SC rejects report on Karachi violence, asks for new one

A five-member bench of the Supreme Court expressed dissatisfaction on Monday over the reports presented to it by the government and ordered the attorney general to submit the latest and comprehensive reports of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI) regarding the Karachi violence on Tuesday (today).
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said during the hearing that peace could not be restored to Karachi until the city was de-weaponised. The five-member bench, headed by the chief justice and comprising Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani, Justice Amir Muslim Hani and Justice Ghulam Rabbani, was hearing a suo motu case on the Karachi violence.
Attorney General Maulvi Anwar-ul-Haq appeared in court and submitted reports of the Special Branch, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) regarding the violence in the city; however, the court expressed dissatisfaction with the reports and said they lacked facts needed to make headway in the case. The chief justice said the reports contained nothing new and ordered the agencies to file a report that could lead to results.
Sindh Police Inspector General (IG) Wajid Ali Durrani also submitted a detailed report in the court, saying that a total of 306 people had been killed in Karachi between July 24 and August 24 this year.
He said 232 cases had been registered in 75 police stations during the one month period. The IG said that despite the ongoing carnage, the situation was within the control of law enforcement agencies. The chief justice asked the IG how many suspects had been arrested so far, and why those responsible for the Karachi violence had not being identified. The police chief replied that the 20 suspects had been arrested but most of them were released because those who had filed the cases against them were afraid of appearing in court to record their statements against the suspects.
The court told the IG to present a comprehensive report on the Karachi killings, and sought the names of police officers who were killed in the line of duty and the names of the arrested assassins. Durrani failed to answer several of the court’s questions.
Later, the attorney general requested the court not to disclose some important parts of the agencies’ report and not make it a part of court record. The court said a decision to keep the report classified would be taken after it had been reviewed. It also remarked that since most of the report was based on newspaper reports, keeping it confidential was not important.
‘NO-GO AREAS’: The IG admitted to the court that law enforcement agencies could not enter some violence-stricken areas of Karachi. The IG also told the court that ethnic and sectarian tensions were the main reasons for the unrest in the provincial capital. He said extortionists and land-grabbers are also adding fuel to the fire. He said further that there were several ethnic groups in more than 100 areas of Karachi. Durrani said terrorists in many areas of Karachi were getting extortion money from houses in the guise of “fitra” and they were even handing out receipts.
The chief justice told Durrani that Karachi was “in a terrible situation” and that the city would be out of his hands if he did not curb the violence immediately. Durrani responded that he needed another month to improve security in the city.
Senator Babar Awan and senior Pakistan People’s Party leader Taj Haider were also present at the hearing even though they had not been summoned by the court.
Sindh government’s counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada was defending the police and answered all the questions that the IG failed to answer. The Supreme Court had earlier rejected a report presented by the Sindh advocate general for its failure to identify the groups involved in targeted killings, abduction and extortion in Karachi.
Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Waheed Qureshi filed an application requesting to be a party in the case. Similar applications were also filed by Awami Nation Party leader Bashir Khan, Sindh Bachao Committee leader Shah Muhammad Shah, Sindh High Court Bar Association President Anwar Mansoor Khan and Karachi Bar Association President Muhammad Aqil and Hyder Imam Rizvi. Earlier, the MQM had also filed an application requesting to become a party.