New Delhi: A Karachi entrepreneur’s death in Pakistan has taken the country by storm. Nobody knows how he died. His body has been exhumed for an autopsy and across social media, activists and politicians are calling for the resignation of city officials. There are now protest marches in Karachi over his suspected killing. Most are aghast at the “lawlessness gripping the city”.
Twenty-five-year-old Mir Raza Ali’s death barely made headlines when his body was found on 29 July, a day after he went missing. Only a few digital portals had reported it then. He was the owner of Wafflix, a local dessert brand in Pakistan. Then his sister began a campaign to get justice for her brother who she claimed was “tortured and shot dead”. She uploaded a picture of the body for the citizens to wake up and take notice.
Two weeks later, the Sindh Police have now constituted a new team to investigate the murder, a day after Ali’s father said he had doubts over the handling of the case by the original team.
A week ago, on 3 August, Karachi Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed had issued a statement identifying 14 deficiencies in the initial postmortem report, according to Arab News.
The Sindh government claimed that she was bringing shame to the country and the government by making her claims. Based on her remarks though, Ali’s family moved the courts.
The Sindh High Court then approved the family’s request for a second analysis following which the Sindh health authorities also sought a change in the composition of the medical board. Ali’s family protested against the move, the old medical board was reinstated, and the second postmortem was held on Sunday. The report then confirmed that there were multiple bruises and a gunshot wound.
Pakistani lawyer and civil rights activist Jibran Nasir, who is representing Ali’s family in the court, accused the Sindh government of “interference”, adding that the postmortem proved that Ali was brutally murdered.
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A political row
Ali’s death sparked anger among Karachi’s youth and prompted a series of protests led by social media influencers based in the city, local media reported. His family and lawyer alleged that police initially suggested that Ali had died by suicide because of financial difficulties. Protests, largely led by young people, have since been held in several parts of Karachi following what his family describes as a suspected murder. Demonstrators have called for an end to the city’s deteriorating law-and-order situation.
Then there is also politics involved. PPP and PMLN, coalition partners at the centre, are now at loggerheads with each other over the case.
Advocate Jibran Nasir criticised the PPP-led Sindh government and Sindh Home Minister, accusing them of targeting Dr Summaiya Syed who, he said, was the only government official to have properly carried out her duties in the Mir Raza Ali case.
Nasir said the officer had raised concerns about discrepancies in the post-mortem report but was now facing criticism from the Home Minister. He further accused the government and the PPP of conducting a “witch-hunt” against her.
Expressing “no hope” in the PPP-led Sindh government, Nasir alleged that the authorities were instead siding with those who had sought from the outset to portray Ali’s death as a suicide, The Express Tribune reported.
Then PMLN-affiliated Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari also criticised the Sindh government over the case, claiming that the Maryam Nawaz-led Punjab government, unlike Sindh, admits its mistakes and takes corrective action instead of protecting anyone or hiding reports.
Then Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif shared the video of the Sindh government criticising the military doctor, which many in Pakistan read as a sign of “some bigshot” being involved in the killing.
Across social media, there were claims that the house where Ali lived and disappeared from was owned by PPP leader Sharjeel Inam Memon. It was also claimed that he and his son had fled Karachi to avoid persecution.
In a statement on X on Monday, Rawal Sharjeel Memon, the PPP leader’s son, labelled claims of his fleeing as “false”, saying that it had originated from pages on social media that were associated with the political parties of JUI and MQM.
For now, the medical board has reserved its final opinion on Ali’s cause of death pending the results of chemical and toxicology analyses. Those tests are expected to help determine whether the fatal gunshot wound was self-inflicted or the result of homicide.
Pakistani barrister Hira Haroon Karim, in an article for Dawn, questioned the hurdles behind the investigation and wrote: “Where does justice go, in the space between a death and its acknowledgment? And where, in a city that loved this man loudly enough to bring him back up into the light so his story could be told rightly, does our humanity actually stand today? Not in the vigils. Not in the slogans. But in the quiet, unglamorous work of finishing what we started for Mir Raza”.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)