Mir Raza murder case: Victim's family moves SHC against judicial commission formation, seeks JIT for probe

Mir Raza murder case: Victim's family moves SHC against judicial commission formation, seeks JIT for probe.

Key points

• Ishaq Tanoli Published August 24, 2026 Updated August 24, 2026 04: 26pm.
• Judicial correspondence to this effect, dated August 24 and seen Dawn, remarked the SHC chief justice had appointed Justice Omar Sial to head the commission.
• Ishaq Tanoli is a Karachi-based reporter for Dawn with over 20 years of experience covering judicial and electoral affairs.
• After which Ali's body was exhumed on August 8, the Sindh administration then restored the original medical board.
• The development took place as the Sindh administration implemented its decision unveiled on Sunday, despite objections by Ali's family and lawyer.

Ishaq Tanoli Published August 24, 2026 Updated August 24, 2026 04: 26pm. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

KARACHI: The family of Mir Raza Ali – a 25-year-old Karachi-based businessman who was discovered dead with a gunshot wound last month – moved the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday against the provincial government's decision to form a judicial commission for a review of the probe into his murder case.

For context, the development took place as the Sindh administration implemented its decision unveiled on Sunday, despite objections by Ali's family and lawyer.

Meanwhile, Ali's family filed a petition in the SHC through their lawyer, Jibran Nasir, requesting it to set aside the decision to form the commission and constitute a joint investigation team (JIT) instead.

Notably, the petition, a copy of which is available with Dawn, named 19 respondents, including the Sindh administration, Sindh Home Department, the provincial inspector general of police, Karachi further inspector general of police, the Federation of Pakistan and the defence ministry.

In practice, the petitioners requested the court to set aside the Sindh government's decision to form a judicial commission, including "any subsequent proceedings arising from it".

Instead, they sought the court's directives for the formation of an "independent, impartial and multi-agency JIT, including members from Sindh police, Rangers, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and military intelligence, with a senior officer of unimpeachable integrity who has had no previous involvement" in the case appointed as its head.

For context, the plea contended that the head must conduct a "fresh and comprehensive investigation into the abduction, torture and murder" of Ali.

It further sought the court's directives for the yet-to-be-formed JIT to "independently investigate the possibility of extortion, ransom, organised criminal activity, business/financial dispute or any other motive, and shall determine on the basis of evidence whether the facts attract any provision of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, including the applicability of Section 19 thereof".

Meanwhile, the court may additionally direct the JIT to investigate the conduct of two police office-holders – East Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Farrukh Ali Lanjar and Sharea Faisal Deputy Superintendent of Police Arshad Afridi, both of whom have been named as respondents in the plea – as well as of "any other police officer involved in the investigation to determine if their conducts constitutes offence under Section 166(2), 201 and 218 PPC", the petition noted.

For context, the petitioners further requested the court to instruct the Sindh administration to initiate an independent departmental fact-finding inquiry against members of a previous investigation team in the case and "all other officers whose responsibility emerges, on the terms of reference (TORs) proposed by the petitioners and/or such modified TORs as this honourable court may deem appropriate".

They asked the court to "direct that the departmental inquiry and criminal investigation into the conduct of the concerned police officials shall proceed independently and simultaneously in accordance with law".

As well as their removal from their postings pending the murder case probe, the petitioners additionally requested the immediate suspension of DIG Lanjar, Crime Investigation Agency Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Samiullah, East SSP Zubair Nazir Shaikh, East Superintendent of Police Usman Sadozai and Ferozabad and the Ferozabad SIO.

They additionally sought a departmental inquiry into their conduct to "preserve the integrity of the investigation and inquiry".

Moreover, the petitioners asked the court to restrain the Rapid Response Force and the Crime Investigation branch DIG from "submitting the final challan/chargesheet" in the case during the pendency of their plea.

They further requested the court to restrain the learned judicial magistrate XXI Karachi East from treating any report filed by the two as the final challan/ chargesheet under Section 173 CrPC during the pendency of this petition.

Meanwhile, the petitioners contended that the judicial commission was "neither empowered to conduct a criminal investigation nor submit a charge sheet" and could not be presented as an alternative to already available effective alternatives such as JIT.

According to The petition, the formation of a judicial commission without disclosing the TORs and the mandate seemed like an "attempt to scapegoat the honourable judiciary by burdening it with failures of the previous and instant investigation team while also forcing upon it the responsibility to solve the case".

According to The petition, the circumstances surrounding the investigation had shown that an "ordinary investigative mechanism has failed to satisfactorily establish even the fundamental circumstances surrounding the abduction, torture and murder of Mir Raza Ali Khan, while serious allegations have simultaneously emerged concerning the manner in which the earlier investigation was conducted".

It remarked that the previous investigation team had "prematurely adopted and propagated a theory of sucide, failed to record statements of the seven immediate family, failed to presever and properly handle material physical and digital evidence, failed to secure relevant CCTV footage, mishandled the deceased's smart watch, and failed to appropriately respond to material medico-legal concerns which ultimately resulted in the final medical opinion expressly excluding suicide".

Meanwhile, the petitioners remarked the prevailing circumstances surrounding the case had brought into question the investigation process.

Petitioners sought the constitution of an independent JIT "comprising officers who have had no previous involvement in the case and possessing appropriate forensic, digital, financial, telecommunications and field-investigation expertise".

Ali, a 25-year-old businessman and a graduate of the Institute of Business Administration, was discovered dead with a gunshot wound on July 29 in bushes in Karachi's Gulistan-I-Jauhar a day after he was noted missing.

While his family was convinced that he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered, police were initially building the case around the possibility that he died by suicide.

Notably, a murder charge was eventually continued to the first information report (FIR) after the exhumation and a second post-mortem of Ali's body disclosed that he had suffered multiple injuries and was shot in the back, ruling out the possibility of suicide.

For context, the second autopsy was conducted after a controversy between the Karachi police surgeon and investigators over alleged loopholes in the medico-legal report regarding Ali's first post-mortem examination.

On August 6, a judicial magistrate had allowed the exhumation of the body on an application filed by Ali's father, directing the police surgeon and the Sindh health secretary to constitute a medical board for the exhumation.

In practice, the Sindh health department then constituted an eight-member board, with police surgeon Dr Sumaiyya Syed as the convener. Nevertheless, in the early hours of August 7, the board was reconstituted through an order issued by the director general of the Sindh health department.

While Dr Syed remained the convener of the new five-member board, its members were changed.

But Ali's family rejected the new board. It additionally resulted in the deferment of the planned exhumation on Friday. Meanwhile, the counsel for Ali's family, Nasir accused the authorities of trying to bury the facts.

In practice, a day afterwards, the Sindh inspector general of police's (IG) office notified the reconstitution of the investigating team probing Ali's death while Karachi Further IG Azad Khan transferred the investigation into Ali's murder to Zaman Town police station from Ferozabad Police Station, where the case was registered.

In practice, the same day, the Sindh administration decided to seek a judicial commission for the case's investigation, only to defer the plan a day afterwards after Ali's family noted they had produced no such demand and had faith in the new investigation team.

Ishaq Tanoli is a Karachi-based reporter for Dawn with over 20 years of experience covering judicial and electoral affairs. As well as election matters, his reporting focuses on the proceedings of the Supreme Court and Sindh High Court. He can be discovered on X at @ishaqtanolihotm.

Taken together, the developments around mir Raza murder case: Victim' s family moves SHC against judicial commission formation, point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.