Mir Raza commission recommends JIT, FIA-led inquiry into police conduct

A single-member judicial commission of inquiry, constituted to probe the death of 25-year-old Mir Raza Ali, has recommended the formation of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) led by DIG Irfan Baloch and comprising senior representatives of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) and the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), as the only viable path to a credible resolution of a case it described as compromised by police failure.

The commission, headed by Sindh High Court Judge Justice Omar Sial, submitted its report to Sindh Chief Minister on October 15, 2026. The Express Tribune has reviewed the executive summary of the findings.

Mir Raza Ali, an Institute of Business Administration graduate who ran a waffle-making business under the banner Wafflix, went missing from his PECHS residence in the early hours of July 28, 2026. His family registered FIR No. 795/2026 at Ferozabad police station the same day under Section 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) — kidnapping. His body was found the next morning within the jurisdiction of Gulistan-e-Johar police station. A post-mortem was conducted at Jinnah Hospital and the body was buried the same day.

Police initially opined the death to be a suicide. The family contested this, claiming the body bore visible torture marks. The commission records that the Police Surgeon, in early August, pointed out anomalies in the first post-mortem report — the very document police had relied upon for their suicide theory. The body was exhumed on August 8, initial findings were shared on August 8–9, and the final official report, issued around August 31, 2026, confirmed the cause of death as "a perforating firearm injury from the back, ruling out suicide".

Charges under Sections 302 PPC (murder) and 201 PPC (destruction of evidence) were subsequently added to the FIR.

The commission's findings are unambiguous: "The bullet trajectory, the unusual location of the wound for a self-inflicted injury, the absence of blood, the state of the body, the principles of medical jurisprudence, acid burns and the anesthesia detected in the blood, all clearly excluded suicide as the cause of death. It was a murder."
Police conduct: an "epic failure"

In a scathing assessment, the commission found that the police investigation "failed in its most basic duty: to establish the truth," noting that the police hypothesis rested on "a few unconfirmed and unsubstantiated text messages, selective video footage obtained by SHO Adeel Afzaal," and a first post-mortem report by Dr Osama Shaikh that "did not itself conclude suicide". Even Dr Shaikh's own second report contradicted his first, the commission observed.

The report describes the handling of the case as "a rudderless ship, not aware of its destination," and states that "an active cover-up in the initial stages of the investigation cannot be conclusively ruled out." Among its observations: senior officers demonstrated "tunnel vision"; the police "doubled down on their initial suicide ruling rather than investigating further," driven by ego; "dozens of police officers – authorized and unauthorized" handled evidence without documenting it; and the force ignored the commission's own recommendation to appoint a focal person for public briefings, allowing speculation to embarrass the government.

The medical board controversy

The summary details "overnight bureaucratic maneuvering" around the special medical board. On August 6, following a court order under Section 176(2) of the CrPC, an eight-member board headed by Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed was notified. In the early hours of August 7, the Sindh Health Directorate unilaterally replaced it with a trimmed five-member board heavily featuring doctors from Hyderabad and Jamshoro. Mir Raza's family formally rejected the modified board at the graveyard, postponing the exhumation. Following public pressure and a legal notice, the government restored the original board on August 8, and the exhumation was completed at 11:00 AM the same day.

The commission termed the maneuvering "a highly irregular, inexplicable, legally flawed overreach dictated entirely from the upper echelons of the Sindh Health Secretariat, more specifically by the Secretary and Special Secretary, Health," adding that the DG Health Services "looked the other way" despite being aware he was not legally competent to form such a board. "The two gentlemen who directed the change in the Board could not give a cogent reason for the abrupt change," the report states.

CM House meeting cleared

Regarding the controversial August 9, 2026 meeting at the Chief Minister's House, attended by Dr Osama at the request of the Additional IG Police Karachi, the commission found "no evidence has emerged" that it was convened to pressure the doctor, and that "no adverse inference can be drawn from the briefing itself". However, it noted it "would have been prudent to invite the Police Surgeon to the meeting as well, which was not done". It further observed that Dr Osama "continued attempting to make the Chief Minister's House controversial," as part of efforts to "defame and malign the Police Surgeon".

The recommendations

Pegged on its findings, the commission's key recommendations are:

First, acknowledging that the case has reached "a critical juncture," the commission warned that due to "a severe breakdown in trust, even an accurate conclusion or the apprehension of the true culprit is unlikely to be accepted by the public," a divide that "now appears nearly unrectifiable". Because "a significant portion of physical evidence has been compromised," the case "can now only be resolved through a rigorous, intelligence-based investigation." The police, it said, "must transparently acknowledge and apologize for past operational lapses, while immediately initiating formal inquiries against the responsible officers". Accommodating the family's request, a JIT under DIG Irfan Baloch should strategically integrate ISI, IB, Rangers (Sindh) and NCCIA representatives — "This extreme step is necessary to restore public trust and end speculation."

Second, noting the commission lacks investigative powers and therefore cannot conclusively determine whether an active cover-up occurred — though "certain inexplicable actions are difficult to justify and raise the possibility that one may have occurred at some stage" — a high-level committee, preferably led by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), should inquire whether police officials involved in the first ten days of the probe breached Sections 201, 166(2) and 218 PPC. "The committee should initiate criminal action, in addition to disciplinary proceedings, against those it finds culpable."
Proceedings

The commission began work on August 27, 2026, recording statements through October 7 across 20 open sessions, including testimony from 50 witnesses, and conducted a comprehensive site inspection of the crime scene and adjoining areas on October 5, 2026. All sessions were held in public "to ensure transparency and reduce public speculation". Detailed observations on accountability are contained in the response to TOR 3 (page 52) and recommendations in the response to TOR 4 (page 58) of the main report.

Report presented to Sindh cabinet

The report was earlier presented to the cabinet in seven separate envelopes at a meeting chaired by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah at the CM House in Karachi, according to a spokesperson.

The chief minister constituted a subcommittee comprising Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, Nasir Hussain Shah, Saeed Ghani and the advocate general to oversee the implementation of the report’s recommendations.

Read: Mir Raza commission submits report to govt

The cabinet also approved a $150 million World Bank-supported programme to reform Sindh’s property tax system, aimed at improving revenue collection and strengthening the financial management of local government institutions.

Under the Sindh Property Revenue Enhancement Programme, the government has set a target of increasing property tax collection across Karachi’s 25 town municipal corporations (TMCs) from Rs2.3 billion to Rs25.5b.

According to a briefing to the cabinet, the World Bank will provide $110m for the Programme-for-Results component and $40m for investment projects. The Sindh government will contribute an additional 20% of the amount linked to the Programme-for-Results component as its share.

The programme also envisages modernising property tax collection in other urban local councils and strengthening the institutional capacity of 45 selected local councils.

Read More: Govt contests World Bank poverty report

Parallelly, the cabinet approved the introduction of an Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) in local government institutions to improve financial management and administrative performance.

The package includes agreements on financing and implementation, a framework for assessing results, verification procedures, and environmental and social safeguards. It was submitted to the cabinet for post-facto approval, according to the CM’s spokesperson.

The World Bank’s board is expected to consider the programme package on October 30.