Says it can not decide plea since apex court has already passed an order on the matter
The Sindh High Court Friday rejected a petition filed by Nikhat Mirza, wife of death-row convict Saulat Mirza, which sought deferment of her husband’s execution and re-opening of the Shahid Hamid’s murder case.
The court rejected the petition and said it could not decide the petition since the apex court had already passed an order on the matter. Earlier on Thursday, the high court had directed the home secretary and the provincial chiefs of prisons of Sindh and Balochistan to submit their respective comments on the petition.
A two-judge bench headed by Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto had also ordered the law officers of the two provincial governments to ensure filing of comments by the respondent authorities until Friday.
In her petition, Nikhat Mirza had requested the court to stay implementation on death warrant of her husband until the re-investigation into the murder of former KESC chief Shahid Hamid was concluded.
She had also asked the court to include in the probe leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) who were named in her husband’s confessional statement released a few hours before his execution was scheduled to take place on March 19.
Nikhat had also said her husband would help bring the other accused to justice and added if Mirza was hanged, the evidence would be buried and no one else would ever dare to speak the truth.
Former MQM worker, Saulat Ali Khan, better known as Saulat Mirza is set to be hanged on May 12 in Machh Jail after his death warrant were issued for a third time on May 2. He was sentenced to death by an ATC in 1999 for killing then managing director of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation Shahid Hamid, his driver, and a guard in 1997 in Karachi’s Defence area.
The SHC had dismissed his appeal in 2000 and the Supreme Court had also turned down his plea against the sentence in 2001. A review petition in this regard was rejected by the apex court in 2004. Over a decade-old mercy petition of the convict was also rejected by the president last year.
The convict was shifted from Karachi to Machh prison in April last year.
The trial court had issued the first black warrant against Mirza on March 11 and had asked jail authorities to send him to the gallows on March 19. However, the president had deferred the execution a few hours before the convict was to be hanged after private news channels aired his video message in which he levelled serious allegations against the top MQM leadership.
Later, a joint investigation team was also constituted to grill the death row prisoner. Another black warrant for Mirza was issued on March 24 for hanging on April 1 after jail officials informed the trial court on March 22 that the three-day stay ordered by the president had ended and they had not received any further stay orders.