Supreme Court reserves judgement on Karachi violence

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday reserved its judgement on a suo motu case on Karachi unrest and warned that any illegal step to harm the judicial system would yield disaster. A five-member larger bench of the apex court comprising the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Sarmard Jalal Osmani, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Ghulam Rabbani, reserved its decision on suo motu case of Karachi bloodshed.
The government's lawyer, Dr Babar Awan, resumed his arguments, saying the government had no intentions to clip judiciary's powers. He requested for more time to present some more arguments. However, the court asked him to complete his views on this day and he can submit some points to the court in writing.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry asked Babar Awan that the apex court had to stage hearing in the port city after Karachi's situation deteriorated from bad to worse, saying the judiciary had shut the doors on dictatorship for ever. He said the judiciary was for democracy and Pakistan's Constitution offered solutions to every problem.
Awan told the court that there were nine points where law and order situation was seriously disturbed in the jurisdiction of 30 police stations, out of 110 stations. He said that the rate of crimes was the lowest in areas like I.I. Chundrigar Road, Saddar, Defence, Clifton, PECHS, KDA Scheme I, and Gulshan-e-Iqbal.
The court also asked whether political rivals were hostile to one another as people were being killed and bodies were found in sacks, questioning whether Constitution's Articles 4 and 5 did not exist? The court suggested Awan to study the government's intelligence bureau report on Karachi situation and infer on the court whether or not any action had been taken in line with these reports.
The Chief Justice in his remarks cited the Hazrat Omar's (RA) saying that "if a dog dies hungry on the banks of the River Euphrates, Omar will be responsible for dereliction of duty". He showed astonishment that the government seems to have abandoned its responsibility completely. He pointed out that as many 1310 people were killed, vehicles were set ablaze, petrol pumps were torched, and there were no signs of governance.
He urged the government to be responsible and asked for the Constitutional solutions to the problems. Awan said the government was answerable God Almighty, Parliament and the people. The Chief Justice said the government should take steps in response to the Karachi unrest and termed the mega city a "mini Pakistan" which generates 70 percent revenue to the nation economy. Awan said the government had taken measures to settle the issues. However, there could be a possibility the results might not have been 100 percent.
Showing concerns, the court said that there were about 8,000 to 10,000 homeless children sleeping on the city's roads, saying that no one had any sympathy with them. Awan said that the state's all institutions had the authority to run the national affairs. He said that some people had criticised the government and held it for all the faults, adding he would deny such allegations.
The Chief Justice said that no judge could take oath illegally and the court had blocked the way for such attempts before the passage of the 18th Amendment. Awan said that the President of Pakistan had powers to impose emergency rule on Sindh under Article 234 of the Constitution, but he did not suspend the Sindh Assembly. He told the court that the government would neither suspend the judiciary's powers, nor would it impose emergency.
He said that about 92 police officers had been killed in Karachi and all had participated in the 1992 operation. On which the Chief Justice asked why the government had not arrested the killers, adding that for the court constables and officers were equal.
CCPO Saud Mirza told the court that 18 people had been arrested on charges of extortion collection and trend of extortion had been controlled. The Chief Justice asked him to submit certificates from the IG stating that the menace of extortion had been eliminated. The Court also ordered the Advocate Sindh to report the court on a daily basis about the crimes and cases had taken place after July 24, 2011. The apex courts also ordered its subordinate courts to stage hearing about extortion and targeted killings on a daily basis.