KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday called for a report on two criminal cases pending disposal against Saulat Mirza, a death row prisoner belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

The order came on an application of the MQM worker seeking deferment of his execution on different grounds, one of them being that there were two criminal cases against him pending trial and he may not be executed till their disposal.

On Thursday, Mirza moved the application, fourth in a row, against his execution to the SHC Chief Justice Faisal Arab through a courier service.

Also read: Saulat Mirza's death warrant issued for May 12

He was sentenced to death by an antiterrorism court for his involvement in the killing of the then Karachi Electric Supply Corporation managing director Shahid Hamid in 1997 and was scheduled to be hanged in March 2015. But hours before his hanging, he levelled serious allegations against the MQM, its chief Altaf Hussain and the Sindh governor in a video statement aired on almost all news channels.

Subsequently, the president postponed his hanging and the Sindh government set up a joint interrogation team to investigate the allegations.

The fresh application was sent by Mirza’s lawyer, Advocate Juma Khan, after the SHC member inspection team had turned down an identical application, advising his counsel to seek legal remedy under the law.

In his fresh application, the condemned prisoner also cited the MIT-II and an assistant registrar as respondents for not placing his three previous applications before the chief justice.

The applicant also impleaded the Machh jail superintendent, Baloch­istan and Sindh home secretaries, Sindh law minister, Sindh police chief and an ATC as respondents, asking the court to direct them not to execute him till the disposal of his applications before the SHC.

In one of his applications, the convict had urged the court to order the police to include in the Shahid Hamid murder case the accused persons he had named in his latest statement.

The convict also informed the SHC that some people in South Africa were giving threats to his wife and other family members, whose lives were in danger.

He had requested the SHC chief justice through his previous letters to order recording of his statement before a judicial magistrate so that a fresh charge-sheet in the Shahid Hamid murder case could be submitted in the trial court against the accused persons he had mentioned in his statement.

Mirza also stated in his application that his wife knew the names of those who extended threats of dire consequences. He requested the court to direct the law-enforcers to immediately arrest those giving the threats.

Sources said that the SHC chief justice directed the MIT-II to place before him a report containing details of the two cases pending disposal against the death row convict.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2015

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