Mirza may be killed like Murtaza in fake encounter, counsel tells SHC

Karachi
The counsel for Pakistan People’s Party’s estranged leader Zulfiqar Mirza, who has complained to the Sindh High Court (SHC) that the provincial government was defying a court order to provide him with security, expressed the fear on Tuesday that his client “may be killed in a fake police encounter like Murtaza Bhutto”.
Mirza, who is a former home minister, has filed an application seeking contempt-of-court action against the government for ignoring an injunction to provide him and his family members with police protection according to their entitlement. Sindh Advocate General Abdul Fatah Malik filed a report on behalf of government and police officials, mentioning that Mirza and his family had provided them with four security guards each.
He denied Mirza’s allegations that the security escort had been withdrawn on verbal directives of PPP Co-Chairman Asif Zardari or his sister MNA Faryal Talpur. The applicant’s counsel, Ashraf Sammoo, submitted that security had been withdrawn and Mirza and his family were not being protected. He feared that his client may be killed in a fake police encounter “like Murtaza Bhutto, brother of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Mirza served as home minister from 2008 to 2011, and his spouse Dr Fehmida Mirza served as speaker of the National Assembly from 2008 to 2013 and also frequently served as acting president of Pakistan. She is currently an MNA, while their son, Barrister Hasnain Mirza, is a member of the Sindh Assembly.
The counsel said SSP Badin Khalid Mustafa Korai and his line officer Ashiq Ali Memon had called back the security on verbal orders from Zardari and Talpur.
He said the petitioner and his family were facing a lot of troubles because of the withdrawal of police protection. He said the government has provided MNA Faryal Talpur with security which was equivalent to the security protocol of the president of Pakistan. Sammoo noted that all the other ex-home ministers, including the MQM’s Waseem Akhtar and Rauf Siddiqui, had been provided 20 to 25 policemen for their security, but the Mirza’s security guards had been called back “malafidely in order to facilitate terrorism”. A division bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, reserved the judgment.