KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court issued on Wednesday black warrant for a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Move­ment sentenced to death in a triple murder case and asked the jail authorities to send him to the gallows on March 19.

Saulat Ali Khan, better known as Saulat Mirza, was sentenced by an anti-terrorism court in May 1999 for murdering the then managing director of the Karachi Electric Supply Company, Shahid Hamid, his driver and guard in July 1997 in the city’s Defence Housing Authority area.

The jail authorities approached the trial court on Wednesday and asked it to issue black warrant for the condemned prisoner since his appeals had been turned down by the higher and superior courts and his mercy petition was also dismissed by the president.

Judge Mohammad Javed Alam of ATC-V issued the black warrant and asked the superintendent of Mach jail in Balochistan to hang him till death at 5:30am on March 19.

The court also asked the jail authorities to carry out the execution under the supervision of a judicial magistrate after fulfilling legal formalities.

Saulat Mirza, along with some other high-profile prisoners, was shifted from Karachi to Mach prison in April last year. A brother of Saulat Mirza moved the Sindh High Court in May, seeking his transfer back to Karachi prison. The SHC disposed of the petition since the provincial authorities had informed it that he had been moved to Mach jail for security reasons.

The SHC dismissed the appeal of Saulat Mirza in 2000 and the Supreme Court turned down his plea against capital punishment in 2001, while a review petition was rejected by the apex court in 2004.

Saulat Mirza’s over a decade-old mercy petition was recently turned down by the president.

According to the prosecution, Shahid Hamid, his driver Ashraf Brohi, and guard Khan Akbar were gunned down when the then KESC chief had left his house in DHA in his car on July 5, 1997. The then SHO of Gulbahar, Mohammad Aslam Khan, had arrested the accused in December 1998 from Karachi airport when he was travelling on a fake passport.

Police had alleged that the offence had been carried out to avenge the removal of MQM supporters working in the KESC by the slain MD. The conviction was mainly based on the evidence of three eyewitnesses; the slain KESC chief’s wife Shahnaz, son Umar Hamid and a chance witness Mirza Tariq Javed.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of Anti-terrorism Act, 1997, on the complaint of KESC chief’s widow at Defence police station.

Twenty-four condemned prisoners have so far been hanged across the country since the PML-N government lifted a moratorium on execution on Dec 17 last year in the wake of the Peshawar school tragedy. The PPP government had placed the moratorium after coming to power in 2008.

Saleem Shahid adds from Quetta: The Superintendent of Mach Central Jail received on Wednesday the black warrant of Saulat Mirza.

Balochistan Home Secretary Akbar Durrani told Dawn the death warrant had been received.

He said the Sindh government had not yet made any request for shifting the condemned prisoner for his execution in Karachi jail.

Published in Dawn March 12th , 2015

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