ISLAMABAD (Monitoring Desk) – Former MQM worker and Karachi’s most notorious target killer, Saulat Mirza, who after spilling some really baneful beans had had his neck out of the noose for 72 hours, has now been given a death reprieve for a full month, Samaa reported on Friday.
Earlier, authorities had delayed Mirza’s hanging by three days, as a video of him emerged claiming his party chief had ordered him to carry out killings.
Moreover, the government has decided to form a Joint Investigation Team comprising members of superior judiciary, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies.
He was due to be hanged on Thursday but a stay was ordered, just as a video was circulated showing Mirza making striking allegations against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) – the main party in Pakistan’s violent economic hub of Karachi, of which he was an activist.
Mirza claimed Hussain had ordered him to carry out the murder for which he was sentenced to hang. “Altaf Hussain directed us through Babar Ghauri (a senior party leader) that the KESC MD has to be killed,” Mirza said in the video, which was leaked to dozens of news channels.
It was not clear who shot or leaked the video, and the official reason given for the stay of execution was stayed was Mirza’s ill health.
Saulat Mirza 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.
