Mir Raza case: Commission rejects MLO’s request

A judicial commission investigating the death of businessman Mir Raza Ali has rejected a request by medico-legal officer Dr Osama Sheikh to record an additional statement.

The one-member commission is headed by Sindh High Court Justice Omar Sial. It is examining the circumstances surrounding Ali’s death and allegations of negligence during the investigation.

During Monday’s hearing, Justice Sial said Dr Sheikh had recently appeared on social media and indicated that he had more information to share with the commission.

The doctor was asked whether he wanted to suggest that Ali had died by suicide rather than being murdered. Sheikh denied this and clarified that he continued to believe the death was not a suicide.

He instead wanted to defend his earlier finding that the bullet had entered from the front.

The case has remained controversial because of differences between the first and second postmortem reports. Ali, a 25-year-old businessman, was found dead in bushes in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar on July 29.

The first autopsy was conducted by Dr Sheikh. However, Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Summaiyya Syed later raised objections to several findings in the report.

Ali’s body was subsequently exhumed for a second postmortem. The second examination concluded that he had been shot from the back and ruled out suicide.

Dr Syed also told the commission during an earlier hearing that she had received threats after challenging the findings of the initial autopsy.

In its latest order, the commission said it would not allow the proceedings to become a platform for personal accusations against police officials or government representatives.

Justice Sial said the commission’s responsibility was to establish the facts surrounding Ali’s death and determine whether negligence had occurred. He said the commission already had sufficient information to carry out that task and therefore rejected Sheikh’s request for another statement.

During his previous appearance on September 1, Sheikh maintained that he had conducted the initial postmortem without pressure or outside influence. He also said his report did not state that Ali had died by suicide.

The commission had expressed dissatisfaction with some of his responses and questioned differences between the initial and final reports. It also asked whether Sheikh himself had performed the autopsy or whether a sweeper had carried it out.

Sheikh insisted that he had conducted the procedure. He explained that the final report was issued after the exhumation and second autopsy, which followed 14 objections raised by the police surgeon.

He further said he had refused to provide information during a meeting at the chief minister’s residence on August 9 because the relevant documents were not available. A second investigation team later recorded his statement on August 17.

The investigation team handling the case was subsequently changed after objections from Ali’s family.