The Sindh government on Friday restored the original eight-member medical board tasked with conducting the exhumation of IBA graduate and businessman Mir Raza Ali, after his family objected to the board’s abrupt reconstitution.
The exhumation, originally scheduled for Friday morning, has now been fixed for 11am on Saturday at the graveyard near Rehmania Masjid, according to a letter issued by the police surgeon.
Raza’s body was recovered from bushes in Gulistan-i-Jauhar last month, a day after he went missing on July 28. A judicial magistrate had approved the exhumation on Thursday following an application by Raza’s father, Mir Hussain Ali.
The Sindh health department initially formed an eight-member medical board headed by Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed. The board included doctors from Dow University of Health Sciences, Jinnah Sindh Medical University and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, as well as representatives from the Citizens Police Liaison Committee.
However, the board was reconstituted in the early hours of Friday through an order issued by the Sindh health department’s director general. The new five-member board retained Dr Syed as convener but replaced several members with doctors from Hyderabad and Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences.
Raza’s family, which had gathered at the Tariq Road graveyard for the scheduled exhumation, refused to allow the procedure to proceed under the newly constituted board.
Representing the family, lawyer Jibran Nasir said they had informed the investigating officer that they rejected the reconstituted board and would not accept an exhumation conducted by it.
Standing alongside Raza’s father, Nasir accused the authorities of delaying the process and questioned why the original medical board had been replaced without explanation.
He said the family had confidence only in the original eight-member board and argued that the reconstituted panel lacked a clear legal basis.
In a letter to the police surgeon, Nasir formally conveyed the family’s objection, claiming that the new board was inconsistent with the magistrate’s order. He warned that proceeding with the exhumation under the reconstituted board could compromise evidence and undermine the investigation.
Later on Friday evening, the Sindh health secretary issued a notification restoring the original eight-member medical board.
Following the decision, the police surgeon informed the magistrate and board members that the exhumation would take place at 11am on Saturday.
The controversy follows remarks made earlier by the police surgeon regarding Raza’s post-mortem report. In an interview with a private news channel on Tuesday, she said some findings in the report appeared inconsistent with available photographs and raised questions about the circumstances surrounding his death.
The police subsequently criticised the remarks, saying such observations could affect the ongoing investigation. The police surgeon later expressed concern over what she described as “impediments” to the process in a post on X, which was deleted after the original medical board was restored.
