Execution deferment: Saulat Mirza makes second plea

Seeks delay till fresh trial of Shahid Hamid’s murder

KARACHI:

Death row convict Saulat Mirza on Thursday requested the Sindh High Court (SHC) chief justice to defer his execution till the completion of fresh trial of Shahid Hamid’s murder, his second such plea in the last few days.

In the application, filed through advocate Juma Khan, Mirza sought directions for the authorities concerned to initiate re-trial of accused nominated by him for the 1997 murder of the then managing-director of Karachi Electric Supply Company (now K-Electric), Shahid Hamid.

Till the outcome of fresh trial, the execution, which has temporarily been stayed by the interior ministry, may be suspended, the applicant requested.

Sources told The Express Tribune that no decision had so far been taken on the fresh plea by the competent authority.

Earlier, Saulat Mirza had written four applications to the SHC Member Inspection Team (MIT) seeking a delay in his execution till completion of the murder trial and provision of security to his wife.

He said his wife was receiving threatening phone calls and requested that concerned SSP should be directed to provide protection to his family.

The Member Inspection Team returned three of those applications on Wednesday, Juma Khan said while submitting a fresh plea.

Sources said the SHC MIT, in its reply, asked the applicant to “seek legal remedy” if he desires.

Through another plea dated April 16, Saulat Mirza had sought a direction for the Balochistan home secretary and superintendent of the Machh Jail to ensure that the death sentence is not executed during pendency of two cases against him at the SHC.

He also said that the co-accused in the murder trial may also be prosecuted and sentenced to death and life imprisonment. Decision on that plea has also not been made so far.

Saulat Ali Khan, better known as Saulat Mirza, a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, was sentenced to death in 1999 on charges of murdering KESC MD and bureaucrat Shahid Hamid, along with his driver Ashraf Brohi and guard Akbar Khan, in July 1997 in the Defence Housing Authority area of Karachi.

The then SHO of Gulbahar, Mohammad Aslam Khan, had arrested the accused in December 1998 from Karachi airport after his arrival from Bangkok on a fake passport. The police alleged that the offence had been carried out to avenge the removal of his political party’s supporters working in the KESC.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2015.