Judicial commission calls Mir Raza probe an ‘epic failure’

A judicial commission investigating the death of Karachi businessman Mir Raza Ali has declared that he was murdered and described the police investigation into the case as an “epic failure”, finding that officers breached every procedure required for the case to withstand judicial scrutiny.

“This case demonstrates an epic failure by the police in their investigation,” the 62-page report said.

“The police breached all required procedures, both knowingly and unknowingly, necessary to withstand judicial scrutiny and a successful prosecution.”

The Sindh cabinet decided on Tuesday to make the report public at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.

The single-member commission, formed by the provincial government in August, examined 49 witnesses over 15 hearings.

“It was a murder,” the report declared. It said the bullet trajectory, the unusual location of the wound, the absence of blood, the state of the body, acid burns and anaesthesia detected in the blood “all clearly excluded suicide as the cause of death.”

Ali, 25, an Institute of Business Administration graduate who ran a waffle business, went missing on July 28 after leaving his PECHS home. His body was recovered the following morning in Gulistan-i-Jauhar with gunshot wounds. Police initially built the case around suicide, relying on the first post-mortem, but police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed disputed its findings; the body was exhumed on August 8, and a second post-mortem concluded the death was caused by a gunshot wound to the back. Murder and destruction-of-evidence provisions were later added to the FIR.

The commission described the police handling of the case as “like a rudderless ship, not aware of its destination,” and the investigation as ranging “from negligent to criminally negligent, inexplicable, casual, and unprofessional.” It said dozens of officers — authorised and unauthorized — collected evidence and interrogated crucial persons without documenting their actions, and that senior officers, driven by ego and “tunnel vision,” doubled down on the suicide theory instead of investigating further.

Significantly, the report said an active cover-up in the initial stages “cannot be conclusively ruled out,” noting that senior officers swept clear investigative lapses under the carpet. “The police investigation failed in its most basic duty: to establish the truth,” it concluded.

The commission recommended accepting the family’s request for a joint investigation team headed by DIG Irfan Baloch and including senior representatives of the ISI, the Intelligence Bureau, Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) and the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency — calling it the “most viable path” to restore public trust.

It said a significant portion of physical evidence had been compromised, meaning the case could now only be resolved through a rigorous, intelligence-based investigation.

It also proposed a high-level committee, preferably led by the Federal Investigation Agency, to examine whether police officials involved in the probe’s first 10 days violated sections 201, 166(2) and 218 of the Pakistan Penal Code, and to initiate criminal action against those found culpable.

The report further called on police to publicly acknowledge and apologise for their lapses and recommended reforms to investigation protocols, with a three-month timeframe for the exercise.

The chief minister constituted a four-member sub-committee comprising Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, Local Government Minister Nasir Hussain Shah, Labour Minister Saeed Ghani and the Sindh advocate general to ensure implementation of the report.