RATODERO/KARACHI, Nov 3: Amid a sustained campaign being run by the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) for about seven months, the provincial government has finalised arrangements for sending viscera of the party’s founder, Bashir Khan Qureshi, to the United Kingdom for an analysis to ascertain the actual cause of his death.
Mr Qureshi died in Sakrand town in on April 6 while travelling to Karachi from his hometown, Ratodero.
His family and party leaders believe that he was murdered, claiming that he had been receiving threats from law-enforcement agencies personnel for some time before he died.
The provincial health department has constituted a 14-member committee to process the transportation of the specimen of Mr Qureshi’s viscera to the LFC Forensic Lab, UK for a re-analysis.
The committee is required to complete the process by Nov 6 and submit its report to the office of the CB Lab director, Services Hospital, Karachi, an official letter dated Oct 31 issued by the health secretary, Aftab Khatri, said.
The specimen would be handed over to a courier service in a day or two, official sources said.
The cost of the viscera analysis by foreign experts is estimated at Rs1 million, said an official, adding that the payment to the laboratory had already been made.
The committee comprises Prof Umer Memon (chairman), head of the forensic medicine department, Dow International Medical College, Karachi; Prof Hassan Mehmood, head of the pathology department, Sindh Medical College, Karachi; Dr Ghulam Ali, head of the forensic medicine department, Sindh Medical College, Karachi; Prof Kartar, head of the pathology department, Dow Medical College, Karachi; Prof Ashraf Khaskheli, head of the pathology department, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro; Dr Akber Kazi, head of the forensic medicine department, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro; Prof Murtaza Pathan, head of the pathology department, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University, Larkana; Prof Ghulam Qadir Kaheri, head of the forensic medicine department, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University Larkana; Dr Abdul Khaliq Abro, head of the pathology department, Ghulam Muhammad Mahar Medical College, Sukkur; Prof Anwar Ali Akhund, head of the pathology department, People’s University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women, Shaheed Benazirabad; Dr Ghulam Sarwar Pirzado, head of the forensic medicine department, People’s University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women, Shaheed Benazirabbad; the police surgeon and assistant police surgeon, Larkana; and the CB Lab, Karachi, convener/director. The Sindh government had earlier constituted a 15-member committee of forensic experts headed by the same person but JSQM had rejected it and insisted that the viscera analysis must be undertaken by international experts.
JSQM vice-chairman, Dr Niaz Kalani, speaking to PPI by phone, appreciated the reconstitution of the committee and the government’s decision to get the viscera analysed by foreign experts move. He, however, said that the government should also take into confidence Mr Qureshi’s heirs and arrange for sending some of them along with the experts’ team to the UK.
JSQM believes that Mr Qureshi was poisoned to death. It quotes Dr Umer Memon, head of the forensic experts committee, as saying that “we lack the required equipment” and some reports that the jars containing the viscera were changed and viscera from the heart and lungs of the deceased not taken.—PPI
Our Sukkur correspondent adds: JSQM activist sitting outside the Thull Press Club on Saturday continued their 72-hour hunger strike they had started on Friday.
JSQM vice-chairman Kehar Ansar and his party colleagues told the media that they would continue their protest until the authorities concerned complied with a court’s order regarding registration of a second FIR of their leader Bashir Qureshi’s alleged murder as desired by the bereaved family and the party leadership. They demanded immediate arrest of those involved in killing.