KARACHI: Death row convict Saulat Mirza filed a constitutional petition in the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday, claiming that his family has been receiving death threats.

Mirza, who is presently languishing in Balochistan's Machh jail, petitioned through his counsel, saying that his family has been receiving death threats in phone calls from South Africa.

It further claimed that Mirza's family knew the identity of the callers and wanted to expose them before police.

It also stated that those issuing the threats had demanded that no statements be recorded against their members.

Mirza's lawyer also forwarded a copy of the petition to Inspector General (IG) Sindh Ghulam Hyder Jamali, Sindh Home Department and Sindh Law Secretary.

Saulat Ali Khan, better known as Saulat Mirza, a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, was sentenced to death by an ATC in 1999 for killing the then managing director of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, Shahid Hamid, his driver, and a guard in 1997 in the Defence area.

The trial court had issued the first black warrant against the condemned prisoner on March 11 and asked the jail authorities to send him to the gallows on March 19.

However, the president had deferred the execution a few hours before the convict was to be hanged after private news channels aired a video message of the convict in which he levelled serious allegations against the top MQM leadership. Later, a joint investigation team was also constituted to grill the death row prisoner.

Another black warrant was issued on March 24 for April 1 after the jail officials informed the trial court on March 22 that the three-day stay had ended and they had not received any further stay order.

The SHC had dismissed his appeal in 2000 and the Supreme Court also turned down his plea against the capital punishment in 2001. A review petition was rejected by the apex court in 2004. Over a decade-old mercy petition of the convict was recently rejected by the president a couple of months ago.

The death row prisoner along with some other high-profile inmates was shifted from Karachi to the Machh prison in April last year. The SHC twice turned down the applications of the convict’s relatives seeking his transfer back to the Karachi central prison after the provincial authorities informed it that the condemned prisoner had been moved to Machh jail for security reasons.

Take a look: ATC asked to issue new black warrant for Saulat Mirza’s hanging