Saulat Mirza hanged

Whilst there may have been doubts about the quality of the conviction of some of those who have been hanged since the lifting of the moratorium last year, no such doubts exist in the case of Saulat Mirza. He was what is euphemistically known as a ‘target killer’ — a gun for hire who was paid to kill — and hired regularly to do so, on occasion by political masters. The murders he was hanged for were the managing director of the Karachi Electric Supply Company and his bodyguard and driver. His death sentence had already been deferred twice and was at the last in the hands of the president, who must have made no objection and the execution went ahead.

It is now 18 years since Mirza killed what were probably the last of his many victims. He would have been executed earlier had it not been that he made a number of startling revelations, the complete truth of which we are unlikely to ever know. It may be that he made the revelations as a delaying tactic, buying time for himself, but equally they could be of substance in which event the political life of Karachi is even darker and more blood-stained than what is already known and in the public domain. The Sindh high Court rejected yet another plea seeking a delay on May 8 saying “there was no cogent reason to reinvestigate the … murder” — and the hangman did his work. There can be little doubt that over the years Mirza enjoyed the patronage and support of some powerful figures, some of whom may or may not have been his erstwhile employers. Hanging one target killer is unlikely to dent the aspirations or actions of others, though there has been a dropping off of targeted killings in recent months. This is unlikely to be because of a sudden outbreak of guilty conscience in the target-killer community, and rather more to do with the ongoing operation against criminal elements in the city. Dead Mirza may be, but those who propped him up should be no less accountable — a faint hope at best.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th,  2015.

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