After examining the available CDs and DVDs and other press material containing information about incidents of targeted killings in Karachi, the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to the attorney general for Pakistan to appear on August 26 and submit a comprehensive report on the violence taking place in Karachi for the last one month.
The court also directed the Sindh chief secretary and provincial police officer (PPO) through the Sindh advocate general to submit details of the incidents. The Supreme Court Bar Association and Sindh High Court Bar Association presidents have also been issued notices to appear on August 26and assist the court in the matter.
A five-member special bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Ghulam Rabbani was also constituted to hear the case. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had taken suo motu notice of the matter on an appeal by the chairman of Pakistan Awami Tahreek, Dr Allama Tahirul Qadri. In his short order, the chief justice ordered the SC’s Human Rights Cell to collect CDs and DVDs from various channels and put the matter up for August 24.
After the due process, the cell had asked the directors news of PTV, GEO TV, Dawn TV, ARY TV, AAJ TV, Express TV, Dunya TV and SAMAA TV to ensure compliance with the order and provide all footage available with transcript of recent incidents of targeted killings in Karachi. After receiving the information, the cell had submitted a detailed note to the chief justice, stating that the residents of Karachi were facing a threat to their life and property and were living in constant fear of being killed or abducted for ransom.
The report said beheaded bodies wrapped in gunny bags were being recovered in large numbers daily, street crime was in abundance, various groups were involved in targeted killings, police and rangers were watching everything as spectators and top government functionaries were callously viewing the situation with no inclination to maintain the writ of the state. It said several views had been expressed by observers, analysts and anchormen about the causes of the catastrophe, one of which was that various groups like the MQM, PPP and ANP had restored to clashes and targeted killings in order to establish their hegemony, while another believed in the interference of foreign powers like the US, Israel and India.
Some experts said the situation was due to terrorism, while others said it had been aggravated by ethnic and sectarian problems. The report said some believed that the enemies of the state were stoking violence in Karachi, as it was the hub of economic, social, political and cultural activities in the country. It said that recovery of large number of dead bodies daily, the frequency of the street crimes and brutality and heinousness of the offences, passivity of government functionaries, gangs involved in extortion, nefarious and bloody activities of the land and drug mafias, damage to valuable property of the citizens, and the flight of capital from Pakistan to Malaysia and Bangladesh (as reported in some clippings), transfer of dead bodies from Karachi to places of their origins across the country and the continued harassment of people provided substantial evidence that Karachi had reached the verge of destruction and was threatening the stability of Pakistan.
The report added that the people were demanding the CJP take suo motu notice of the Karachi situation. After examining the note, the CJP said: “I have gone through the facts reported in the print media and flashed in the electronic media, perusal whereof presents a bleak/dismal picture of bloodshed, arson, kidnapping/abduction for ransom, widespread violence, illegal collection of money (bhatta) from traders, which prima facie are violative of Article 9, 14, 15, 18 and 24 of the Constitution. Prima facie, the executive has failed to protect the life, liberty, dignity, property and freedom of the general public, as its manifested in the above note/reports. Therefore, let this note be converted into petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution”.
The chief justice issued notices to the Attorney General to appear and submit a comprehensive report about the incidents, which have been taking place in Karachi for over a month. The attorney general was directed to base the report on the material to substantiate the same, which should be collected from the federal and provincial law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
SC orders AG to submit report on Karachi on 26th
