Death warrants: Court issues execution order for Saulat Mirza

MQM activist is to be taken to the gallows on March 19 in Machh Jail.

QUETTA/ KARACHI: Convicted target killer Saulat Ali Khan, aka Saulat Mirza, who dodged death for more than a decade, is now finally set to be hanged on March 19 as an anti-terrorism court (ATC) issued his death warrants on Wednesday.

ATC-V in Karachi issued the execution order for Mirza, an MQM activist, after Central Jail authorities formally approached the court and the deputy superintendent personally sought black warrants for Mirza.

According to the order, Mirza will be hanged on March 19 at 5:30am in Machh Jail of Balochistan. Mirza was shifted from Karachi to Macch in 2004 owing to security reasons.

Balochistan’s Secretary Home and Tribal Affairs Akbar Hussain Durrani said Central Prison in Macch has started necessary preparations for executing Mirza. “The Balochistan government will execute the prisoner on administrative ground as the prisoner belongs to Sindh,” Durrani told The Express Tribune.

Saulat Mirza was awarded capital punishment in 1999 for murdering a former managing director of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, Shahid Hamid, his driver Ashraf Brohi, and guard Akbar Khan in July 1997 in DHA, Karachi.

He was arrested in 1998 from Jinnah International Airport when he returned from Bangkok.  Mirza filed an appeal against his death sentence with the Sindh High Court (SHC) in 2000 which was rejected. A year later, the Supreme Court also turned down his plea. His mercy plea to the president was also rejected.

The MQM did not issue any statement on Mirza’s death warrants.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2015.