Nighat Mirza, wife of condemned prisoner Saulat Mirza, today appealed to President Mamnoon Hussain to suspend the execution of her husband in order to launch an inquiry into his disclosures about criminals.
Mirza is scheduled to be hanged till death in the early morning hours of Tuesday at Machh Jail in Bolan district of Balochistan.
According to jail authorities, four brothers and two sisters of Saulat Mirza met him for the last time in the prison today. Mirza reportedly told his family that he was willing to expose more people if his hanging was delayed. “I have decided to take this step against terrorism,” he said.
Speaking to the popular news channel SAMAA TV earlier today, Nighat demanded that government release the report of joint investigation team, which questioned Mirza in jail.
“Government should re-open Shahid Hamid murder case for the sake of peace in Karachi,” she said.
Authorities said that all arrangements were finalized to send the former MQM activist to gallows. TC judge Rashid Mahmood was appointed a magistrate to oversee his hanging.
Saulat Mirza was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in May 1999 for killing the then KESC MD Shahid Hamid, his driver and guard.
He was to be executed in March, but his hanging was put off at the eleventh hour after Mirza’s video confession emerged.
In his confession, he admitted that he had killed Shahid Hamid on the order of MQM leader Babar Ghouri who had direct order from Altaf Hussain. He alleged that MQM leader Azeem Tariq was also murdered in cold blood on the party chief’s directives.
His statement ensured that President Mamnoon Hussain, in a high-level meeting in the President House, put off Mirza’s execution for 72 hours, which was then extended for a month.
Begging pardon for his heinous crimes, Mirza, who had tears in his eyes, warned the party workers, sympathizers, and wannabe members, against falling in the wrong hands and the subsequent brainwashing.
“Today I have become an example for all those who are in the party or deliberating to join it. Let me tell you they use the workers as tissue paper and then throw them away. So open your eyes and do what is right,” he said dubbing himself as other activists as expendables.
Adding to his statement, a disillusioned Mirza minced no words when he sounded out he had been disowned by the party.
“They always turn their back on the workers who land in the hands of law,” said the erstwhile hitman.
Mirza said that he did not want to be go to the gallows without sharing with the authorities a secret hoard of information that could prove vital in bringing about peace in Karachi.
“I know a lot of things that can help the men of affairs restore calm in the metropolis. I am not asking them to undo my punishment, but rather give me some time to atone for my sins” said he.
According to Mirza, the former party leader, Syed Mustafa Kamal, was kicked out of the party in an unspeakably insulting way only because of his outspokenness.
Kamal is a serving Senator in the upper house and has served as the Nazim (mayor) of Karachi from 2005 to 2010.
Mirza claimed that a sharp rise in popularity could get you killed or booted out of the party.
The dead-man-talking also accused the Governor of Sindh, Dr Ishrat-ul-Ebad of using his authority to have the criminals find a safe passage. The Governor House, in a late night statement, denied these accusations in the strongest of words.
Mirza in the same statement also said that he had kept silent for so long fearing for his family that had nothing to do with what he had been doing.
“By coming clean on whose orders I perpetrated the crimes I am about to be punished capitally for I have put the lives of my family members at stake,” said the death row convict.
Saulat Mirza was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court on May 24, 1999, for murdering the then MD Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, Shahid Hamid, and his driver and a guard on July 5, 1997, in Karachi. He was arrested on December 10, 1998, from the Karachi Airport on his return from Bangkok.
