The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed the home secretary and inspector general of police (IGP) to submit their reports on target killings in Karachi within a week. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Imam Bux Baloch issued the orders after hearing a constitutional petition filed by Iqbal Kazmi.
Kazmi submitted that according to Article 9, the state is fully responsible for protecting the lives and independence of its citizens, but the government has failed to do so. In April, the SHC had directed the home secretary, IGP and Capital City Police officer (CCPO) to submit their written comments, but only the CCPO submitted his comments.
Additional Advocate General Sarwar Khan told the bench on Thursday that both the remaining respondents have not submitted their comments. The petitioner submitted that a number of innocent citizens, including lawyers and journalists, have been killed during the ongoing waves of target killings.
It is pertinent to mention here that in his comments filed before the court on May 11, the CCPO had revealed that the police could not move against the people involved in target killings because most of the culprits are in one way or another affiliated with political parties, causing problems for the police.
In the previous hearing, the petitioner had moved with a plea seeking to cite Pakistan Rangers Sindh director general (DG) among the respondents in the petition.
He stated that the DG had stated earlier that if the Rangers were given complete mandate to handle the law and order situation in the city, they could curb target killings within a month.
Thus, he requested the court to give full authority to the Rangers to eliminate target killings and arrest the culprits behind these incidents.
However, political interferences should not be allowed to intercept the Rangers if they perform their duties.
The plaintiff also pleaded that the heirs of the deceased and the wounded be provided compensation by the government.
Accusing the government and law enforcers of failing to control target killings, he submitted that due to their negligence, so far no serious measure has been taken in this regard.
The petitioner stated that the province has been facing lawlessness including target killings, kidnappings for ransom, and death threats from extortionists and other miscreants.
He said that such uncertain circumstances have compelled the business community to shift their businesses to other provinces.
He added that 180 citizens have been killed in the metropolitan in one month alone, and many people are killed in target killings daily, displaying failure of the government.
The petitioner pleaded that the government should be instructed to remove the incompetent officials from their posts immediately, and assign honest officials to handle the lawlessness.
