Employee claims facing police ire for saying Mir Raza didn’t use drugs

KARACHI: An employee of businessman Mir Raza Ali told a judicial commission on Tuesday that he faced investigators’ anger after saying the deceased did not use drugs.

The Judicial Commission in the Mir Raza murder case continued its proceedings on Tuesday and recorded statements of a police officer, an employee of the deceased and his two investors.

The one-member commission headed by Justice Omar Sial of the Sindh High Court also expressed displeasure over a focal person of the provincial government and police for still not providing the complete record of the case to the commission despite repeated directives.

In his testimony, the manager of the victim’s eatery Wafflix, Shahryar, said that he was working at the Bahadurabad branch for the last two years and reporting to the victim who treated him like a younger brother.

Wafflix manager tells judicial commission parts of his police statements were ‘incorrectly’ attributed to him

Responding to a question of the commission about losses to the business of the deceased, he deposed that the sales had been declining for the past few months and the salaries of the staff were also delayed during the last couple of months, but he did not find the victim worried during his last interactions with him.

He said that the daily sales were around Rs100,000, but they had fallen to Rs75,000 to Rs70,000 during the last two months.

He also said that police had recorded his statements twice and his phone was also seized by the second investigation team on Aug 17, adding that his first statement was written on a paper on Aug 2 and the second testimony was recorded through video.

The witness further submitted that the police had asked questions about the business and the family issues of the victim.

He said the first team had misbehaved with him while SP Qais, who is said to be a part of the second team, had also come down hard on him when he had informed the team that the victim was not using any drugs.

The commission pointed out that he had provided complete details and figures about the business of the deceased to the police, but did not provide the same to the commission, which contradicted his testimonies recorded by the police.

He submitted that the police did not read out such statements to him and some additions were incorrectly attributed to him.

The manager also deposed that the victim along with his business partner Ahmed Bhardey had gone to Hyderabad to attend a party arranged by a catering firm on July 25 and came back on the following day while the victim had taken Rs29,000 from him around midnight of July 27 and left the branch.

He further testified that he had closed the branch on the same night around 3:30am and at around 4:10am Bhardey had asked him regarding Raza’s whereabouts.

He maintained that on July 28, another employee had informed him that a pistol of a security guard of the eatery, kept at the shop, was missing and they came to know through the footage that Raza came to the branch last night after it was closed and took the weapon.

However, he said that as per his knowledge, the victim had never used any weapon and he had no dispute with any vendor, creditor or investor.

At the outset of the hearing, Inspector Muhammad Ali turned up and deposed that he was posted at the investigation section of District South and co-opted by the current police team investigating the case as it was his responsibility to assist the team.

He also said that he was told to file a letter when he had gone to collect the post-mortem report from the hospital and despite submitting the letter, he did not get the report since the officer concerned was said to be out of the city.

Replying to a query of the commission, the police officer further testified that the investigating officer had gone to Hyderabad when he had sought the autopsy report in order to submit it to the investigation team.

Muhammad Hassan Khan Tanoli, who recorded his statement via video link from Australia, said that he and Raza had been friends since school and initially, he had provided Rs500,000 to the victim and he had returned the same within the given period along with some profit.

Thereafter, he also deposed that he had given him Rs7.5 million as he was willing to import containers of chocolates as well as expanding business. The victim had handed over some cheques to him and advised him not to deposit them since he would arrange the money.

The witness further testified that he had contacted Ahmed Bhardey through social media after Raza had gone missing and later also spoke to the father of the victim.

The commission asked him that Mr Bhardey in his statement said that he (Hassan) had demanded the return of the money in question from him. He replied that he had only informed the business partner of the victim that he had provided money or a loan to Raza.

He had admitted that the victim had borrowed such money for Wafflix while Bhardey had claimed that he was not aware of such an investment.

Asad Ali Butt deposed that he had first met the victim in 2016-17 and he had established an outlet in Bahadurabad in 2022 and he had also encouraged people to invest in it.

He also said that he had also made an investment of Rs2.5m with Wafflix and all the transactions were made through the account of his mother.

During the hearing, the counsel for Raza’s family Jibran Nasir informed the commission that the victim’s father, Mir Hussain Ali, had received a phone call last night and the caller had identified himself as a security official of an institution.

The counsel said that the caller had asked Mir Hussain whether he suspected Ahmed Bhardey and Abdullah Bhardey or Asif and his brother Abid as the accused persons. However, he told the caller that the matter was being investigated by the police and therefore, the caller expressed displeasure and disconnected the call, he added.

The lawyer said that he has submitted the screenshots and call recording to the registrar of the commission.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2026