Execution: Saulat Mirza to be hanged today

“All the preparations have been completed to ensure smooth execution of Mirza,” the jail superintendent says

QUETTA:

Death row inmate Saulat Mirza is to be hanged before dawn on Tuesday (today) at the Mach Central Prison if there are no more last-moment reprieves for him.

“All the preparations have been completed to ensure the smooth execution of Mirza,” said the jail superintendent, Ishaq Zehri. “He will be hanged if there is no more official order for delay.”

Mirza was sentenced to death for killing the former Karachi Electricity Supply Company chairman along with his driver and guard in 1997. The former hit man associated with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was to be initially hanged on March 19 but an explosive confessional video leaked to the media hours before his execution won him a reprieve. It is also likely that the execution may be further delayed.

The Mach jail – one of the most dreaded prisons of Pakistan – had received the death warrants of the last month and as per orders by the Balochistan Home Department, Mirza would be sent to the gallows at 4:30am.

Last meeting

Mirza was allowed to meet members of his family for the last time on Monday when 18 relatives, including his four brothers, visited the Mach jail.

“Mirza started a fight against the politicians using workers for committing crimes, including murders of their rivals,” a family member told The Express Tribune requesting not to be named.

Another extension?

According to sources, a high-level meeting chaired by Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ahmed was held in Islamabad to seek out a legal way to get another extension in the execution.

“We have not received any order from any department and Mirza will be executed according to the plan,” Superintendent Zehri said.

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