ISLAMABAD:
A day after Saulat Mirza’s confessional video was released, a stay order on his execution for a period of 90 days was sent to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, according to sources.
Mirza, a target killer, was sentenced to death in 1999 on charges of murdering former managing director of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation Shahid Hamid along with his driver Ashraf Brohi and guard Akbar Khan in July 1997 in Karachi.
In the video released just hours before he was due to be executed, Mirza alleged that he received the order for the ‘hit’ from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain at MQM leader Babar Ghauri’s residence.
The government has been in talks with legal experts pertaining to Mirza’s case and it is expected that a decision will be reached today.
Mirza is also expected to record his statements in front of a magistrate. All the names mentioned in the video will also be questioned.
Following Mirza’s concerns expressed in his video about the security of his family, five policemen were deployed outside his home on Thursday.
Observing the way things have been happening in Pakistan, I remember TV comedy programme 'Gora Saheb' in which every now and then, the main character used to say "What a country". We know of the case of Shafqat Hussain who was awarded death sentence and was given the reprieve just before the execution, on the plea that he was under-age at the time he committed the murder.
And now TV Channel Dunya News has shown the photographs of the person, including one taken by the Police soon after committing the murder which in no way could be the one of a 13-year-old. In fact, according to the channel, his age at that time was stated as 23 years in police records.
And now we have the case of Saulat Mirza for whom the legal process and available remedies like mercy appeals had been exhausted and he was just hours away from the gallows. However, his hanging has been stayed after airing of a video in which he claimed receiving telephonic orders to commit murders from Altaf Hussain at the residence of other MQM leader in Karachi. It will be interesting to note that the reason for staying his execution was given by the Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on the floor of the National Assembly as ill health. In any normal country, a probe would have been launched as to how a condemned prisoner in death cell got access to all these facilities but ignoring all that, and taking the words of the murderer as gospel, the government is putting the names of MQM leaders mentioned in the video on the exit control list.
At the same time, the Interior Ministry has put in a request for deferring Saulat Mirza's execution for ninety days through it was not clarified whether the request was accompanied by a medical report.
And now two top state officials are jointly considering Interior Ministry's request for deferment of Saulat Mirza's execution. There is a saying that two heads are better than one but I suppose that must be subject to some conditions. Come to think of it, this was not the only case of two heads pondering over an issue.
In the meantime, Uzair Baloch has also leveled some very serious charges against top Peoples Party leadership but that has hardly created any ripples: perhaps no one is interested in that.
And while the armed forces are playing their part, eliminating terrorists in the tribal areas, the rest of the National Action Plan, especially the part required to be played by the civilian administration, and over a long period of time, seems to be nearly forgotten. Instead, the full state machinery and might seems to be directed against MQM, as if that is the beginning and end of all of Pakistan's problems.
And the case of killing of fourteen and wounding of another eighty at Dr. Tahirul Qadri's secretariat at Model Town is almost as good as buried. I suppose the people were just unlucky and that's it.
Karachi
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