• Justice Omar Sial records testimonies of 49 witnesses in 15 hearings
• On request of deceased family’s counsel to make findings public, commission head says he will send report to CM

KARACHI: The judicial commission formed to investigate the circumstances and possible negligence surrounding the murder of Mir Raza Ali concluded its proceedings on Wednesday after recording the testimonies of the investigating officer (IO) and an official of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC).

The one-man commission, headed by Justice Omar Sial of the Sindh High Court, was formed on Aug 24 and concluded its proceedings after recording the statements of 49 witnesses during 15 hearings, including a visit to the place where Mir Raza’s body was found.

On Wednesday, the IO, DSP Siraj Ahmed Lashari, and Kashif Iftikhar, Assistant Chief Operations/Complaint Resolution Centre of the CPLC, recorded their testimonies before the commission.

The CPLC official, along with his team member, briefed the commission that the committee had been providing technical support to the police and had been part of the investigation since the day Raza went missing. He added that initially, the maternal aunt of the deceased had contacted the CPLC to report that her nephew was missing.

When asked whether the CPLC found anything suspicious, he told the commission that after independently examining the call data records (CDRs) of the deceased and others, geofencing and CCTV footage, “no concrete clue” had been found so far, while emphasising that the investigation was still ongoing.

He also revealed, in response to a query, that Raza had browsed Apple Maps on his phone between 4:10am and 4:20am while he was possibly en route to the location in an online cab.

Regarding a query about the last call made from the deceased’s number, the CPLC official said it was to the driver of the online cab. After the CPLC official’s testimony, IO Lashari came to the rostrum.

The IO told the commission that he had been investigating the case from the murder perspective, but faced tough questioning from Justice Sial, who repeatedly highlighted lapses, lacunas and negligence on the part of the police during the investigation.

At one point, the commission asked the IO whether wild bushes at the scene of crime should have been set on fire while the police were searching for empty bullet shells. The IO agreed, saying this should not have happened.

In response to the family’s counsel, Jibran Nasir, who highlighted the suspicious movement of a car, the IO emphasised that despite thoroughly checking the vehicle through the Safe City system and other sources, “no suspicious linkage” had been found with any person.

At that point, the commission observed that the investigation appeared to have been conducted with “tunnel vision”.

In response to a query about whether anything had been recovered from the deceased’s iPhone, DSP Lashari told the commission that the phone had been returned from forensics and that the Punjab Forensic Science Agency said that the data could not be recovered from it.

He claimed that there was no technique to unlock the phone in the country, which he said had the latest security features. However, he assured the commission that correspondence with Apple was still ongoing.

Meanwhile, counsel Nasir moved an application on behalf of the family, requesting the commission to make its final report public. Justice Sial remarked that he would send the report to the Sindh chief minister, who would decide whether to make it public.

At the conclusion of the proceedings, Justice Sial expressed his gratitude to the chief justice, chief minister, home minister and Faryal Talpur, as well as the family of the deceased, whom he said had participated in the commission’s proceedings with dignity. He expressed hope that they had received answers to their questions.

On July 29, police found the body of young entrepreneur Mir Raza, bearing a single bullet wound, in a desolate area of Gulistan-i-Jauhar, a day after he went missing. Initially, police registered it as suicide.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2026