Estranged leader: Brother of local PPP leader to investigate Mirza

Notices were served at his Karachi and Badin residences on May 12 and May 13.

HYDERABAD: Chalgari subdivision DSP Muhammad Ahmed Qureshi, who is also a brother of a local Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) leader, is leading the team that has been assigned the task of investigating former home minister Zulfiqar Mirza.

Qureshi has asked Mirza to appear before a three-member team of police officials at SSP Office, Hyderabad, on May 15.

"We served notices at his Karachi and Badin residences on May 12 and May 13," said Qureshi, while talking to The Express Tribune.

Almost half a dozen FIRs were registered against the embattled Mirza following his May 3 alleged attack on the shops of PPP supporters in Badin and subsequent storming of a police station.

The Hyderabad police team, which comprises Site DSP Ashfaq Bajwa and Crime Investigation Agency centre in-charge inspector Aslam Langha and is headed by Qureshi, will interrogate Mirza regarding the FIR registered by Taj Muhammad Mallah.



Mallah is a Badin-based traders' leader who heads the Tajir Ittehad. He, along with another traders' representative, Imtiaz Memon, joined the PPP in March after parting ways with Mirza.

In the FIR, he accused Mirza alongside some 50 other nominated suspects of attacking his shop, robbing Rs3 million cash and leaving an employee, Maihar Mallah, injured with a gunshot.

"We will wait for Mirza to come for interrogation at 10.30am," said Qureshi. "If he doesn't show up, we will simply submit our report in the anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi."

Regarding the political affiliation of Qureshi's brother, Hyderabad SSP Irfan Baloch, who constituted the team, said that the officer will not be politically influenced.

"I have formed a three-member board which will jointly investigate the case," he told The Express Tribune.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Mirza said he will appear before the investigation team today [May 15] in Hyderabad. "I'm not bothered if there is the brother of a local PPP leader or a relative of Zardari who is leading the investigation team," he said. He was of the belief that his case was transferred to Hyderabad in light of his earlier statements  in which he had expressed willingness to surrender to DIG Sanaullah Abbasi and SSP Baloch.

Earlier this month, ATC judge Abdul Ghafoor Memon refused to hear cases against Mirza due to personal relationship with his family. The Sindh High Court transferred the cases to an ATC in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2015.