KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi on Tuesday acquitted two workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) who had been accused of being involved in the 1997 murder of former Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) Managing Director Shahid Hamid.
The two accused individuals, Mohammad Minhaj Qazi, alias Asad, and Mehboob Ghufran, alias Athar, had been facing charges related to the murder of Hamid, his driver Ashraf Brohi, and his guard Khan Akbar, who were killed in an attack on July 5, 1997, in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA).
The court’s decision followed a lengthy trial, and the ruling was based on the lack of substantial evidence linking the accused to the crime. During the proceedings at Karachi jail, the ATC judge ordered the immediate release of both Qazi and Ghufran, provided they were not implicated in any other pending cases.
Defence counsel Advocate Mushtaq Ahmed argued that Qazi had no connection to the incident. He pointed out discrepancies in the testimonies, particularly the complainant’s changing statements regarding Qazi’s involvement.
The lawyer contended that the complainant had only initially mentioned seeing Saulat Mirza near the car, but after Qazi’s arrest, her position shifted, implicating him as well.
Qazi was initially detained by Rangers in February 2016 under preventive detention for alleged involvement in terrorism. After his transfer to police custody, he was formally arrested in connection with the Shahid Hamid murder case. In 2016, Shahid Hamid’s widow Shahnaz and son Omar had identified Qazi as one of the hitmen during an identification parade, but the evidence was not strong enough to uphold the charge.
In 1999, an ATC had sentenced Saulat Mirza, a key figure in the case, to death. Mirza was executed in May 2015 in Machh Jail. Prior to his execution, Mirza had made significant allegations in a video aired before his death.
He accused the MQM’s top leadership, including party chief Altaf Hussain, of ordering him to kill the KESC MD. Mirza claimed he received the directive through a phone call while at the residence of MQM leader Babar Ghauri.
The case had remained high-profile due to the political implications and the controversial claims made by Mirza. Despite Mirza’s allegations, the court’s decision to acquit Qazi and Ghufran underlines the challenges faced in proving involvement in high-profile cases like this, especially in the absence of concrete evidence.
The acquittal of the two MQM workers raises further questions about the effectiveness of the prosecution in securing convictions in politically sensitive cases, as well as the complexities surrounding the allegations against MQM leaders in the context of Pakistan’s ongoing political tensions.
This case has also highlighted ongoing concerns regarding the transparency of investigations and the difficulties in bringing perpetrators of politically charged violence to justice.
