The planned exhumation of Mir Raza Ali’s body was postponed on Friday after his family stopped the administration from proceeding, objecting to the composition of the medical board appointed to oversee it (Geo News).
A judicial magistrate approved the exhumation on Thursday, directing the Sindh health secretary and the police surgeon to constitute a board for a fresh medico-legal examination. Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Sumaiyya Syed formed an eight-member panel of forensic and pathology experts and confirmed the grave would be opened at 9am on Friday, with samples taken and the body reburied immediately afterwards.
Overnight, the panel was replaced. An official notification cut the board from eight members to five, retaining Dr Syed as convener and changing everyone else (Geo News). The new panel comprised Prof Dr Zakiuddin, head of forensic medicine at Dow University of Health Sciences; Prof Dr Qazi Akbar of Liaquat University, Jamshoro; Dr Abid Hussain Chang as pathologist; and Hyderabad Police Surgeon Dr Waseem.
The family’s lawyer Jibran Nasir said a third notification was then issued merging the first and second boards into a further panel, which the family also does not accept. He said the judicial magistrate had been informed that the new board was unacceptable and that the family continued to place its confidence in the doctors named in the original notification.
Nasir alleged political interference, questioning why the members of the original eight-member board had been removed and why specialists from other cities had been brought in while Karachi doctors were taken off. In an emergency notice to the police surgeon and the Sindh health secretary, he argued that only the relevant divisional police surgeon had the authority to constitute a board for an exhumation, and alleged that the Hyderabad director general of health had constituted the replacement panel on the night of August 6 — a move he said was contrary to the court’s orders and amounted to interference in the police surgeon’s authority.
He said the repeated notifications had caused delay, and that those behind the changes “had not fully succeeded but had managed to delay the proceedings”.
Ali’s father, Mir Hussain, said the overnight changes reinforced the family’s belief that influential people were involved in his son’s killing. He said injuries were visible on his son’s head during the last washing before burial and that skin was missing from both palms.
Nasir also raised questions about the CCTV evidence, saying different clips were being shown selectively — footage showed a person collecting rubbish and a motorcycle passing the spot where the body was found, and everyone who passed through the location should be examined. He said that even if a message attributed to the deceased were accepted, it contained no mention of suicide.
He confirmed that Ali’s parents have now recorded their statements before the investigating officer.
Ali, an IBA graduate, left home on the night of July 28 telling his family he would return within ten minutes. His body was found in bushes in Block 1 of Gulistan-e-Jauhar. Investigative sources have said an initial assessment found a gunshot wound to the chest, and the preliminary post-mortem report estimated the body to be 24 to 36 hours old at examination. The fresh examination was ordered after the father’s counsel told the court that no X-ray had been conducted and that the cause of death had not been properly established. The prosecution did not oppose the request.
None of the family’s allegations has been tested, no determination of the manner of death has been published, and no arrests have been reported.
