KARACHI: A judicial commission investigating the death of Mir Raza Ali has described the police investigation as an “epic failure”, finding serious lapses ranging from negligence and poor supervision to a failure to preserve evidence and pursue the case professionally.
The single-member commission, headed by Sindh High Court judge Justice Omar Sial, said police breached required procedures necessary to withstand judicial scrutiny and support a successful prosecution, according to the executive summary, submitted to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on October 15.
The commission was constituted by the Sindh government to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of 25-year-old Mir Raza, assess the impartiality of police and medico-legal investigations and identify any professional negligence, misconduct, manipulation of evidence or cover-up.
Mir Raza, an IBA graduate who ran a waffle-making business, left his PECHS home in the early hours of July 28. His family reported him missing the same day, while his body was recovered the following morning within the jurisdiction of Gulistan-e-Johar police station.
‘Rudderless ship’
In its assessment of police conduct, the commission found a lack of leadership, seriousness and supervision, as well as negligence by senior officers in some instances.
“The handling of this case has been like a rudderless ship, not aware of its destination,” the report observed.
It described the investigation as ranging from “negligent to criminally negligent”, as well as inexplicable, casual and unprofessional.
Significantly, the commission said an active cover-up during the initial stages of the investigation could not be conclusively ruled out, while senior police officers had swept clear investigative lapses “under the carpet” instead of acknowledging or addressing them.
The report also accused senior officers of “tunnel vision”, saying they became so focused on a single objective that they failed to see the bigger picture.
It said police, driven by ego and a desire to avoid publicly admitting an error, doubled down on their initial suicide theory rather than investigating further.
According to the commission, dozens of authorised and unauthorised police officers became involved in collecting evidence and approaching and interrogating crucial individuals, often without documenting their actions.
The result, it said, was that no officer was willing to take responsibility for the lapses, with responsibility instead shifted to subordinates or the shortcomings denied altogether.
The commission further criticised police communication, saying neither the family nor the public was kept informed through official disclosures. Police also failed to follow its recommendation to appoint a focal person, contributing to further public speculation.
Suicide theory
The report noted that police initially raised suicide as the cause of Mir Raza’s death, but his family questioned the conclusion after observing what they said were visible torture marks.
Following concerns raised by the police surgeon over anomalies in the first post-mortem report, the body was exhumed on August 8. The final official report later confirmed the cause of death as a perforating firearm injury from the back, ruling out suicide. Murder and destruction-of-evidence provisions were subsequently added to the FIR.
The commission said the police hypothesis had relied on unconfirmed and unsubstantiated text messages, selective video footage and the first post-mortem report, which itself had not concluded that Mir Raza died by suicide.
It said the bullet trajectory, wound characteristics, absence of blood, condition of the body, acid burns and anaesthesia detected in the blood excluded suicide.
“The police investigation failed in its most basic duty: to establish the truth,” the commission concluded, adding that the post-mortem findings left no doubt that Mir Raza was murdered.
JIT recommended
Turning to the way forward, the commission said the case had reached a “critical juncture”, with public trust in the police severely damaged.
It found that a significant portion of physical evidence had been compromised, meaning the case could now only be resolved through a rigorous, intelligence-based investigation.
The commission recommended that police transparently acknowledge and apologise for past operational lapses and immediately initiate formal inquiries against officers responsible for them.
It also recommended accepting the family’s request for a Joint Investigation Team, describing a JIT as the “most viable path” in the extraordinary circumstances.
The proposed JIT should be headed by DIG Irfan Baloch and include senior representatives of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau, Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) and National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency to ensure an impartial and comprehensive investigation.
Separately, the commission recommended a high-level committee, preferably led by the Federal Investigation Agency, to determine whether police officials involved in the first 10 days of the probe violated Sections 201, 166(2) and 218 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The committee should initiate criminal action, alongside disciplinary proceedings, against any officials found culpable, it recommended.
The commission stressed, however, that it did not itself possess investigative powers and therefore could not conclusively determine that an active cover-up had occurred, although it said certain “inexplicable actions” raised the possibility of one at some stage.
