KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Saturday directed the provincial police chief, deputy inspector general of police, Malir zone, DIG of the Crime Investigation Department and others to file their respective comments on a petition seeking the whereabouts of a brother of death row convict Saulat Ali Khan, better known as Saulat Mirza, set to be hanged on March 19.

The petition against the detention of Farhat Ali Khan was filed by his sister Obaida Kamal, who said her brother was taken away by law enforcement personnel from his Gulshan-i-Maymar house on March 11.

Read: Saulat Mirza to be executed on March 19

She impleaded the inspector general of police, DIGs of Malir zone and CID, SIO and SHO of the Ghulshan-i-Maymar police station as respondents.

The woman stated that she contacted the area police and other authorities to ascertain the whereabouts of her illegally detained brother, but they feigned ignorance about his arrest.

After a preliminary hearing, a division bench consisting of Justices Abdur Rasool Memon and Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro also issued a notice to the provincial law officer and put off the matter to a date to be later fixed by the court’s office.

Also read: SHC disposes of plea challenging Saulat Mirza death warrant

The petitioner woman told the judges that her brother was a patient of mouth cancer and he was not wanted in any case, still he had been arrested by the law enforcers and was being kept in illegal detention.

She asked the court to direct the respondents to recover her brother and produce in court.

Saulat Mirza, a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, was condemned to death by an antiterrorism court on May 24, 1999 for killing the then managing director of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, his driver and a guard on July 5, 1997 in Defence Housing Authority.

An antiterrorism court recently issued the black warrant, commonly known as the death warrant, for the MQM activist fixing March 19 for his hanging.

Saulat Mirza’s execution is expected to take place at 5.30am at the Machh jail in Balochistan, where he was moved with four other high-profile prisoners in April 2014 due to security concerns.

The security in and around the Machh jail is stated to have been tightened extraordinarily.

Saulat’s missing brother, Farhat Ali Khan, had in May 2014 moved the SHC against his shifting from the Karachi central prison to the penitentiary in Balochistan. However, the petition was dismissed after the provincial authorities submitted in court that the convict was shifted to the Machh jail for security reasons.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2015

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