Mir Raza murder case: Judicial commission turns down MLO's request to record further statement

KARACHI: A judicial commission formed to investigate the circumstances and possible negligence in the Mir Raza Ali murder case declined on Monday a request by Dr Osama Shaikh — the medico-legal officer who conducted the slain businessman’s first autopsy — to record a further statement. Sindh High Court’s Justice Omar Sial, who heads the one-member commission, observed that Osama had “appeared on social media” and said that he had “more to tell the commission than what he told it earlier”, according to the order released after the latest hearing. “Upon a query as to whether he wanted to say that the death of Mir Raza was a suicide and not a murder, he said that is not what he wanted to say. He clarified that it was not a suicide. He wanted to justify his finding that the bullet came from the front,” the order, a copy of which is available with Dawn , said.

There has been a controversy over Ali’s autopsy in the case, with Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Summaiyya Syed pointing out flaws in the first postmortem findings. Following that, Ali’s body was exhumed and a second post-mortem was conducted. Its findings concluded that the 25-year-old was shot in the back and ruled out the possibility of a suicide. Dr Syed also told the commission at a previous hearing that she faced “threats” after disputing the findings of the first postmortem. In his order on Monday, Justice Sial stated, “I also sense from the questions I asked of him (Osama) that his sole purpose in recording a further statement is to throw mud at the police surgeon and the worthy chief minister. I will not allow either. The commission is not a forum for mud-slinging. ” The order added that the terms of reference of the commission required it determine the true facts and circumstances of the case and to attribute…