SHC stops police from exhuming Aamir Liaquat’s body

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday prevented the police from exhuming the body of legislator and television personality Aamir Liaquat Hussain for a post-mortem examination to ascertain the “real cause of his death”.

After Hussain died suddenly on June 9, the police had said that an autopsy would be carried out but only did a preliminary examination before handing over the body to his family after they refused an autopsy. He was laid to rest the following day.

Last week, a magistrate in Karachi ordered the authorities to carry out a post-mortem on the body of the televangelist. Subsequently, a six-member medical board was set up for this purpose on June 23.

However, Hussain’s children – Ahmad Aamir and Duaa-e-amir – filed a petition with the SHC today stating that they were “aggrieved” and “dissatisfied” with the judicial magistrate’s “baseless and unwarranted” order and appealed the decision to dismiss.

They said that the petition for a post-mortem examination was filed only to obtain cheap and lean advertising among the general public and nothing else. “There is no need for such a post-mortem exercise of Dr.Aamir Liaquat who was buried on June 10.”

It alleged that the police and the medical board abused their authority for their own whims and wishes for “certain interests”.

The police insisted on carrying out the autopsy, but Hussain’s first wife had repeatedly denied it on the grounds of the family’s religious beliefs, adding that exhuming the body more than 10 days later would be disrespectful to the dead.

Following that, at today’s hearing, a two-member bench, consisting of Justice Junaid Ghaffar and Justice Amjad Ali Sahito, suspended the magistrate’s orders and issued notices to the police, health authorities, and magistrate.