An anti-terrorism court in Karachi on Tuesday acquitted two Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) workers facing charges of involvement in the 1997 murder case of former Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) managing director Shahid Hamid.

The two accused — Mohammad Minhaj Qazi alias Asad, and Mehboob Ghufran alias Athar — along with their alleged accomplices, had been charged with the killing of the then-managing director of the KESC, his driver and a guard in Karachi’s DHA neighbourhood on July 5, 1997.

An ATC had already sentenced Saulat Mirza to death in 1999 in this case and he was executed in Balochistan’s Machh jail in 2015.

During the proceedings held at Karachi jail today, the court acquitted Qazi and Ghufran for lack of evidence and ordered their release, if they were not nominated in any pending case.

Defence counsel Advocate Mushtaq Ahmed contended before the court that Qazi had no connection with the case. He said that according to the first information report, the complainant had only seen Mirza outside Hamid’s car.

However, he said, the plaintiff changed her position after Qazi was arrested.

Rangers picked up Qazi on Feb 3, 2016 and placed him under 90-day preventive detention for an inquiry over his alleged involvement in terrorism cases. Later, he was handed over to the police and the investigation officer formally arrested him in the Shahid Hamid murder case.

In May 2016, Shahid Hamid’s widow Shahnaz and son Omar had identified Minhaj as one of the four hitmen during an identification parade held before a judicial magistrate.

According to the prosecution, Hamid, his driver Ashraf Brohi, and guard Khan Akbar were gunned down in an attack on his car in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority on July 5, 1997.

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

Mirza had been on death row for nearly 17 years before he was executed in Machh jail on May 12, 2015.

In a video aired before his death, Mirza had hurled serious allegations on the MQM and its top leadership, alleging he received direct orders from MQM chief Altaf Hussain via telephone at the residence of MQM leader Babar Ghauri to assassinate the then-KESC chief.