KARACHI: The exhumation of 25-year-old businessman and Institute of Business Administration graduate Mir Raza Ali’s body was postponed on Friday after his family objected to the abrupt reconstitution of the medico-legal board.

Ali’s body was found in bushes in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar last month, a day after he went missing on July 28. While his family is convinced that he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered, investigators probing the incident continue to build their case around the possibility that he died by suicide.

His family was present at the cemetery adjacent to Tariq Road’s Rehmania Masjid for the exhumation on Friday. But, the exhumation was deferred, with the counsel for Ali’s family, Jibran Nasir, telling the media that they had informed the investigating officer that the family had rejected the reconstituted board and would not accept an exhumation by it “under any circumstances”.

Standing alongside Ali’s father, Mir Hussain Ali Khan, Nasir accused the authorities of trying to bury the facts and held the police, health ministry and the Sindh government responsible for the delay.

The family could not allow the examination to be performed by members whose “qualifications and intentions were under question”, he added.

He recalled that the previous night, Hyderabad health director general dismissed the original board and reconstituted it, adding four names from Hyderabad.

Nasir claimed that following outcry over the reconstituted board, the DG health then issued a backdated notification at around 10am on Friday. “He says more members may be added [to the board], but the four chosen by him should also remain a part of it,” Nasir alleged.

He added that they still had not been informed why the original board was reconstituted.

Moreover, he continued, now there was another notification that authorised the Hyderabad health director general to form the medico-legal board, a power that previously rested with the Sindh health secretary.

The authorities “needed to be given a lesson on law” as under the Sindh Medicolegal Act 2023, only a police surgeon had the complete authority in matters of exhumation, he said, adding that the act was a special law that prevailed over general laws.

The lawyer said they would not be making any demands to the police. Ali’s father was now directly raising questions to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, he said.

“We will also not turn to the Sindh inspector general of police (IG). What do you ask an IG who claims that the investigation has been completed even before the exhumation and medical examination?”

He reasserted that they only trusted the original eight-member board, adding, “Sindh government, they were hired by you. And if they are not competent enough, then how were they appointed in the first place?”

Nasir alleged that police were presenting the CCTV evidence “selectively” and demanded that all facts of the case be brought to light.

He said CCTV footage shared showed a motorcycle and a trash picker passing by the body. But then, why did it not show the moment when Ali walked up to the place where his body was found, if he died by suicide, Nasir questioned.

“Where did that footage go?”

He added, “Why is it that people at the nearby guesthouse panicked and ran to a nearby property when Ali’s father inquired about him? […] And why were they not tracked?”

Nasir further accused police of not letting Ali’s father see the complete CCTV footage.

Concluding his talk, he said, “If not today, then maybe we will get the exhumation done tomorrow. We will try our best that the originally nominated doctors perform the examination, and I am sure the facts that they are going to such great lengths to bury will surface.”

Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, the family’s counsel said that the Sindh Medicolegal Act 2023 required that if a magistrate issues an order for exhumation, the authority to form a board rested with the division’s police surgeon.

“I believe I am standing in Karachi division where the police surgeon is Dr Summaiya Syed […] who would constitute the board and add forensic experts from the nearest possible public sector university,” Nasir said, questioning whether Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences was closer to Karachi than Dow Medical College or the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).

Nasir alleged that the “illegal and dubious” board had no authority to examine the body. “We cannot allow them to disrespect the deceased and destroy evidence.”

He also asked how a fresh notification was issued when the previous one had not yet been withdrawn, alleging that a third party and a “stranger” to the proceedings had intervened.

“We will not accept any Plan C either,” he said, referring to the suggestion to merge the two boards.

Earlier, he had also alleged on X that the Sindh government had “maliciously” changed the members of the board without any explanation.

“The family expresses no consent for this new board and will not allow it to exhumate the body tomorrow morning and corrupt whatever evidence remains and it will be formally communicated to authorities,” he said, adding that the fresh notification would be challenged at the appropriate forum.

‘Malicious attempt to interfere with judicial proceedings’

Nasir also submitted a letter to the police surgeon on Friday, wherein he formally informed her of the family’s non-consent and stated that the reconstituted board was in “complete violation and negation” of the court’s order and had no legal basis.

He held that it carried no binding value and was nothing “but a malicious attempt to interfere with judicial proceedings initiated by the court” and any directive in support of the board shall be viewed as a “further malicious attempt to provide cover to an illegal act and sabotage fair and transparent investigation”.

Nasir said the family had not consented to the exhumation by the reconstituted board and warned that any attempt to proceed with the exhumation under the reconstituted medical board will be a violation of the dignity of the deceased, will put evidence at risk and will be a “blatant” contempt of court.

He said the police surgeon that she remained “duty bound” to conduct the exhumation with the original medical board and further held that the action had “fortified the apprehension of our clients that instead of investigating the truth every effort is being made to suppress the truth and manipulate evidence and facts to arrive at a pre-determined outcome by the senior officers of police and the same is being done at behest of influentials who are being protected in the investigation into the death of Mir Raza Ali Khan”.

He concluded that in case of any further proceedings through the “illegally constituted” board, the family had the right to approach the appropriate court and seek prosecution of the officers attempting to “jeopardise” the investigation.

Reconstitution of board

On Thursday, a Karachi court allowed the exhumation of Ali’s body on an application filed by Ali’s father, directing the police surgeon and the Sindh health secretary to constitute a medico-legal board for the exhumation of Ali’s body “at the earliest possible date and time”.

The court ruling came after a controversy emerged between the Karachi police surgeon and investigators over alleged loopholes in the medico-legal report regarding the post-mortem examination.

The Sindh health department then constituted the eight-member board, with Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed as the convener. Prof Dr Naseem Ahmed of Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), Dr Farah Waseem of Jinnah Sindh Medical University, Amir Hassan Khan of Citizens Police Liaison Committee, Additional Police Surgeon Dr Sirichand, Dr Kamran Khan and Dr Daniyal Mirza of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Dr Mohammed Yaseen, the admin in-charge of the police surgeon office, were the other members of the board.

However, a new order has been issued by the Sindh health directorate general. The notification, a copy of which is available with Dawn, said that the board had been reconstituted to conduct the exhumation and medico-legal examination of the deceased.

While Dr Syed remained the convener of the new board, its members were changed to Prof Dr Zakiuddin from DUHS, Prof Dr Kazi Akbar and Prof Dr Abid Hussain Chang from Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences and Hyderabad Police Surgeon Dr Waseem Khan.

Controversy over autopsy

Raza, an IBA graduate and the owner of eatery Wafflix, had gone missing on July 28. The 25-year-old’s body was found a day later with a gunshot wound in bushes near Shahi Qila Ground in Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

Initially, on the complaint lodged by his father, a case was registered at the Ferozabad police station under Section 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Police maintain that the investigation has revealed that Ali had been facing financial difficulties and had asked his friends for money the night he died.

According to police, he had left his home in PECHS Block-2 and hired a taxi through an app. The taxi driver dropped him a short distance from the spot where his body was found, police said.

The case took a new turn when Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed told a private news channel on Tuesday that the postmortem findings of Ali’s body had raised several questions, as some observations in the report did not appear to match the available photographs.

She said the reported entry wound, bullet trajectory and exit wound did not correspond with one another. While it was scientifically possible for a bullet to enter through the back and exit from the front, she stressed that her assessment was based only on the postmortem report and photographs, as she had not examined the body herself.

The police surgeon noted that entry wounds were typically smaller than exit wounds in firearm cases. She also said that gunshot residue, commonly found on the hands in suspected suicides, was not tested for in this case.

Her interview prompted the police authorities to issue a statement, terming such observations as having the potential to adversely affect the ongoing investigation.

The statement, however, said that exhumation of the dead body could be done on the medical board’s recommendation for further clarification by a committee of medico-legal experts with the court’s permission.