Saulat was in touch with Altaf before arrest: Wife

Islamabad: Wife of death-row convict and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) activist Saulat Mirza has claimed that her husband was in touch with MQM chief Altaf Hussain and other senior party leaders before arrest on the charge of murdering KESC managing director Shahid Hamid in 1998.

In an interview aired on a private TV channel on Monday Nikhat Mirza said that senior MQM leader Farooq Sattar had informed her during her last visit to the party’s ‘Nine Zero’ headquarters in February that the party’s role in connection with Mirza’s case was over and that Mirza’s family was now on its own.

She termed the MQM’s severing of what she called their once strong ties “a brutal joke” and added that “since then we were not even allowed to move beyond Mukka Chowk close to ‘Nine Zero.’

Mirza’s wife said her husband would not have made any revelations had the MQM not disowned him. She said her husband was shocked by the party’s move and regretted his association with MQM.

She said Saulat’s statement which had not been given under any pressure needed to be probed and investigated. She added that the former MQM worker had not made the statement expecting any reprieve but only to warn others from treading the same path as he did. She said there were four people involved in this case but others were not being apprehended.

“Why aren’t they being brought before the court. Why is it that the individual from whom the order (for assassination of the MD KESC) came is not being taken to task?” she asked apparently pointing finger towards Altaf Hussain.

“Why is the case being wrapped up with punishment for my husband only? My husband had no quarrel with the former KESC MD why have those people who had exchanged harsh words with Shahid Hamid not been charged.”

She said in the past Altaf’s birthday anniversaries were celebrated in jail by Saulat attended by senior party leaders.

Saulat’s wife alleged that she also had numerous contacts with Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan in connection with the case.

She further said that the records of the mobile phone provided to the former MQM activist in jail could be obtained and it would help prove who had been in contact with the convict.

The party had repeatedly assured Saulat and his family that he would be released soon according to Saulat’s wife who added that “People in and around ‘Nine Zero’ used to refer to us as ‘the family of Bhai’s prince or the family of Bhai’s lion’.”

Photographs of MQM leaders including Ishratul Ebad and Babar Ghauri were also shown who were attending the wedding functions of Saulat’s family members.

Other photographs showed Saulat with party leaders including Haider Abbas Rizvi Dr Sagheer Ahmed and Abdul Rashid Godil inside the Karachi Central Jail premises.

Senior MQM leader Farooq Sattar dismissed the statement as her natural reaction to the defend her husband. “Would not expect Mirza’s wife to speak against her husband” Sattar said.

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