KARACHI: A 75-year-old professor and main leader of the Altaf Hussain-led Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Hasan Zafar Arif, was found dead in his car parked near the seashore in the Ibrahim Hyderi area, according to officials.

The place where the body was found gave way to questions with family members and friends and relatives demanding a thorough inquiry into the incident.

Police received information about the presence of the body inside a Lancer (ANC-016) at Ilyas Jutt Goth at around 8am, said Malir SSP Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan. It was lying in the rear seat and there were blood marks on his nose, added the police officer.

The police called an ambulance and took the body to the casualty department of the Jinnah Post-graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) where doctors confirmed his death, said Dr Seemin Jamali, executive director of the hospital.

The CT scan and other X-rays of the deceased were taken. Subsequently, the body was shifted to the mortuary where doctors conducted a post-mortem examination, said JPMC’s additional police surgeon Dr Sheeraz Ali Khowaja.

“Apparently, there were no signs of violence on his body,” said Dr Khowaja. There were also no signs of heart attack, thus the cause of death had been “reserved”, he added.

Dr Khowaja said that the gap between the post-mortem examination and the victim’s death was 10 to 15 hours.

Rao Anwar said that the deceased’s brother in his statement before the police said that Prof Zafar had left the office of a lawyer on Saturday evening for his home in the Defence Housing Authority, but he did not reach there. The family made telephone contact with him at around 9.30pm on Saturday, but did not receive any response.

Sindh home minister asks DIG Karachi East to conduct probe into incident.

The Malir SSP said that the police had seized the mobile phone of the deceased for investigation purposes.

Abdul Majeed Karwani, advocate of the MQM-London legal aid committee, talking to the media outside the JPMC mortuary said that late Prof Hasan called on him at his office at Fareed Chambers. The deceased left the lawyer’s office at around 6.75pm on Saturday and drove the car himself. Mr Karwani said the professor had told him that he was going to home as his daughter was supposed to leave for London on Sunday morning. But the professor’s wife told him on Sunday morning that he did not return home, he added.

Mr Karwani said that for the past 10 months he used to meet Prof Hasan on a regular basis. The lawyer demanded a proper inquiry into the incident as the place where his body was found did not include in his travel route. Besides, the professor had himself driven the car, but his body was found in the rear seat of the vehicle.

He pointed out that although the MQM’s coordination committee stood dissolved, Prof Hasan Zafar Arif was leading it in the country.

Some of the colleagues, students and progressive elements who arrived at the JPMC mortuary did not believe that Prof Hasan died of natural causes.

“Society has become so repressive that even a 70-year-old professor was not spared,” said KU professor Dr Riaz.

Iftikhar Khan, who introduced himself as a student and spiritual son of the late professor, said that he had never seen such a learned and compassionate person who had left the Pakistan Peoples Party when it came to power in 1988 after having some differences over the party’s policies.

He recalled that slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto used to say that Prof Hasan was the only person in the party who criticised her policies.

In October 2016, Dr Hasan was detained outside the Karachi Press Club where he, along with other leaders of the MQM-London, had gone to address a press conference. He had been booked for allegedly facilitating and listening to a controversial speech of MQM founder Altaf Hussain in which the latter reportedly tried to outrage religious feelings, criticised the military establishment and asked his workers to extort money from the traders.

In April last year, the professor was released from Central Prison, Karachi, after an antiterrorism court issued his release order.

Dr Hasan was an associate professor at the University of Karachi and a former fellow at Harvard University.

In a late-night development, Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal appointed DIG East Sultan Ali Khowaja as inquiry officer to conduct probe into Prof Arif’s death.

According to a spokesperson, the minister directed the police officer to submit a progress report on the case.

Earlier, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari expressed concern over the ‘disappearance and unnatural death’ of Prof Arif.

“Prof Hassan Zafar Arif was a progressive political activist,” said the PPP leader, adding that he had played an active role during the struggle against the dictatorial rule of Gen Zia.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2018