An anti-terrorism court in Karachi sentenced four people accused of killing former Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) lawmaker Ali Raza Abidi to life imprisonment.
Announcing the verdict of the case, the court also imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on the four convicts.
The politician was murdered by unknown assailants in 2018 after they shot him multiple times outside his residence in Khayaban-e-Ghazi neighbourhood of Defence Housing Authority.
Abidi was immediately shifted to PNS Shifa Hospital in critical condition, however, he succumbed to his wounds at the hospital.
The slain MNA had sustained four bullets in the neck, arm and chest, according to the initial post-mortem report.
Abidi was elected as an MNA on MQM’s ticket in 2013 general elections. He, however, joined the Pakistan faction of the party after it split into two following anti-Pakistan tirade by the party supremo Altaf Hussain during a telephonic address with party workers in Karachi in August 2016.
However, the lawmaker resigned from his National Assembly membership in November 2017 citing “political and personal reasons”.
The resignation came days after Abidi announced quitting the MQM-P after it entered into an electoral alliance with the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP).
He, however, later rejoined the MQM-P in December 2017, before finally leaving the party in September 2018.
