KARACHI: A medico-legal officer (MLO) who conducted Mir Raza Ali’s initial autopsy informed a judicial commission on Tuesday that he was not under any influence or pressure while carrying out the post-mortem examination and had nowhere stated in his report that the victim had died by suicide.

The MLO, Dr Osama Sheikh, appeared before the commission head, Justice Omar Sial of the Sindh High Court, and recorded his statement.

Responding to a question of the commission, the MLO testified that he had so far conducted around 100 autopsies and added that a sweeper used to be present during such procedure.

Justice Sial asked him as to why burn marks on hands and other body parts of the deceased as well as fractures were not mentioned in his report.

Dr Sheikh replied that there was no burn mark, as the change in the skin’s colour was due to decomposition and that he had also not found any visible fracture.

The commission expressed resentment towards the MLO for failing to provide satisfactory answers and questioned how the body could have decomposed so quickly, while noting that the MLO had only been able to identify a bullet wound mark during the entire procedure.

Justice Sial further asked the MLO whether he or the sweeper had conducted the autopsy.

He also pointed out that the final report of the first autopsy differed from the initial report and that the handwriting in both reports did not match.

The MLO submitted that he had conducted the autopsy and acknowledged that the handwriting in both reports was his. He said the final report of the first post-mortem examination was issued after the exhumation of the body and the second autopsy, as well as following 14 objections raised by the police surgeon regarding the first post-mortem examination.

He also said that he had not prepared the initial autopsy report under any influence or pressure and had not said anything about suicide.

“On Aug 9, I was called to the Chief Minister’s House, where DIG Farrukh Ali Lanjar asked me to record a statement or provide information about the case, but I refused to do so in the absence of relevant documents,” he added.

The MLO further said that the second investigation team had recorded his statement on Aug 17 and added that the body was around 24 to 36-hour old and that anaesthetics were found in the blood.

Also on Tuesday, the two nursery employees, Yasir and Qaiser, who had provided information to the police about the body, deposed that they had called the police helpline (15) shortly after spotting the body. They said two policemen arrived on a motorcycle about 15 minutes later, followed by a police van.

They also submitted that the police had recorded their statements under Section 161 of the criminal procedure code three days later. They added that the police were accustomed to being present at the main entrance of the nursery around 20 days a month.

Two Edhi Foundation volunteers, Mohsin and Javed, also appeared before the commission and testified that they had reached the site at around 1pm after receiving information about the body from their head office.

They also said that when they reached the scene, they found the body lying face down. After turning the body over, they noticed a bullet wound on the victim’s body.

Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Nadeem Mughal informed the commission that he was performing duty at the Gulistan-i-Jauhar police station and had been directed to reach the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

“I had handed over the samples collected during the autopsy to SIO Firozabad police station Shabbir Laghari,” he added.

ASI Azhar Abbas said that he was also posted at the Gulistan-i-Jauhar police station and had shared pictures of the body with the SHO and duty officer after arriving at the crime scene.

Another policeman, Mohammad Arif, said that he was a device operator for the ‘Talash’ app and had attempted to record the victim’s fingerprints, but was unable to do so because of decomposition.

The victim’s parents, Mir Hussain Ali Khan and Mariam Hussain, and sister, Alishba Khan, along with their lawyer, Jibran Nasir, were also present during the hearing and provided further details about the incident.

Adjourning the hearing till Sept 3, the commission also summoned more individuals including a business partner of the victim, friends and police officials to record their statements at the next hearing.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2026