The Supreme Court’s Karachi Registry has adjourned the hearing of the suo moto case regarding the security situation in Karachi till September 5, a private TV channel reported on Tuesday.
A five-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is hearing the case while the bench comprises of Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani, Justice Ameer Hani Muslim and Justice Ghulam Rabbani.
Sindh government lawyer Abdul Hafeez Pirzadah in his arguments said that the ratio of punishments to the accused was very low while the powers of police and Rangers were not being utilised properly. He said that the ratio of punishments could be made better by providing security to the witnesses.
Pirzadah said that 300 people lost their lives after the elections in Ayub Khan’s era while same kind of riots took place in Mumtaz Bhutto’s time in 1972.
He further told the court that Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) came into being after Sohrab Goth incident and according to NADRA, the foreigners population now stands at 2.5 million which was not even 0.1 million in Karachi.
Pirzadah said that it was important to cure the root causes of this violence and added that the situation in the city had improved after the court took suo moto notice on August 24.
He said the SC in its order wrote that the government had failed to provide security to the people and their assets which could be turned into constitutional petition according to Article 199 for high court to conduct investigation.
Karachi Bar Association, Jamat-e-Islami, Sindh Bachao Committee, Awami Tehrik, ANP and other parties had submitted their requests to become party in the case.
