Daily Times

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) London Deputy Convener Hasan Zafar Arif was found dead on Sunday morning in his car.

Family and the friends claimed that Prof Hassan Zafar Arif, 72, son of Maqbool Hassan, had gone missing late on Saturday evening. The MQM-London leader was found dead from inside his car (ANC-016) from Ilyas Goth that falls in District Malir’s Ibrahim Hyderi neighbourhood.

“Police found the body from a car after received information on Helpline 15 from a citizen,” said Ibrahim Hyderi SHO Irfan Zaman. “Police identified the deceased (MQM-L leader) from an ID card.”

Police later shifted the body to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities where a large number of his family members, relatives, friends and party workers later gathered.

Blood stains were found on the deceased’s face as the victim’s nose and head were bleeding. However, hospital officials said that initial results from post-mortem examination did not reveal any sign of torture. Doctors at the hospital said that the deceased died of natural causes, most probably due to cardiac arrest.

“The postmortem has been conducted. We did not find any torture mark on his body,” said Dr Sheraz, MLO of the JPMC. “We have taken samples for the chemical examination to ascertain the actual cause of the death.”

However, family and friends claimed that Arif had gone on missing on Saturday. They demanded an independent inquiry over the incident, stating that the deceased’s body was found at the rear seat of his car.

“We started looking for him after he (deceased) did not return home till late night and his cellphone had also been switched off,” said victim’s brother Qamar Arif. “But unfortunately, we found him in the morning,” he said.

Arif was lastly seen in his friend’s office in Saddar area. “He (Arif) was with me on Saturday evening, but left earlier than usual, saying he is going home (Phase VI, Defence) to spend some time with his daughter,” said victim’s friend – Abdul Majeed Karwani, who is a member of MQM-L legal aid committee. “Prof Arif was driving his car himself. Abdul Majeed further said that the incident came to his notice when he received a phone call from Prof Arif’s wife in the morning about his disappearance.

Published in Daily Times, January 15^th 2018.