The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday issued notices to the federal and provincial governments on a constitutional petition seeking deployment of army in Karachi and Hyderabad to bring the worsening law and order situation under control. The SHC division bench headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam heard the preliminary arguments from the petitioner and issued notices to the respondents directing them to submit their comments on the next hearing that would be fixed later.
The petition was filed by Rana Faizul Hasan against the failure of the Sindh government to maintain law and order in Karachi, stating that violence had spiralled out of control of Sindh police and Rangers, and the court should, therefore, order the deployment of army in the city for three months in accordance with Article 245 of the Constitution to maintain the law and order situation and to protect the lives and properties of citizens. The petitioner cited the federal government, interior ministry, interior secretary, law and justice ministry, defence ministry and Sindh inspector general of police (IGP) as respondents in the case.
The same bench also repeated notices to the interior ministry, Sindh Home Department, Sindh IGP and Rangers (Sindh) director general (DG) among others to submit their comments over the current unrest and ongoing incidents of targeted killings in Karachi. A petition, moved by the same petitioner, stated that at least 100 people have been killed across the city during the latest spate of unrest, whereas, over 1,200 citizens have lost their lives during the first six months of the current year.
Accusing the federal and provincial governments of criminal negligence, the appellant submitted that despite the loss of a large number of innocent lives, no serious action has been taken to stop such incidents so far. Citing interior ministry, Sindh Home Department, Sindh IGP, Rangers DG and other authorities concerned as respondents in the petition, the plaintiff pleaded that the government should be ordered to immediately remove incompetent officials concerned from their posts and assign some honest and deserving officials to handle the law and order situation. The petitioner also pleaded that the heirs of the deceased and victims of target killing incidents and those who lost their lives during the unrest should be provided adequate compensation.
