An Anti Terrorism Court in Karachi issued a death warrant today, for a condemned prisoner supposedly belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). Mirza will be hanged on March 19 as per court orders.
Earlier today, Karachi Central Jail authorities approached an ATC seeking Mirza’s death warrants.
Saulat Mirza, a professional target killer, was sentenced to death in 1999 on charges of murdering the former managing director of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (now, known as K-Electric) Shahid Hamid along with his driver Ashraf Brohi and guard Akbar Khan in July 1997 inthe Defence Housing Authority area of Karachi.
Mirza was arrested by police officer Chaudhry Aslam in 1998 from Karachi airport when he was returning from Bangkok.
He is currently confined in Machh jail in Balochistan and will be brought back to Karachi for his execution. Mirza and other high-profile prisoners were shifted from Karachi to other jails in 2004 owing to security concerns.
Mirza’s mercy appeals have been rejected by all the appellate courts and by the Presidency as well. The federal government has categorically directed all the provincial home departments to resume hangings of all prisoners whose mercy petitions have been rejected, Mirza’s warrants are about to be issued.
So far, after the Peshawar school massacre, 24 condemned prisoners have been hanged. At least 8,000 prisoners are still on death row confined in different jails across country and of them around 1000 or so have exhausted the appeals process.
