The Sindh High Court reserved its verdict on a plea from the family of Mir Raza Ali, a 25-year-old Karachi businessman found dead with a gunshot wound last month. The family is seeking the formation of a joint investigation team (JIT) instead of a judicial commission to investigate the case, which they claim has been mishandled by authorities. Jibran Nasir, the family's lawyer, alleged that police personnel had destroyed evidence and spread false news through the media, and that no action was taken against them despite allegations of tampering with evidence. The court questioned the difference between a JIT and a judicial commission, with the state's lawyer arguing that a JIT would investigate from various angles while a commission can provide assistance in investigation.
Written by the local model on 2026-08-31,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it -0.55, but none of the 2 quote(s) it offered could be found in the article text, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph
rather than checkable quotes. Re-analysing this article replaces it.
Leaning score withheld for article 3350: no verified evidence · logged 2026-08-31
The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday reserved its verdict on a plea seeking the formation of a joint investigation team (JIT) in the Mir Raza Ali murder case.
asserted
Court → reserve → case
Ali, a 25-year-old Karachi-based businessman, was found dead with a gunshot wound in Gulistan-i-Jauhar last month, a day after he was reported missing on July 28.
asserted
he → base → July
His family, which has raised questions about the case’s investigation and accused authorities of trying to bury the facts, had moved the SHC last week against a decision of the provincial government to form a judicial commission and sought the formation of a JIT instead.
asserted
which → raise → JIT
However, authorities proceeded with the commission, with Justice Omar Sial appointed as its head.
asserted
Sial → proceed → head
A two-member constitutional bench, headed by Justice Adnan Karim Memon, took up the family’s petition on Monday.
asserted
bench → head → Monday
The Sindh advocate general (AG), prosecutor general, Karachi police surgeon, police officials, the case’s investigating officer, Ali’s family, and their counsel Jibran Nasir appeared before the court during the hearing.
asserted
general → investigate → hearing
Nasir reiterated the demand for a JIT, following which the court enquired about the difference between a JIT and a judicial commission.
asserted
court → reiterate → JIT
To that, the state’s lawyer said, “A JIT will investigate the case from various angles while a commission can provide assistance in the investigation”.
asserted
commission → say → investigation
Nasir reminded the court that to investigate the Gul Plaza blaze, a JIT and a commission were formed separately.
asserted
JIT → remind → blaze
He further alleged that police personnel had destroyed evidence in the case, adding that this was also mentioned in his plea.
Nasir also accused police of “spreading false news through the media” and added that no statements were recorded several days after the case was registered and that the “crime scene was set on fire”.
“It was set on fire to search for a bullet, just as the crime scene was washed in Rawalpindi,” he said, seemingly referring to the washing of the site of the killing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
asserted
he → allege → 2007
He said no action was taken against the police officers “who destroyed the case and tampered with the evidence”.
“We had demanded departmental action,” Nasir said, adding that it was the investigation team’s job to find the suspects.
asserted
it → say → suspects
The Sindh advocate general informed the court that the “commission’s function was to investigate the negligence (in the investigation)”.
asserted
function → inform → investigation
Nasir maintained that “the SC has in the past also granted permission to form a JIT as well in case of administrative sabotage”.
asserted
SC → maintain → sabotage
“There is sabotage at the highest level of the police in this case,” he said, recalling that police had declared the case shut “even before Ali’s grave was dug” — a reference to the exhumation of Ali’s body for a second autopsy after the Karachi police surgeon pointed out loopholes in the first post-mortem report.
asserted
surgeon → be → report
When the court observed that the government had already formed a commission, Nasir argued that the commission would be supported by the “same team that has failed to trace the suspects even after a month”.
asserted
that → observe → month
For his part, the Sindh AG clarified that the provincial government was “not against the family”.
asserted
government → clarify → family
Following these arguments, the court reserved its order on the petition.
asserted
court → follow → petition
The petition was filed on August 24 in objection to the provincial government’s decision to form a judicial commission and sought the formation of an independent and multi-agency JIT “comprising officers who have had no previous involvement in the case” in place of the commission.
asserted
who → file → commission
The decision to form the commission came in response to a letter addressed to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah by Ali’s parents — Mir Hussain and Mariam Hussain — seeking his “direct supervision of the murder investigation” into the slain business owner’s death.
asserted
decision → form → death
They also urged the chief minister to order an investigation and departmental inquiry into the previous investigation team and immediately suspend the officers involved.
asserted
They → urge → officers
The letter was written as lapses in the investigation emerged.
asserted
lapses → write → investigation
While Ali’s family was convinced that he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered, police had initially built the case around the possibility that he died by suicide.
asserted
he → convince → suicide
However, a murder charge was eventually added to the first information report (FIR) after the exhumation and a second post-mortem of Ali’s body revealed that he had suffered multiple injuries and was shot in the back, ruling out the possibility of suicide.
asserted
he → add → suicide
The second autopsy was conducted after a controversy between the Karachi police surgeon and investigators over alleged loopholes in the medico-legal report regarding Ali’s first post-mortem examination.
asserted
autopsy → conduct → examination
