KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday sought a reply from Sindh government for not making a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probe into the May 12 riots.
The court was hearing a plea filed by Iqbal Kazmi against the Sindh government for not constituting a JIT for an investigation into the 12th May incident, and it directed the provincial government to submit written answer by the 12th April.
The two-member bench also sought a report from the Sindh government overpayment of compensation to those who were injured in this incident and the families of the ones who lost their lives.
Kazmi submitted that the court had ordered for making JIT within two months in September 2018, but despite the lapse of many months, the JIT has yet to be formed.
The formation of a judicial commission was requested by petitioner Iqbal Kazmi, which was supported by the federal government and legal advisers but opposed by the Sindh government.
On May 12, 2007, a major portion of Karachi’s main artery, Shahra-e-Faisal, turned into a battlefield when opponent political groups clashed with each other soon after the arrival of the then chief justice of Pakistan. Due to the clash, the former chief justice did not move ahead from the lounge of the airport and returned to Islamabad without addressing a lawyers’ convention at Sindh High Court.
The main road was to be used by the procession of the then chief justice but was made completely unreachable to commuters as all the intersections were blocked by large containers and trucks.
The petitioner had nominated former President General (r) Pervez Musharraf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London (MQM-London) founder Altaf Hussain, the former interior minister, and then-then Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar in his petition.
Petitioner claimed that MQM wreaked havoc in Karachi on the directives of General (retd) Musharraf to prevent former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry from arriving into the city and addressing legal fraternity.
More than 50 people were killed and hundreds of others were injured in Karachi when miscreants attacked people going to the airport to receive the then-deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi ahead of a lawyers’ gathering.
