Court orders to perform autopsy on Aamir Liaquat’s body

KARACHI: In a bid to ascertain the actual cause of his mysterious death, an additional district and sessions judge (Karachi East) on Saturday ordered to conduct an autopsy on the body of television personality and PTI leader Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain.

On June 16, a citizen, Abdul Ahad, moved the sessions court seeking the exhumation and autopsy of Aamir Liaquat’s body to ascertain the causes of his demise.

He was buried earlier this month after his family refused postmortem despite the police's insistence, however, the family approached the court and obtained the permission in their favour.

In its plea, the applicant had said that the mysterious and sudden death of the TV host and politician at his residence in Karachi on June 9 had raised “reasonable suspicion among the citizens of Karachi that he had been murdered over some property disputes”.

The judicial magistrate had reserved its judgment after hearing the arguments of both the parties earlier in the day. Later in the afternoon, the judge announced his verdict, ruling that Aamir Liaquat Hussain’s body be exhumed for the postmortem examination.

In his application, the citizen had said, "In the presence of grave suspicions and doubts, this court has an absolute jurisdiction to order the respondents to hold disinterment, exhumation and post-mortem of the deceased to discover, unearth and ascertain the actual cause of death of Aamir Liaquat Hussain under Sections 174 and 176 of the Criminal Procedure Code [CrPC].”

The applicant had argued that the superior courts had passed several judgements in similar cases in which “reasonable suspicion” had been deemed sufficient for the autopsy, saying that the mere fact that the family or legal heirs of the deceased were refusing consent was not valid grounds in terms of Section 173 of the CrPC.

He said that the court is empowered to order the Sindh health director general to constitute a special medical board to exhume the body for an autopsy. 

The court was pleaded to order the exhumation and post-mortem examination of Hussain’s body, and direct the health DG to form a medical board for the purpose.