A constitutional petition, seeking the apex court’s direction to the prime minister to advise the president to proclaim emergency under Article 232 of the Constitution in Karachi, was filed on Monday.
The petition, making the prime minister, the federal government, the interior minister, the Sindh chief secretary and the Sindh home secretary respondents, was filed by Tariq Asad advocate under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution.
The petitioner prayed to the court to direct the respondents to file a comprehensive report in the SC on the total number of casualties in Karachi during the last few months. He further prayed to the court to direct the interior minister to disclose who was killing innocent citizens and why he had failed to stop killings.
He requested the court to direct the prime minister to advise the president to proclaim emergency in Karachi, besides directing the prime minister and the interior minister to call the army to control the worsening law and order situation under Article 245 of the Constitution.
The petitioner held that failure of the government to protect the lives of innocent citizens was a violation of articles 9 and 14 of the Constitution. He said the Sindh government and its law-enforcing agencies had miserably failed to control the target killings occurring for the last one year in Karachi.
The petitioner said: “During the last year, about 1981 people were killed—122 in January, 133 in February, 130 in March, 130 in April, 144 in May, 122 in June, 135 in July, 176 in August, 71 in September, 173 in October, 91 in November and 84 in December. Of the total dead, 763 were political activists from different parties.” He added 78 belonged to the MQM-H, 51 to the MQM, 63 to the ANP, 27 to the PPP, six to Jamaat-e-Islami, 46 to Ahle Sunnat-wal-Jamaat, five to Punjabi Pakhtoon Ittehad, five to Sunni Tehreek and two to Jaish-e-Muhammad.
“In addition, the killings of government employees, including law-enforcement agencies’ personnel, are on the rise in the city. During October, November and December 2011, 29 government employees of the Sindh police and Pakistan Rangers were also killed,” he revealed.
The petitioner said the Sindh police were unable to control the increasing crime rate as political and influential personalities were supporting criminals. He added the interior minister had declared that instead of MI, FIA and ISI, a third force was behind the killings. “This statement of the interior minister is either misleading or reflects his inability to control the law and order situation. If the extraordinary situation is not controlled through the remedies provided by the Constitution, the lives of citizens would remain unsafe and the economic conditions of the country would further deteriorate,” the petitioner concluded.
