Karachi: Omer Shahid Hamid, son of slain Managing Director of then named Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) Shahid Hamid, has urged the government not to delay the execution of his father’s convicted murderer and former Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) activist Saulat Mirza.
In an interview to Geo television on Monday, the former Superintendent of Police said records of the phone used by Mirza at the time of his father’s murder showed that the first call made after the incident was to the then office of the MQM’s international secretariat in London.
He was of the view that the phone records were proof enough to establish the linkage between MQM and his father’s killers and hence there was no further probe was required into Mirza’s statements.
Omer said he was not disclosing any new facts and neither had Mirza revealed any information that was not already part of the court record submitted before the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
He said he was requesting the government “as a police officer and keeping aside his personal emotions” to not delay Mirza’s execution as further postponement would embolden other terrorists, be they affiliated with a political or a religious group.
The MQM has denied the allegations. A statement issued by an MQM spokesman read: “We are fully aware of the accusations and believe that these are part of the ongoing media trial and campaign against MQM.”
“However, our legal team is looking into this matter and we categorically deny these false allegations levelled against MQM and its leadership.”
Saulat Ali Khan, better known as Saulat Mirza, was sentenced to death in 1999 for killing then managing director of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation Shahid Hamid in 1997.
President Mamnoon Hussain had deferred Mirza’s execution on March 18, 2015 hours before his scheduled hanging owing to medical reason. A video of Mirza’s confession with sensational revelations against MQM and its leadership was leaked and run on almost all news channels the same night.
In his statement, he had claimed that the KESC chief had been killed on the “direct orders” of MQM chief Altaf Hussain from London.
Leveling serious allegations against the MQM chief, Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan and other leaders of the party, Mirza had said that like other workers, he was used by the party and then “thrown away like a tissue paper”.
Giving details of what he called the MQM’s motivation to target his father, Omer said: “The purpose of my father’s deployment as MD KESC in December 1996 was to cut down losses in the organisation and bring down corruption. When he began taking action on the issues, it was revealed to him that there was a strong mafia operating in KESC which was often working under the shelter of the MQM.”
Omer claimed that whenever his father tried to perform his duty honestly and took action against these mafias, someone from the MQM, either a minister or a leader, would come forward and attempt to threaten him.
He added: “My father was told not to take any action or was asked whether or not he wished to live in Karachi. They told him to do as they pleased. He was repeatedly accused of being against Mohajirs.”
Omer further claimed that several MQM leaders including Farooq Sattar, Qazi Khalid, Nasreen Jalil and her husband M. Jalil had directly contacted his father and exerted pressure on him.
“A series of threats continued for the six months when my father was posted as MD KESC and he used to share the details of each and every incident with me and my mother. Hence, the minute we learnt that my father had been murdered we had no doubt about who and which party was behind his killing,” he said.
The son of the slain KESC MD claims that MQM leaders Sheikh Aftab, Waseem Akhtar and Shoaib Bokhari were also among those who tried to exert pressure on him and his mother to back off from their stance in the case.
Elaborating on the difference between his father’s murder case and cases against Altaf Hussain which are said to be politically motivated, Omer said: “Altaf Hussain is a nominated accused in the murder case of my father, whereas he has only been named in the FIRs of other cases filed by PTI or Rangers.”
Giving details of his father’s murder case, he said Mirza, Rashid, Athar, Nadeem Nusrat, Altaf Hussain and another person were included in the court challan.
“Saulat, Rashid and Athar were part of the hit team that killed my father. A direct linkage has been established between them and Nadeem Nusrat,” said Omer, adding that: “If you can obtain records of the phone used by Saulat Mirza at the time of attack, you will find that the first phone call made from that number after my father’s murder was made to the then international secretariat of the MQM.”
“Ever since Saulat’s conviction by a trial court in 1999, no stone was left unturned by the MQM and it made all efforts, from pressuring my family to pardon the hitman to trying to bring in constitutional amendments to provide some reprieve to Saulat MIrza.”
He said Saulat’s last plea was rejected in 2004 and his sentencing should have been carried out within a month or two after the court’s final decision as per law.
“Attempts were also made by the MQM to make amendments to the Constitution allowing the transfer of the president’s powers to pardon convicts to the provincial governors so that activists like Mirza could be granted reprieve,” Omer said.
