• Heirs want JIT on ‘investigative failures’ and proceedings against police officials
• SHC chief justice appoints Justice Omar Sial as head of judicial commission
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday put the federal, provincial and police authorities on notice on a petition challenging the formation of a judicial commission to probe the Mir Raza Ali murder case.
A two-judge constitutional bench headed by Justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon also issued notices to the advocate general (AG) and prosecutor general (PG) Sindh for Aug 31.
The petitioners have further sought the constitution of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the case and criminal investigation as well as departmental proceedings against various senior police officials who were part of a previous investigation team in the case.
Citing the Sindh chief secretary, home department, ministries of interior & defence, IG Sindh, Karachi police chief, police surgeon and eight police officers, who are part of the investigation team, as respondents, parents of the victim, Mir Hussain Ali Khan and Mariam Hussain, along with their daughter Alishba Khan, have petitioned the SHC.
Representing the petitioners, Advocate Jibran Nasir argued that the victim’s family had approached the court after a series of extraordinary “investigative failures, loss and compromise of material evidence, alleged manipulation of the crime scene and premature propagation of a suicide theory which was subsequently contradicted by medico-legal evidence.
He also asserted that such deficiencies were institutional and multi-layered, as the investigators had yet to trace the perpetrators and there was mala fide on the part of the police department itself.
The counsel further contended that the petitioners were not opposing judicial scrutiny of institutional failures, as the petition also sought a judicial review of the failures of the executive and police in the case.
However, he maintained that the objection was to the use of a judicial commission as an apparent substitute for a criminal investigative mechanism, as an immediate legal requirement in an unsolved homicide was an effective investigation capable of identifying accused persons, collecting admissible evidence and culminating in an investigation report as required under Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
He argued that the judicial commission was neither empowered to conduct a criminal investigation nor submit a charge sheet and could not be presented as an alternative to an already available effective mechanism such as a JIT.
The lawyer also asserted that the formation of a judicial commission without disclosing the terms of reference (TORs) seemed like an attempt to scapegoat the judiciary by burdening it with the failures of the previous and instant investigation team while also forcing upon it the responsibility to solve the case.
The petitioners pleaded to overturn the Aug 22 impugned decision of the provincial government for the constitution of the judicial commission and any subsequent proceedings arising from it. They also sought directives for respondents to form a JIT comprising representatives from the police, Rangers, Federal Investigation Agency, Intelligence Bureau, Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence to investigate the case and probe the possibility of extortion, ransom, organised criminal activity, business/financial dispute or any other motive.
The petitioners further pleaded that the directives for respondents to form a JIT comprising representatives from the police, Rangers, Federal Investigation Agency, Intelligence Bureau, Inter-Services Intelligence and Military Intelligence to investigate the case and probe the possibility of extortion, ransom, organised criminal activity, business/financial dispute or any other motive.
The petitioners further pleaded that the JIT may also probe the conduct of DIG (East) Farrukh Ali Lanjar, SSP CIA Samiullah Soomro, SSP (East) Zubair Nazir Shaikh, SP Usman Sadozai, the SHOs of Ferozabad as well as Gulistan-i-Jauhar and other police officers.
They sought orders for provincial authorities to conduct a departmental inquiry and criminal investigation against these police officials and to remove them from their current posting during the criminal investigation of the subject case.
The petitioners also asked the court to restrain the police from filing the final investigation report/charge sheet in the court during the pendency of the petition as well as to restrain the judicial magistrate concerned from treating the investigation report as a final charge sheet.
After a preliminary hearing in the chambers, the bench issued notices to the respondents as well as the AG and PG Sindh for Aug 31, with directions to file comments.
The written order is likely to be issued on Tuesday. However, after the hearing, the counsel for the petitioners asserted that the court has also restrained the police from filing the final charge sheet.
Meanwhile, the recently-appointed investigating officer, DSP Siraj Lashari, on Monday turned up before a judicial magistrate (East) and sought more time to file the investigation report as he submitted that the investigation was still underway.
A sessions court (East) on Monday also extended the interim pre-arrest bail of a man, said to be the business partner of deceased Raza, till Sept 1.
Muhammad Ahmed Bhardey, along with his lawyer, had approached an additional district and sessions judge (East) seeking pre-arrest bail in the alleged murder case and on Aug 13, the court had granted interim bail against a surety of Rs100,000.
SHC CJ nominates Justice Sial to head judicial commission
Chief Justice of the SHC Zafar Ahmed Rajput, on the request of provincial authorities, on Monday nominated Justice Omar Sial of the SHC to head the judicial commission.
The commission would examine the facts and circumstances leading to, and surrounding the death of Raza and determine whether the investigation was being conducted impartially and in accordance with the law and identify any investigative angle or evidence requiring further investigation.
On Aug 22, the home department secretary had made a request to the registrar of the SHC for nomination of a high court judge to head the commission.
According to official correspondence from the registrar of the SHC to the home department secretary on Monday, in view of the constitution of the commission by the government of Sindh under Section 3(1) of the Sindh Tribunal of Inquiry Ordinance, 1969 and the settlement of its TORs, the chief justice had nominated Justice Sial to preside over the judicial commission.
Justice Sial, who currently stands at number six in the seniority list of SHC judges, was elevated to the high court in November 2016.
Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2026
