KARACHI: The family of slain businessman Mir Raza Ali moved the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday, August 24, seeking an empowered Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to investigate his killing.
The petition challenges the Sindh government’s decision to seek a judicial commission for the case. The family has maintained that it wants the investigation conducted through a JIT rather than the proposed commission.
Ali’s parents and sister filed the petition through Advocate Jibran Nasir, naming the Sindh government and other authorities as respondents. An initial hearing was expected to be fixed before the SHC on Monday.
Nasir said the family had concerns about the handling of evidence and the police investigation. He questioned why other law-enforcement agencies had not been included through a JIT and why the government announced a judicial commission before police submitted their investigation report.
Read: Mir Raza Ali Probe: Jibran Nasir Objects to SHO Ghulam Nabi’s Inclusion
The Sindh cabinet on Sunday approved a proposal asking the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court to nominate a serving judge to head a judicial commission under Section 3 of the Sindh Tribunals of Inquiry Ordinance, 1969.
The proposed commission would examine the investigation, additional evidence and the conduct of police, medico-legal officers and other officials. The Sindh government said it would have the powers of a civil court and submit its findings and recommendations after its inquiry.
Ali, 25, went missing from Karachi on July 28 and was found dead in Gulistan-e-Jauhar the following day. A second post-mortem later found that he had suffered a gunshot wound to the back and multiple injuries.
Separately, a Karachi judicial magistrate on Monday granted investigators until September 7 to submit their report as forensic examination of Ali’s phone remained pending.
