Widow Dania Shah moves court to ascertain Aamir Liaquat’s cause of death

Syeda Dania Shah, a widow of the late Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf MNA Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain, filed an application in the Sindh High Court on Tuesday for becoming intervenor in the petition of Hussain’s children against the exhumation of their father’s body and autopsy orders.

Filing an application for becoming intervenor in the petition, Shah, who had become estranged with her husband before his death, submitted through her attorney that she was the widow of Hussain and presently in Iddat in her native town, Lodhran.

She said she wanted to become a necessary party in the petition as she wanted to know the cause of death of her spouse. She requested the court to allow her to become an intervenor in the petition.

The later MNA’s children had obtained a stay order against a judicial magistrate’s order with regard to the exhumation of their father’s body to ascertain his cause of death.

A division bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro, inquired the petitioner’s counsel why the autopsy of the deceased should not have been conducted as it was a legal matter, instead of being a matter of family emotions.

The counsel for Hussain’s children submitted that the judicial magistrate had conducted an external examination on the body and allowed burial after completing all codal formalities. He said another judicial magistrate, on an application of a counsel, allowed the exhumation of the body and ordered the constitution of a medical board for the purpose, which was without jurisdiction.

He submitted that the autopsy of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was also not conducted on the request of the family. The court observed that it was sad that the autopsy of the former prime minister was not conducted, saying that it would pass an order after hearing all counsel on legal points. It granted Dania Shah’s application for becoming an intervenor in the petition and directed the counsel to assist in on legal points on the next date of the hearing.

Petitioners Ahmed Amir and Dua-e-Amir, children of the late lawmaker, submitted in the petition that their father died on June 9 and they were allowed to bury him after obtaining permission from a judicial magistrate, as legal heirs did not want to conduct an autopsy of the deceased to ascertain his cause of death. Hussain had contracted his third marriage with Dania Shah in February this year; however, she filed suit for dissolution of marriage within the third month of the marriage.