ISLAMABAD – Hearing a petition against the worsening law and order in Balochistan, the Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request by the advocate general for conducting in-camera hearing on the case. A three-member bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani was hearing a petition filed by the Balochistan High Court Bar Association president against target killings, abductions for ransom and the overall poor law and order in the province.
The court directed Balochistan Advocate General (AG) Amanullah Kanrani to submit a report within two weeks about the steps so far taken and being adopted to overcome the situation. After repeated queries by the court about the elements and reasons behind the worsening law and order in the province, the AG said he could brief the court in-camera, however, the court rejected his request saying “nothing would be in-camera now”.
The court directed the Balochistan chief secretary to take instructions from the chief minister and appear in court in two weeks and explain what measures had been taken to protect the lives and property of the people in the province. The court also directed the provincial government to recover missing lawyers and a missing parsi woman. To a court query, Additional Advocate General Azam Khattak said one of the reasons behind worsening law and order was lack of coordination between the institutions responsible for maintaining law and order in the province.
The court observed that if the situation was not controlled and order was not maintained, it would pass order to this effect and the provincial government would be responsible for the consequences.
