'A thief has a straw in his beard'

Commission tears into Raza's business partner over pre-arrest bail, missing contract

KARACHI:

The Judicial Commission probing the murder of Mir Raza Ali recorded statements from his business partner, brother, driver and a police official on Thursday, while expressing sharp displeasure at the conduct of Muhammad Ahmed Bhurday, who it said was behaving more like an accused than a witness.

The commission, headed by Justice Omar Sial at the Sindh High Court (SHC), summoned Ahmed Bhurday, Mir Raza's childhood friend and business partner, to explain his actions in the hours and days following Mir's disappearance on July 28.

Also present during the proceedings were Mir's family, their lawyer Jibran Nasir, govt's focal person additional secretary home, SDPO Sharae Faisal Arshad Afridi, SHO Ferozabad Adeel Afzal, Mir's brother, friends, and driver Ehsan Ali.

During a tense exchange, Justice Sial admonished Bhurday for what he described as suspicious conduct. "Mir Raza was a dear friend, yet you were only worried about money - why did you get pre-arrest bail? A thief has a straw in his beard," the judge remarked, according to sources present in the courtroom.

Bhurday, who told the commission he had known Mir Raza since first grade and had started the Wafflix dessert business with him in 2020, faced rigorous questioning about his visit to Mir's house on the morning of July 28, within hours of Mir's disappearance.

He admitted going to the house at 8am with his brother Abdullah and others, entering Mir Raza's room, and finding his wallet, charger and keys there. He also revealed that Mir Raza kept hashish in cigarette packets on a shelf at home, a disclosure the commission questioned as unnecessary for a witness seeking to "clear himself."

The commission also pressed Bhurday on why he had sought access to Mir's Apple Watch while the family was still searching for him, and why he had allegedly asked Mir's sister to email the watch's data to his own account. Bhurday claimed his brother Abdullah and friend Raziq had assisted the sister, but the commission expressed skepticism, noting that Bhurday appeared to know details he could only have learned if he were present.

Financial irregularities surrounding the business also came under scrutiny. Bhurday told the commission that the two partners withdrew Rs5,000 daily for personal expenses and received weekly Food Panda payments of Rs600,000 to Rs800,000. However, when questioned about a Rs4.5 million investment by Ehsan Anis Shamshi, who documents showed owned 30 per cent of the business, Bhurday initially denied knowledge before admitting Mir Raza had taken the cash home. The commission expressed surprise that Bhurday had not mentioned this substantial sum, yet had been anxious about vendor payments during the disappearance.

The commission further questioned Bhurday about why the business's vendor contact number had been changed two months prior to his cousin Wasiq Bhurday's name rather than his own or Mir Raza's, and why his email and mobile number appeared in Mir Raza's iCloud account. Bhurday said he did not remember the number and only learned of the iCloud link during the investigation.