KARACHI: Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has asked all political parties to announce their repudiation of criminal elements among their ranks.The Chief Justice remarked this during the hearing of the suo motu case on law and order situation in Karachi here on Wednesday.
The five- member bench of the apex court comprising Chief Justice Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Ghulam Rabbani is hearing the suo motu case on law and order situation in Karachi.”After the Supreme Court’s decision on the suo motu case, would alert the government and that the law and order situation in Karachi would also improve,” the Chief Justice remarked during the proceeding.
President SHC Bar Council Anwar Mansoor during his arguments submitted that linguistic, political and religious issues are behind the incidents of violence in the city.To this the CJ did not agreed and said, there is no Shia-Sunni or any other ethnic dispute in Karachi.Former Federal Law Minister Babar Awan, representing the Federal Government continued his arguments which he began during the last hearing on Tuesday.He referred to an article published in a section of the press which stated that the head of the Armed Forces is also an executive and the CJ can summon him. On which, the CJ advised Dr. Awan to remain focused on the case and come up with “practical things”.Dr. Awan submitted that Pakistan is a nuclear state and some internal and external elements are trying to make it a “failed state”.
“Some forces are also trying to destabilize the present democratically elected government”, he submitted and further informed the court that the country’s armed forces were engaged on various fronts including western and eastern borders.”Anti-state forces are bent upon creating law and order situation in Karachi to worsen socio- economic condition of the country as a whole”, he argued.Advocate General (AG) Sindh Abdul Fattah Malik in compliance with the order of the bench filed written submissions, progress reports in respect of certain FIRs and the report regarding provision of data from NADRA.The AG further stated that compensation to the families of the advocates who were killed in firing incidents will be paid within two days.
However, the representatives of the Bar Associations stated that the government has not disclosed the amount of compensation and no report has been submitted in respect of other advocates who were killed during the violence.The Chief Justice directed the AG to submit a comprehensive report in respect of each of the advocates killed during violence and how much amount the government is considering to pay as compensation.The bench also directed Advocate General and Dr. Babar Awan, to provide details of arms licenses of prohibited and non-prohibited bores/ weapons issued by the Ministry of Interior, Government of Pakistan and the Home Department,Sindh during last five years. – Brecorder
