KARACHI, July 13: A special medical board tasked to carry out the second postmortem examination of Kafila Siddiqui, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, submitted on Friday its provisional report to the Islamabad judicial magistrate with observations that the body bears signs of violence, Dawn has learnt.

The chairman of the five-member medical board, Prof Dr Umar Memon, said the provisional report had been dispatched to the Islamabad judicial magistrate, Sindh health department, home department and police surgeon office.

Former minister of state for communications Mohammad Shahid Jamil Qureshi, facing charges of illegally detaining Ms Kafila, had to resign from the cabinet in June.

Prof Memon, head of the department of forensic medicine at the Dow University of Health Sciences, refused to be drawn on the findings of the provisional report, saying that it was confidential. However, he conceded that the victim’s body bore signs of violence.

“Ideally a meeting of the board members and the two doctors who had conducted the first postmortem examination should have been held. This would have made our job much easier. Nevertheless, we have formed our opinion and passed the report to the authorities concerned,” said Prof Memon.

The samples of toxicology, histopathology and radiology had been sent to a local lab after taking consent of the family members; however their results were awaited, Prof added.

The board comprising Prof Memon, Prof Dr Ghulam Ali, head of the department of forensic medicine Sindh Medical College, Dr Bashir Shaikh, police surgeon, Dr Kausar and Dr Nasreen was notified by the health department on June 25 and was able to carry out the postmortem examination following exhumation on July 10.

Following the second autopsy the board members had reached a consensus that the first postmortem carried out at PIMS Islamabad was “very superficial” and was conducted either by a very junior doctor or was performed under pressure, Dawn learnt on Tuesday.

Sources said that mystery still surrounds a 6cm-by-4cm mark on Kafila’s forehead, as it’s not clear if it was an old injury or a bruise caused during the first postmortem. There was no mention of the mark in the PIMS report.Bloodstains were found in her left eye as well as on the cheeks. “Violence cannot be ruled out on Kafila,” the sources said. However, the final cause of death was reserved, they added.

“A window measuring 7X5 cm was made in the skull during the first postmortem, but ironically it was not mentioned in the postmortem report,” the sources pointed out.