Ex-Nine Zero incharge Minhaj Qazi indicted in Shahid Hamid murder case

Karachi

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) indicted Muhammad Minhaj Qazi on Tuesday for the murder of the managing director of the defunct Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), Shahid Hamid, his guard and driver in 1997. 

Qazi, who is stated to be a former in-charge of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) headquarters, Nine Zero, pleaded not guilty. Upon this plea, the court summoned the prosecution witnesses to record their statements at the next hearing.

Saulat Mirza, a dissident MQM worker who was convicted in the triple murder case, was hanged at Central Machh Jail in Balochistan on May 11 last year.

The then SHO of Gulbahar Police Station, Mohammad Aslam Khan, popularly known as Chaudhry Aslam, had arrested Mirza at the Karachi airport in December 1998. Mirza had confessed to killing Hamid and also named his accomplices.

According to the prosecution, the offence was carried out to avenge the removal of MQM supporters from the KESC by the victim.

The ATC has earlier initiated proceedings for declaring MQM founder Altaf Hussain, Nadeem Nusrat, Rashid Akhtar alias Shaikh, Athar Hussian and Sohail Zaidi proclaimed offenders.

Hamid, his driver and guard were shot dead in the Defence area on July 5, 1997.

The case has now been reopened after 19 after the arrest of Minhaj Qazi alias Asad, who had been on the run, by Rangers on February 3.

A charge sheet was presented to the court against Qazi, Altaf Hussain, Nadeem Nusrat and other senior leaders of the MQM.

According to the charge sheet, Qazi said Hamid was killed on the directives of Hussain, Nusrat and others.

During the identification parade, Qazi informed the magistrate that he had been subjected to torture and claimed that he had not even been allowed to change his clothes since his detention in February.

He also contested the identification parade and said his photographs were being showed on private television channels almost on a daily basis and anyone could easily identify him.

However, the magistrate interrupted him and told him that he could raise this issue before the trial court.

Judicial Magistrate South Anees Rehman Buriro conducted the identification parade on May 14 during which the widow of the deceased, Shahnaz Hamid, and son Omar Shahid Hamid deposed before the court that Qazi was one of the four hitmen who carried out the killings.

The two witnesses, describing details of the murder, said that on July 5, 1997, they had heard gunshots shortly after Hamid had left his house for office. They further said the moment they came out they saw four men firing at Hamid’s car with Kalashnikov assault rifles.

They recalled that Hamid had
been working sagainst corruption and
reorganising the power utility, and this was why some people had been against his efforts. 

The two claimed that since the MQM had a powerful role in the then KESC, the representatives of the workers’ union along with a few MQM ministers had teamed up against the deceased.