After withdrawing its two earlier notifications, the Sindh government on Friday notified a newly constituted eight-member medical board to carry out the exhumation of 25-year-old business owner Mir Ali Raza’s body on Saturday.

The exhumation, which was originally scheduled for Friday, was deferred after the deceased’s family objected to the abrupt reconstitution of the medical board, just hours after the notification of the first one.

A notification issued by the Sindh Health Department on Friday named police surgeon Dr Sumaiyya Syed as the convener of the board and Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) Pathology Department head Professor Dr Naseem Ahmed as the pathologist.

The eight-member board also includes Jinnah Sindh Medical University’s (JSMU) Dr Farah Waseem as a forensic expert, Shanakht Project’s Amir Hassan Khan as a forensic identification expert, Additional Police Surgeon Dr Srichand, Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) medicolegal officers Dr Kamran Khan and Dr Daniyal Mirza, and Office of Police Surgeon Administrative In-charge Dr Muhammad.

According to the notification, the board may also co-opt any expert member if required.

Moreover, a notification issued by the Office of the Police Surgeon said that the exhumation of Ali’s body would be carried out on Saturday, August 8, at 11am. A civil judge and judicial magistrate Karachi-XXI would also be present, according to the police surgeon’s office.

Reconstitution of board

On Thursday, a Karachi court allowed the exhumation of Ali’s body on an application filed by the victim’s father, directing the police surgeon and the Sindh health secretary to constitute a medico-legal board for the exhumation of Ali’s body “at the earliest possible date and time”.

The court ruling came after a controversy emerged between the Karachi police surgeon and investigators over alleged loopholes in the medico-legal report regarding the post-mortem examination.

The Sindh Health Department then constituted the eight-member board, with the police surgeon as the convener. Dr Ahmed of Dow DUHS, Dr Waseem of JSMU, Amir Khan of Citizens Police Liaison Committee, Dr Sirichand, Dr Kamran and Dr Daniyal of JPCM and Dr Yaseen, the admin in-charge of the police surgeon’s office, were the other members of the board.

However, a new order had been issued by the Sindh Health Directorate. The notification said that the board had been reconstituted to conduct the exhumation and medico-legal examination of the deceased.

While Dr Syed remained the convener of the new 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.

Controversy over autopsy

Raza, owner of eatery Wafflix, had gone missing on July 28. The 25-year-old’s body was found a day later with a gunshot wound in bushes near Shahi Qila Ground in Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

Initially, on the complaint lodged by his father, a case was registered at the Ferozabad police station under Section 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Police maintain that the investigation has revealed that Ali had been facing financial difficulties and had asked his friends for money the night he died.

According to police, he had left his home in PECHS Block-2 and hired a taxi through an app. The taxi driver dropped him a short distance from the spot where his body was found, police said.

The case took a new turn when Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed told a private news channel on Tuesday that the postmortem findings of Ali’s body had raised several questions, as some observations in the report did not appear to match the available photographs.

She said the reported entry wound, bullet trajectory and exit wound did not correspond with one another. While it was scientifically possible for a bullet to enter through the back and exit from the front, she stressed that her assessment was based only on the postmortem report and photographs, as she had not examined the body herself.

The police surgeon noted that entry wounds were typically smaller than exit wounds in firearm cases. She also said that gunshot residue, commonly found on the hands in suspected suicides, was not tested for in this case.

Her interview prompted the police authorities to issue a statement, terming such observations as having the potential to adversely affect the ongoing investigation.

The statement, however, said that exhumation of the dead body could be done on the medical board’s recommendation for further clarification by a committee of medico-legal experts with the court’s permission.