
He also asked how a fresh notification was issued when the previous one had not yet been withdrawn, alleging that a third party and a “stranger” to the proceedings had intervened.
“We will not accept any Plan C either,” he said, referring to the suggestion to merge the two boards.
Earlier, he had also alleged on X that the Sindh government had “maliciously” changed the members of the board without any explanation.
“The family expresses no consent for this new board and will not allow it to exhumate the body tomorrow morning and corrupt whatever evidence remains and it will be formally communicated to authorities,” he said, adding that the fresh notification would be challenged at the appropriate forum.
