After 16 years, MQM MPA seeks justice for uncle’s brutal murder
Faisal Subzwari’s family could not register a case in 1995.
KARACHI:
After 16 years, Faisal Subzwari has taken courage from his party leader Altaf Hussain’s decision to go to court, and also written the chief justice to take notice of his uncle’s brutal killing in 1995.
Today Subzwari is the Sindh minister for youth affairs and an important member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). His letter to the Supreme Court refers to the alleged illegal arrest and extrajudicial killing of his uncle, Syed Aslam Subzwari.
Faisal has taken a cue from party leader Altaf Hussain who wrote his own letter, on October 19, to the chief justice, asking him to take notice of the alleged extrajudicial killings of his brother and nephew at the hands of law enforcement agencies, also in 1995.
Subzwari told The Express Tribune that it was his leader’s decision to write to the chief justice that had “shown him the way”. “If he is showing more and more faith in the courts, then I should too.”
In 1995, an operation was carried out against the MQM by then interior minister Naseerullah Babar. There could be hundreds of other similar cases that the party could potentially take up in a similar fashion.
In his letter, Subzwari states that his uncle, an MQM member who was elected and served as a councillor from 1987 to 1992, was allegedly detained by plainclothes police on July 6, 1995. According to the letter, the party and family members informed the press and tried to have Syed Aslam released. “Instead of following the legal requirements of Syed Aslam Subzwari’s arrest and bringing it to light in front of the world,” said the letter, “we learnt the next morning, on July 7, 1995, that SSP Central’s personnel had left his body at the Edhi morgue. At the morgue, we discovered that he had been brutally tortured and killed. His left eye had been drilled into in such a way that it had left his skull severely damaged. There were signs of torture on other parts of his body as well.”
The case was never officially taken up, according to Subzwari, because of the circumstances then. At the time of his uncle’s death, the “highhandedness of the law-enforcement agencies and the government machinery” prevented a case being registered.
In 1997, the family tried to lodge a First Information Report (FIR) but could not proceed against the police officer and was given a “cold shoulder”. “At that time we did not have Police Order 2002 which would allow people to approach the courts to seek the registration of cases,” Subzwari said.
Subzwari explained that he has chosen to go straight to the top, the Supreme Court, instead of the police because the latter is “politically motivated and has criminal records”. “Despite being a government functionary, I do not have much faith in the police,” he said. “The IG of Police admitted [in court] that 40% of the appointments were political. The rest, I believe, [rely] on influence and bribes.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 27th, 2011.
After 16 years, Faisal Subzwari has taken courage from his party leader Altaf Hussain’s decision to go to court, and also written the chief justice to take notice of his uncle’s brutal killing in 1995.
Today Subzwari is the Sindh minister for youth affairs and an important member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). His letter to the Supreme Court refers to the alleged illegal arrest and extrajudicial killing of his uncle, Syed Aslam Subzwari.
Faisal has taken a cue from party leader Altaf Hussain who wrote his own letter, on October 19, to the chief justice, asking him to take notice of the alleged extrajudicial killings of his brother and nephew at the hands of law enforcement agencies, also in 1995.
Subzwari told The Express Tribune that it was his leader’s decision to write to the chief justice that had “shown him the way”. “If he is showing more and more faith in the courts, then I should too.”
In 1995, an operation was carried out against the MQM by then interior minister Naseerullah Babar. There could be hundreds of other similar cases that the party could potentially take up in a similar fashion.
In his letter, Subzwari states that his uncle, an MQM member who was elected and served as a councillor from 1987 to 1992, was allegedly detained by plainclothes police on July 6, 1995. According to the letter, the party and family members informed the press and tried to have Syed Aslam released. “Instead of following the legal requirements of Syed Aslam Subzwari’s arrest and bringing it to light in front of the world,” said the letter, “we learnt the next morning, on July 7, 1995, that SSP Central’s personnel had left his body at the Edhi morgue. At the morgue, we discovered that he had been brutally tortured and killed. His left eye had been drilled into in such a way that it had left his skull severely damaged. There were signs of torture on other parts of his body as well.”
The case was never officially taken up, according to Subzwari, because of the circumstances then. At the time of his uncle’s death, the “highhandedness of the law-enforcement agencies and the government machinery” prevented a case being registered.
In 1997, the family tried to lodge a First Information Report (FIR) but could not proceed against the police officer and was given a “cold shoulder”. “At that time we did not have Police Order 2002 which would allow people to approach the courts to seek the registration of cases,” Subzwari said.
Subzwari explained that he has chosen to go straight to the top, the Supreme Court, instead of the police because the latter is “politically motivated and has criminal records”. “Despite being a government functionary, I do not have much faith in the police,” he said. “The IG of Police admitted [in court] that 40% of the appointments were political. The rest, I believe, [rely] on influence and bribes.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 27th, 2011.