MACHH: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) worker and death-row prisoner Saulat Mirza was executed at Machh jail on Tuesday at 4:30 AM for the murder of former KESC managing director Shahid Hamid, his driver and guard in 1997. According to jail officials, the security was tightened around the jail ahead of his hanging while Judicial magistrate Machh Hidayatullah supervised the hanging. Mirza's body was shifted from Machh Jail to the Edhi morgue in Quetta. Eighteen family members accompanied his body from Machh to Quetta. Mirza had been on death row for nearly 17 years. Sentenced to death in 1999, Mirza was initially scheduled to be executed on March 19 this year after Pakistan lifted its moratorium on capital punishment in the wake of the Peshawar school massacre. But in a dramatic turn of events, video footage of Mirza hurling grave allegations at Altaf Hussain and other MQM leaders of complicity in crime was aired on television channels just few hours before his execution on March 19. The president immediately stayed his hanging for three days after the convict sought more time to give information regarding target killers and their alleged patrons. A few days later, Mirza's hanging was put off again as authorities wished to interrogate him for crucial details in relation to his confession. INP
